In today's Guardian, something I often think about; the rejection of thought, sadly equally relevant across the industrialized world.
Never mind endangered animals – it's the thinkers that we need to save
Sadly intellectuals, who were once ubiquitous, have all but disappeared from our TV screens
Once thinkers were everywhere, like butterflies, sparrows and bees, which have also virtually disappeared. As late as the early 1980s, you'd still come down in the morning and find some Marxist literary theorist had been on the doorstep and pecked off the top of the milk. But no one under 40 can be expected to remember the ubiquitous abundance of pure thought that once characterised our culture. It has disappeared incrementally, like roadside wildflowers and sticklebacks in streams, as if it never were.
Television is still important as a reflection of our society, some may even postulate that it is a driver to what we hold dear on average, and it is shockingly idiotic across so many channels. I would also suggest that this malady has spread across the board.
I jumped at this article on the Guardian's Comment section because it actually sparked an interest to read it, and sadly in the written media these days, that is a rarity.
When I read or listen to political discourse, the majority of which seems to be decided by who shouts the loudest and has the craziest fact free viewpoint. If you can get your audience screaming mindlessly, USA, USA, so much the better.
When education is talked about it is related to a points scoring system, rather than the quality of original thought produced. From the playground to the cubical, the programming continues; conform or else.
Paying attention to the "noise" emanating from so many disparate sources condemning any real discussion is depressing.
A sick delight spread over the rapidly warming landscape when it was revealed that Sir David Attenborough had filmed some baby polar bear footage in a zoo to supplement the painstakingly gathered location shots, as if everything this wise old man had ever said ever could now to be gleefully erased from the record and replaced with recordings of Jeremy Clarkson snorting petrol fumes out of a slit in a life-sized inflatable model of David Cameron.
Have a read and "enjoy".