America the dumb

Hedges' definition of literacy is the ability to read and write a simple message and those who have a "non-reality-based belief system." He describes those who fall under this category as those who are informed by childish, untrue and simple messages.

This was not always the case. Chris Hedges does bring up an interesting point in the fact that "the most famous person in the 18th century was Voltaire. The most famous "person" in present times is Mickey Mouse."Most people nowadays have no clue who Voltaire is. That and they do not know what a pseudonym is.

Chris Hedges and Nicholas Carr must both like to think that America is stupid. I slightly agree, but not entirely. Nicolas Carr's point is that the amount of time we spend on the internet will have an affect upon us in the future. It is almost as Hedges takes his idea further and shows the effect of the "change from print based to image based society." He also says that because ideas are not present, there is a need for constant stimuli, hence the gigantic advertisements in Times Square.