Carl Sagan pretty much sums it up: "One of the saddest lessons of history is this:

[elleng]

If we’ve been bamboozled long enough, we tend to reject any evidence of the bamboozle. We’re no longer interested in finding out the truth. The bamboozle has captured us. It’s simply too painful to acknowledge, even to ourselves, that we’ve been taken. Once you give a charlatan power over you, you almost never get it back.”

― Carl Sagan, The Demon-Haunted World: Science as a Candle in the Dark

[Xipe Totec]

1. Great quote, from a great human being. nt

[mopinko]

2. a life changing book. should be required reading.

[Owl]

23. Agree. An incredible book. I heard Carl's voice while reading. Not one unnecessary word.

[emmaverybo]

3. He was great. Passed way too young. NT

[colsohlibgal]

4. Gone Too Soon

I remember eagerly looking forward to and watching “Cosmos “ during its first run, and now have the DVD.

Carl had a way of explaining complicated science to the masses.

[customerserviceguy]

11. His wisdom

is one of our great losses, upon his passing.

[paleotn]

22. Greatly missed

[Harker]

5. Bamboozle

sounds like it should always be said in his voice.

[Marcuse]

6. Roman history is full of empirical imperial examples.

?

[BootinUp]

7. He warned us many times. Nt

[JoeOtterbein]

8. K n R

My favorite TV show from the ole days!

[FakeNoose]

9. Sagan would have so hated what's happening now

[jayschool2013]

10. Unfortunately

Unfortunately, we're not a "Cosmos" country anymore. We're a "Celebrity Apprentice" country.

So unbelievably sad.

[Geechie]

19. Truth! nt

[dalton99a]

12. Kick

[dobleremolque]

13. Another place where Sagan nails it, from the same book:

"I have a foreboding of an America in my children's or grandchildren's time -- when the United States is a service and information economy; when nearly all the manufacturing industries have slipped away to other countries; when awesome technological powers are in the hands of a very few, and no one representing the public interest can even grasp the issues; when the people have lost the ability to set their own agendas or knowledgeably question those in authority; when, clutching our crystals and nervously consulting our horoscopes, our critical faculties in decline, unable to distinguish between what feels good and what's true, we slide, almost without noticing, back into superstition and darkness...

The dumbing down of America is most evident in the slow decay of substantive content in the enormously influential media, the 30 second sound bites (now down to 10 seconds or less), lowest common denominator programming, credulous presentations on pseudoscience and superstition, but especially a kind of celebration of ignorance."

-Carl Sagan, The Demon-Haunted World: Science as a Candle in the Dark

[elleng]

14. really

[Mr. Evil]

15. Carl Sagan and the people like him are the types of people we should look to for leadership.

He was a great person with a great ability to foresee human trends based on present-day actions. If he was alive today he'd be appalled at what we've become.

[TygrBright]

16. Yup. Grifters know they're safe: The mark becomes their co-conspirator. n/t

[warmfeet]

17. A wonderful quote by a very wise person.

I own this book, as well as nearly every book he authored or co-authored. I have looked up to Carl since the 1970's.

[GeoWilliam750]

18. Or as Samuel Clemens once said....

“It is easier to fool the people, than to convince them they have been fooled."

[Laura PourMeADrink]

20. And not even impeach the bamboozler

[paleotn]

21. That's how cult leaders operate....

and are able to get their marks to believe crazier and crazier things.