SO I finished Al Gore's book, The Assault on Reason. It was actually much better than I expected. I'm not sold on anything new. However, his passion is respectable and his arguments are not that bad. When he singles out the current administration for contempt, he does so based on principle that never comes across as sour grapes. Fundmentally, I place more blame on the individual than on evil corporations and TV.
I don't have any firm data to back this up, but I think that with affluence has come ambivilence. That is what is strangling debate. We don't want to be bothered. I'm going to guess right now that the non-fiction bestseller list is composed of miracle diets that aren't helping people because they aren't making the needed lifestyle changes, self-help books that aren't helping people because they aren't making the needed lifestyle changes, and partisan hackery that sells to people who already agree with it because otherwise they'd have to think. I'm potentially being hypocritical in not pulling up the list to check my accuracy, but my time is limited, my connection is slow, and I'm pretty confident in the answer.
I agree that the internet will revolutionize debate. I don't think that is particularly visionary. Orson Scott Card called it in Ender's Game, and in that scenario a fourteen year old genius was able to take over the world using the strength of his anonymous ideas. However, anything to push it along and get people paying attention is good.
Banning those inane internet/text shorthand things would be a start. Everytime I hear someone use those as an expression in daily speech I want to slap them. I don't. But one day...
Today's words of wisdom: Anyone worth shooting once is worth shooting twice, hitting with a few rockets, and maybe an airstrike.
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