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futuredivot

Casual Observation

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My more right wing friends are unable to do research, my more left wing friends get their news from memes and cable comedy, and it appears that Brave New World, Animal Farm, and 1984 dropped off the required reading list some time ago.
You are only as strong as the prey you devour

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futuredivot

My more right wing friends are unable to do research, my more left wing friends get their news from memes and cable comedy, and it appears that Brave New World, Animal Farm, and 1984 dropped off the required reading list some time ago.



As I have long contended, Orwell was an optimist.

BTW, 'Down and Out in Paris and London' and 'Homage to Catalonia" should be required reading as well.

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Yeah, the disparity between the knowing or "learned" and the unknowing or "unlearned" is growing and an important skill is to be able to decipher credible and meaningful information. Teaching that skill is hard because it isn't a "read this or that and you understand it" kind of thing, it is a lifelong process.

I considered myself pretty smart, came from a moderate/liberal family and had lots of knowledge imparted on me. But going to a University in my late 20's and learning about real science (not the watered down and silly version taught in public schools) and especially statistics, fundamentally changed my perception of reality.

Math doesn't have an opinion, it doesn't have an agenda, it simply "is," and it defines reality. Science is the only creation of humanity that recognizes that and strives to explain the world in mathematical terms. We still have a majority of people in the US that believe some sort of cosmic wizard is calling the shots because a book with anonymous authors and no empirical evidence tells them it is; that sums up the problem pretty well.

For what its worth, I don't read a great deal, and even less fiction. My favorite authors are Oliver Sacks and David Foster Wallace. I don't have a PhD, and I worked blue collar jobs for 10 years before going to college; medical, entertainment, construction, and maritime. I consider myself well rounded and neither a member of the Blue Collar crowd nor the intellectual elite.

I submit this for the "DZ.com required reading list," it is only about 30 pages and non-fiction. The link is to a PDF of the essay. (Read all of the footnotes, he has a odd manner of writing and they are very important.)

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