America The Illiterate Is Why We Find Ourselves on the Path To Catastrophe Chris Hedges Truthdig

:think:
The larger proportion of the voting public has so short an attention span as to be pathological to a living democracy, in addition to being predominantly influenced by mass marketed opinion propagated by high school educated mouthpieces on AM radio propagandizing on behalf of the agenda of Corporate America.

This article:
http://www.truthdig.com/report/item/20081110_america_th... / ...that follows details this phenomenon exquisitely!

Author Chris Hedges

Title America The Illiterate

This is a MUST READ article that really expresses what is wrong in America today.

"It's The Americans Stupid!

http://www.truthdig.com/report/item/20081110_america_th... /

"We live in two Americas. One America, now the minority, functions in a print-based, literate world. It can cope with complexity and has the intellectual tools to separate illusion from truth. The other America, which constitutes the majority, exists in a non-reality-based belief system.

Think Southern and Bible Belt states including central and North Florida... :crazy:

This America, dependent on skillfully manipulated images for information, has severed itself from the literate, print-based culture. It cannot differentiate between lies and truth. It is informed by simplistic, childish narratives and clichés. It is thrown into confusion by ambiguity, nuance and self-reflection. This divide, more than race, class or gender, more than rural or urban, believer or nonbeliever, red state or blue state, has split the country into radically distinct, unbridgeable and antagonistic entities."


"Political leaders in our post-literate society no longer need to be competent, sincere or honest. They only need to appear to have these qualities. Most of all they need a story, a narrative. The reality of the narrative is irrelevant. It can be completely at odds with the facts.

The consistency and emotional appeal of the story are paramount. The most essential skill in political theater and the consumer culture is artifice.
Those who are best at artifice succeed.

Those who have not mastered the art of artifice fail.

In an age of images and entertainment, in an age of instant emotional gratification, we do not seek or want honesty. We ask to be indulged and entertained by clichés, stereotypes and mythic narratives that tell us we can be whomever we want to be, that we live in the greatest country on Earth, that we are endowed with superior moral and physical qualities and that our glorious future is preordained, either because of our attributes as Americans or because we are blessed by God or both."


http://www.truthdig.com/report/item/20081110_america_th... /


A quote from John Russell... "Those who are educated ask questions while those who are literate follow directions." www.johnrussellforcongress.com

This is what the author is alluding to... A society dominated by the ever increasing numbers of Americans who are "programmed" to respond to the most simple impulse... People who readily conform and do not cause "trouble" for the establishment powers.

George Orwell Would turn over in his grave...

http://www.truthdig.com/report/item/20081110_america_th...