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Dear Editor:
Morris Bedlam’s though-provoking letter to the editor (“Reader asks, what’s the real problem in America?”, published Sept. 16) challenges each of us to think.
Ideas matter.
And ideas thrive in open discussion, honest inquiry, and constant attention.
Unfortunately, the dumbing-down of America cited by Harold Bloom in 1987 has metastasized into a culture of shallow communication – both public and private – aimed at showing off, selling goods or otherwise distracting the mind to what matters.
Evidence-based thinking is the heart of the scientific method – not just in medicine but in every facet of life.
We wouldn’t hire a painter without references so why should we swallow vapid words without demanding evidence?
Bill Shaffer
Carmel
And yet we have the very highest levels of government & those with the loudest of megaphones actively & publicly at war with the very premise of evidence based thinking.
It would seem that currently ; influence, power & the shouting down of dissent matter more than ideas.
What’s tragic is that many of U.S. fall for it enthusiastically.
.