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> This is simply the human condition. It was just as true of written language and illustration. There's a famous book, "The Revolt of the Masses" by Ortega, wh
by badpun 8y ago
> This is simply the human condition. It was just as true of written language and illustration.
There's a famous book, "The Revolt of the Masses" by Ortega, which claims the opposite. His conclusion is that, before mass media, common people were uneducated, but were actually quite aware of and humble about their ignorance - they did not think they understood how the world around them (incl. politics etc.) works. But after they've been exposed to the press and radio, which mostly gave them random, disjointed and poorly checked facts as well as opinion pieces (almost always with an agenda), they started to believe they understand more than they actually did. That's the "Revolt of the Masses" - masses of people started to have an opinion, and it was often ignorant and stupid.
- stcredzero 8y agoHere, you're just talking about the operation of propaganda.
- badpun 8y agoNot only. Haven’t you noticed how most people nowadays have opinions on subjects on which they’re (at best) poorly informed? It’s a form of “cognitive hubris”, and Ortega’s claim was that people weren’t neccessarily always like that. I imagine that, before mass media and education, people were a lot more focused on spiritual/religious things, and were leading heated debates in those areas. These were far less dangerous that ill-informed debates on real, important subjects.
- stcredzero 8y agoThere's always been propaganda and toxic levels of tribalism. The question we should be asking ourselves, is how have the uncommon societies where principles and rule of law have won out functioned? People having parochial, uninformed opinions isn't new.
- ctchocula 8y agoOff-topic, but I finished reading your book suggestion "East of Eden" from this thread [1] and loved it. Do you have any other book recommendations? [1] https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=18662420 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=18662420