Image via WikipediaThe ORDER OF THE ILLITERATI (usually referred to in its more Twitter-friendly abbreviated form, The Order Of Illiterati) is rapidly taking over the hearts and minds* (*since nature abhors a vacuum, as did my late Augusta, but in a different context) of the world's citizenry. Anti-intellectualism, fueled by mass media, imbecilic politicians, and 140-character status updating formats, is very dangerous indeed. It allows people to be enslaved, led about, and herded like cattle.
It stunts questioning, learning, innovation, collaboration, expression and some of the greatest attributes of our species. It keeps us from growing and evolving as individuals and as a society. While Dan Brown hasn't written a book about this particular secret society yet, its tentacles are all around us.
Growing anti-intellectualism and the excessive encouragement of conformity have always been portentious of dangerous times to come throughout the course of Human history. The status quo of a society does not positively change if questioning and original thought are discouraged or punished...what invariably emerges is some witches' brew of fascism, somnambulism, mass hypnosis, mob-thinking, paranoia, and a system of the ignorant (but tranquilized) enslaved and their masters.
Maybe we should start offering more positive reinforcement and incentives to brave, original thought. Maybe we should shine a brighter light on intelligence and innovative ability.
What do you think? - Douglas E Castle
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Subject: A Letter To Sam Alexander In Response To A Comment Which He Made On An Article Which I Posted In The Global Futurist.
Note: You can find Sam's blog, which I found to be excellent, at http://www.xamuel.com/
Dear Sam:
There is absolutely no offense taken, and I sincerely welcome all constructive commentary, criticisms and suggestions regarding any of my articles. Really, 'Bro. I doubled back to your blog and found it quite interesting. I will likely be adding it as a link to both http://TheGlobalFuturist.blogspot.com and to the newly-being-reformatted http://Braintenance.blogspot.com blog (one of my personal favorites, but then again....my sample is not indicative of the population as a whole -- friends have told me that I am a "few standard deviations from the mean.").
You are truly a wellspring of native thought about a number of fascinating observations and concepts. We need more minds like yours in a society which is increasingly under the thrall of the Order Of The Illiterati . This last secret society is, in fact, so secret that its members are generally not even aware that they've been recruited. While the Order Of The Illiterati (not to be confused with the Order Of The Illuminati ) is a Lingovation which I have coined, it definitely exists, despite that (Descartes notwithstanding) it is apparently not self-aware. You may take issue with this curious paradox -- but they wouldn't. Why, I'd wager that if they cared enough, they'd have to go to dictionary.com to look up the term paradox.
My compliments to you.
Yours Faithfully, And In The Spirit Of Friendship,
Douglas
----- Forwarded Message -----
From: Xamuel
To: douglas.castle@yahoo.com
Sent: Thursday, September 29, 2011 2:50 PM
Subject: [THE GLOBAL FUTURIST - Douglas E Castle] New comment on Prediction: There's No Single Method..
Xamuel has left a new comment on your post "Prediction: There's No Single Method.":
Hope my comment didn't upset you this much. (You mad bro?) I just recently added a bunch of futurism blogs to my reader because I wanted to get more in touch with futurism-- suppose I should have lurked more before posting, gotten a better sense for this blog.
Posted by Xamuel to THE GLOBAL FUTURIST - Douglas E Castle at September 28, 2011 9:46 PM
Hope my comment didn't upset you this much. (You mad bro?) I just recently added a bunch of futurism blogs to my reader because I wanted to get more in touch with futurism-- suppose I should have lurked more before posting, gotten a better sense for this blog.
Posted by Xamuel to THE GLOBAL FUTURIST - Douglas E Castle at September 28, 2011 9:46 PM
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