6 ms·
Chapter 2: 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 nea
by user982 1y ago
Chapter 2:
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.
Chapter 13:
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. Once you give a charlatan power over you, you almost never get it back.
Chapter 25:
In every country, we should be teaching our children the scientific method and the reasons for a Bill of Rights. With it comes a certain decency, humility and community spirit. In the demon-haunted world that we inhabit by virtue of being human, this may be all that stands between us and the enveloping darkness.
- deadbabe 1y agoSad to say, we are now living in the world he feared, as fully realized.
- Mistletoe 1y agoMy only question is was this slide orchestrated or is it the natural tendency of humanity to slip back to ignorance when all their needs are met, like the Eloi in The Time Machine? Someone made lots of money from this slide, I just don't know if it was random chance or a scheme that worked. This quote has always stuck with me and I think about it often, perhaps one of the main quotes that have steered my life. “The main thing that I learned about conspiracy theory, is that conspiracy theorists believe in a conspiracy because that is more comforting. The truth of the world is that it is actually chaotic. The truth is that it is not The Iluminati, or The Jewish Banking Conspiracy, or the Gray Alien Theory. The truth is far more frightening - Nobody is in control. The world is rudderless.” ― Alan Moore
- koakuma-chan 1y agoIs the quote actually true or just something the author made up? Alan Moore appears to be a fiction writer.
- popalchemist 1y agoAlan Moore is a deeply philosophical person who does a lot of research in general, and as part of his writing process. Here's the source for the quote, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NgSbaKpCjq4 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NgSbaKpCjq4 However to fully put this into context you also need to understand that Alan Moore is an occultist, so he views both power and chaos (in the social context as well as the metaphysical context) through that lens. https://www.reddit.com/r/occult/comments/1iv2eic/alan_moore_thinks_chaos_magic_is_trashy/ https://www.reddit.com/r/occult/comments/1iv2eic/alan_moore_...
- koakuma-chan 1y agoIt just makes me think he is a lunatic. I don't think the same person can be deeply philosophical and an occultist at the same time. I recently adopted a practice of reading the author's wikipedia page before reading the book, to make sure the author is an actual expert in the field, and not just a clown.
- popalchemist 1y agoSay what you will about Moore (though he's the author of Watchmen, widely considered not only the greatest graphic novel of all time and a biting indictment of the entertainment industry and the military industrial complex... no small feat) But -- I'm an occultist and a philosophical person, so I can tell you from first hand experience that occultism and philosophy are inextricably bound. Any pursuit of metaphysics is occult in nature. Occult simply means "hidden"; it is the domain of those things which can not be perceived directly, but have to be reasoned or intuited out via the mind.
- 1y ago
- gdbsjjdn 1y agoThe "crystals and horoscopes" part is such a cheap jab that's going to alienate a lot of the population. Astrology is a harmless introspective process for most people, they just like having a framework to characterise their beliefs and feelings. You find very few people who feel that it's prescriptive and limits their life. Contrasted with very rational people who are chasing magical, unmoored valuations in the stock market for instance. We buy and sell equity based not on future cash flows, but on confidence there will be a bigger sucker down the line. This untethering of "value" from any productive work is a greater contributor to the hollowing out of the US economy than anyone buying a piece of amethyst.
- layer8 1y agoThe “clutching” and “nervously consulting” is essential here. It’s where it has stopped being a “harmless introspective process”. Apart from that, I read “crystals” and “horoscopes” in a more metaphorical sense here.
- gdbsjjdn 1y agoThe verbs are not the issue. America has been hollowed out by political propaganda, offshoring and growing wealth inequality. Sagan fails to identify any of these and instead dunks on harmless folk superstitions. Show me where the Fed rate or IBM's quarterly earnings or a Fox News chyron were determined by a horoscope. The real enemy is the belief that value can be created from nothing, such that an economy of infinite growth can exist. Once you've exhausted all the externalities - exploiting people overseas, domestically, pillaging natural resources - you're left in a zero sum game.
- twisteriffic 1y ago> Sagan fails to identify any of these and instead dunks on harmless folk superstitions. Show me where the Fed rate or IBM's quarterly earnings or a Fox News chyron were determined by a horoscope. It's in the same paragraph... > 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
- kogasa240p 1y agoWell shit, that's happening right now.