The Uninformed And We-Like-It-That-Way American Voter

by Phyllis Chesler
Pajamas Media
October 15, 2008

http://www.phyllis-chesler.com/362/the-uninformed-and-we-like-it-that-way-american

Excerpt:

I have been told that younger Americans get their information mainly online or on TV and not through books. What a pity! To me, books are beautiful to hold and to read. The solitude that reading a book requires, ideally, without interruption, allows for reflection and is better suited to human capacities. Quick reads of brief "breaking news" snippets, which are frequently interrupted, mid-sentence, by other presumed "breaking news" snippets, is an exercise better suited to a machine, and not to a human being. I fear that this cognitive style teaches us to behave as if we all have attention deficit disorders.

Also, a steady diet of presenting mere entertainment as "hard breaking news" has diminished our national capacity to reason. Becoming accustomed to trashing a public figure over minor, often personal matters, confusing rude gossip with policy or substance, has harmed us morally.

How , then, can we find out "what's happening?"

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