The enlightenment was a beautiful thing. People cast aside dogma and authority. They started to think for themselves. Natural science flourished. Understanding of the real world increased. The hegemony of religion slowly declined. Real universities were created and eventually democracy took hold. The modern world was born. Until recently we were making good progress. So what went wrong?
The past 30 years or so have been an age of endarkenment. It has been a period in which truth ceased to matter very much, and dogma and irrationality became once more respectable.^
That consensual reality thing, that sounds so good when you’re on acid or in church? I guess it’s for real. Could mean problems. Definitely the prevalence of both corporate symbols on everything we own, and religion infusing our politics to a fanatical degree, as well as an inability to admit that despite great wealth we are as a society often unsure of our future, suggests a dark age.
On the other hand, many of us don’t suffer these problems because we haven’t bought into the consensual reality.
Thinking for yourself sounds great, but to paraphrase Bill Cosby, what if you’re an asshole? (His original comment was about “mind expanding” drugs.)