good article on the simplistic punditocracy

[MBS]

This struck a chord
http://www.truthout.org/docs_2006/022107J.shtml

By William Fisher

Wednesday 21 February 2007

One of the uglier paradoxes of our time is that, as the world becomes vastly more complicated, the punditocracy becomes more simplistic.

Today, those who get paid to deliver their opinions and convictions in newspapers, on television, in the White House, and on the floor of Congress are more undeniably, more absolutely, more positively certain their point of view is not only the right one, but the only one.

What ever happened to respect for the ideas of another? What ever happened to the question that anyone about to put forth some set-in-concrete viewpoint should ask himself or herself: What if I'm wrong?

It's called intellectual humility. It's the opposite of hubris. It's the un-arrogance of the thoughtful.

And it's gone.

It's gone because it doesn't sell newspapers, doesn't raise cable TV ratings, doesn't score party political points, makes the commander in chief look weak, doesn't further the presidential ambitions of wannabe leaders, and doesn't support ideological dogma based on "to hell with inconvenient facts."

No one forced us to accept this construct as the "new normal." We capitulated. We gave up. We surrendered to people who think we are stupid and uninformed. And, like a self-fulfilling prophecy, we indeed became stupid and uninformed. The world is just too nuanced for us to understand, we complain, and throw up our hands. We feel more comfortable with well-modulated voices and well-crafted words, the more vitriolic the better. We'd rather live with the faux certitude of flawed ideas than with ambiguity.

Yet the world is intrinsically ambiguous. And no one-dimensional conviction, however passionately or sonorously expressed, changes that reality.

More at http://www.truthout.org/docs_2006/022107J.shtml

[TayTay]

1. excellent article.

With some very good points to ponder. We need to bring back the Fairness Doctrine. That never should have gone away, the damage done in it's absence has been horrible.

[globalvillage]

2. He's exactly right.

This is precisely what's wrong, and somehow, it's got to stop. There's got to be a ceiling that we hit eventually.

Honest to God, I'm so sick of all the ugliness, I can hardly watch any more. And everywhere you look, on TV, on the blogs, they're reveling in it! Cheering it on. What ever happened to civility? How did we get to the point where we've become almost devoid of humanity and basic human kindness? No one looks at qualifications, voting records, ability. No one wants discussion or debate. It's all about who can dig up (or make up) the most dirt. Pick your guy or gal and start flinging shit at anyone who dares challenge them. We should just have a cage match every four years and have it over with.

It's an ugly reflection. If it doesn't stop, we're all screwn.

[ProSense]

3. Excellent article.

So how does the Obamarillary fest fit into this? Shame!