"One of the saddest lessons of history is this: If we've been bamboozled long enough, we tend to reject any evidence of the bamboozle. We're no longer interested in finding out the truth. The bamboozle has captured us. It's simply too painful to acknowledge, even to ourselves, that we've been taken".
Carl Sagan
"One of the saddest lessons of history is this: If we've been bamboozled long enough, we tend to reject any evidence of the bamboozle. We're no longer interested in finding out the truth. The bamboozle has captured us. It's simply too painful to acknowledge, even to ourselves, that we've been taken".
"I have a foreboding of an America in my children's or grandchildren's time -- when the United States is a service and information economy; when nearly all the manufacturing industries have slipped away to other countries; when awesome technological powers are in the hands of a very few, and no one representing the public interest can even grasp the issues; when the people have lost the ability to set their own agendas or knowledgeably question those in authority; when, clutching our crystals and nervously consulting our horoscopes, our critical faculties in decline, unable to distinguish between what feels good and what's true, we slide, almost without noticing, back into superstition and darkness. The dumbing down of America is most evident in the slow decay of substantive content in the enormously influential media, the 30 second sound bites (now down to 10 seconds or less), lowest common denominator programming, credulous presentations on pseudoscience and superstition, but especially a kind of celebration of ignorance."
~ Carl Sagan, The Demon-Haunted World: Science as a Candle in the Dark
WOW !! I love that book published in 1995 (and another - Shadows of Forgotten Ancestors - published in 1992) - and this truly prophetic quote of quarter of century ago !! Just how do you remember it?
In many respects the U.S. *is* a third world country but does not know it yet.
After WWII, the US was history's largest creditor. Since then, the Feds turned it into history's largest debtor.
To manage its debt, the Feds have artificially suppressed interest rates to the lowest level in 5000 years. Should rates return to the historically normal 5%, the Feds would be paying over 50% of its tax revenues to *just interest alone*.
They are also, of course, monetizing the debt via currency debasement, which is creating the price inflation we now enjoy, and is among the more common features of empires in terminal decline.
The current path is completely unsustainable, and therefore it will inevitably end. The only questions are when, and how bad it will be.
This, of course, is just one aspect to the general complete divorce from reality that has afflicted large segments of the population, epitomized by an almost incomprehensible gullibility on issues like Climate ChangeтДв, The PandemicтДв, and the endlessly mutating woke nonsense.
"One of the saddest lessons of history is this: If we've been bamboozled long enough, we tend to reject any evidence of the bamboozle. We're no longer interested in finding out the truth. The bamboozle has captured us. It's simply too painful to acknowledge, even to ourselves, that we've been taken".
Carl Sagan
"I have a foreboding of an America in my children's or grandchildren's time -- when the United States is a service and information economy; when nearly all the manufacturing industries have slipped away to other countries; when awesome technological powers are in the hands of a very few, and no one representing the public interest can even grasp the issues; when the people have lost the ability to set their own agendas or knowledgeably question those in authority; when, clutching our crystals and nervously consulting our horoscopes, our critical faculties in decline, unable to distinguish between what feels good and what's true, we slide, almost without noticing, back into superstition and darkness. The dumbing down of America is most evident in the slow decay of substantive content in the enormously influential media, the 30 second sound bites (now down to 10 seconds or less), lowest common denominator programming, credulous presentations on pseudoscience and superstition, but especially a kind of celebration of ignorance."
~ Carl Sagan, The Demon-Haunted World: Science as a Candle in the Dark
Spot on, in every respect.
WOW !! I love that book published in 1995 (and another - Shadows of Forgotten Ancestors - published in 1992) - and this truly prophetic quote of quarter of century ago !! Just how do you remember it?
I have previously crowned libertate the King of Quotations, and his queen is Pamela Drew! :-)
Another treasure from ye old quote archives, libertate!
In many respects the U.S. *is* a third world country but does not know it yet.
After WWII, the US was history's largest creditor. Since then, the Feds turned it into history's largest debtor.
To manage its debt, the Feds have artificially suppressed interest rates to the lowest level in 5000 years. Should rates return to the historically normal 5%, the Feds would be paying over 50% of its tax revenues to *just interest alone*.
They are also, of course, monetizing the debt via currency debasement, which is creating the price inflation we now enjoy, and is among the more common features of empires in terminal decline.
The current path is completely unsustainable, and therefore it will inevitably end. The only questions are when, and how bad it will be.
This, of course, is just one aspect to the general complete divorce from reality that has afflicted large segments of the population, epitomized by an almost incomprehensible gullibility on issues like Climate ChangeтДв, The PandemicтДв, and the endlessly mutating woke nonsense.
Take away the petrodollar and the value of the dollar would rapidly slide.
Now, how do other countries do it without forcing the world to accept dollars at gunpoint?
Well, the democrats and the news media on, and off line have used Trump and his base to do just that.
Yep, they're still trying to dunk on their political adversaries and in a world where EVERYONE is a political adversary... they're busy.
One of my favorites!
"if"