"It is possible that nothing will help. The nation’s memory and attention span may already have sustained so much damage that they cannot be revived by the best efforts of America’s best minds. I too am nibbling at the edges by talking about the need for political leaders who address Americans as thinking adults; for intellectuals willing to step up and bring their knowledge, instead of a lust for power, to the public square; for educators devoted to teaching and learning rather than to the latest fads in pop psychology. None of the suggestions addresses the core problem created by the media—the pacifiers of the mind that permeate our homes, schools, and politics. There is a little evidence to indicate that Americans have either the desire or the will to lessen their dependency on the easy satisfactions held out by the video and digital world; on the contrary, the successful marketing of infant videos suggests that many parents are eager to draw their children into the infotainment snare before they have any chance to explore the world on their own."
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pp. 315-316
https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/The_Age_of_American_Unreason
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The Age of American Unreason
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