Reply #61: CMSM just amplifies it. It's always been there, Susan.

[IrateCitizen]

Back around the turn of the century, there wasn't any TV or radio, but people still flocked to see the vulgar displays of Billy Sunday and other fundamentalist preachers who simply filled their heads full of what they should simply believe and left no room for critical thought.

If Kant noticed it back in the late 18th century, then it certainly has been a constant. People, as a rule, don't like to think, because thinking is so damned HARD. It means that you have to try and make sense out of a complex and chaotic world. Why trouble yourself with such endeavors when you can get someone to just tell you what to believe and what to reject, and give it to you wrapped up in a nice neat box?

I've come to see DU at times as like a modern-day enlightenment project. Sure, we get our fair share of meaningless drivel here, but every once in a while we get a discussion that really spurs people to think in greater detail about the world around them. In effect, at times these forums act like an online "salon" in the tradition of 18th century France.