America the Illiterate - I Presume the Rest of the "West" is the Same

[Rev.Cambeul]

Chris Hedges

http://www.truthdig.com/report/item/20081110_america_the_illiterate

We live in two Americas. One America, now the minority, functions in a print-based, literate world. It can cope with complexity and has the intellectual tools to separate illusion from truth. The other America, which constitutes the majority, exists in a non-reality-based belief system. This America, dependent on skillfully manipulated images for information, has severed itself from the literate, print-based culture. It cannot differentiate between lies and truth. It is informed by simplistic, childish narratives and clichés. It is thrown into confusion by ambiguity, nuance and self-reflection ... Nearly a third of the nation's population is illiterate or barely literate. And their numbers are growing by an estimated two million a year ... Political propaganda now masquerades as ideology.