|
Personally, I believe the decline in logical and reasonable debate has much to do with the shift in the 17th century from predominantly print based forms of communication to the current internet and television dominant forms.
It's no longer how factual your argument is, or how logical; it's about how you look, how you present yourself, and how you convince people that your argument is the right one.
John Stewart Mill said that speeches about certain topics could be banned but the same topics in print could be allowed... he said this because speeches play on emotions and stir the soul, print is introspective - you use quiet contemplation to decide on what you think.
In the time of ol Abe, many Americans would never see the president in their entire lives, they only had what he put down in print to go by.
Food for thought in our ever increasing media-centered world view.
__________________
Feh.
|