Robert A. Heinlein on Rational Thinking and Celebrity

„[T]here seems to have been an actual decline in rational thinking. The United States had become a place where entertainers and professional athletes were mistaken for people of importance. They were idolized and treated as leaders; their opinions were sought on everything and they took themselves just as seriously-after all, if an athlete is paid a million or more a year, he knows he is important ... so his opinions of foreign affairs and domestic policies must be important, too, even though he proves himself to be ignorant and subliterate every time he opens his mouth.“

Robert A. HeinleinRobert A. Heinlein criticizes celebrity worship and questions the influence of unqualified opinions on society.
PreviousNext

Robert A. Heinlein was an American science fiction author, known for his influential works and critical views on society and freedom.

Robert A. Heinlein questions the public idolization of celebrities and the influence of unqualified opinions on public discourse.


Translation or original: 🇩🇪Click here

Quelle: Hier klicken

i

3.0 / 5

Robert A. Heinlein quote about rational thinking, celebrity, and public influence

Robert Anson Heinlein (1907–1988) was one of the most influential American science fiction writers of the 20th century. He was known for his critically satirical and socially conscious novels that often addressed political and philosophical themes such as freedom, individualism, and social control. Heinlein significantly shaped the genre and influenced generations of writers.

Charles Wright Mills quote about the American elite and lack of leadershipCopyright © yoice.net – Quote Artwork
/
0 Comments
"The American elite is not composed of representative men whose conduct and character constitute models for American imitation and aspiration. There is no set of men with whom members of the mass public can rightfully and gladly identify. In this fundamental sense, America is indeed without leaders. Yet such is the nature of the mass public’s morally cynical and politically unspecified distrust that it is readily drained off without real political effect. That this is so, after the men and events of the last thirty years, is further proof of the extreme difficulty of finding and of using in America today the political means of sanity for morally sane objectives." Charles Wright Mills
Read more
Neil Postman quote image about society's growing obsession with entertainmentCopyright © yoice.net – Quote Artwork
/
0 Comments
"Our politics, religion, news, athletics, education and commerce have been transformed into congenial adjuncts of show business, largely without protest or even much popular notice. The result is that we are a people on the verge of amusing ourselves to death." Neil Postman
Read more
Inspirational quote image featuring Neil Postman on cultural decline and public discourseCopyright © yoice.net – Quote Artwork
/
0 Comments
"When a population becomes distracted by trivia, when cultural life is redefined as a perpetual round of entertainments, when serious public conversation becomes a form of baby-talk, when, in short, a people become an audience, and their public business a vaudeville act, then a nation finds itself at risk; culture-death is a clear possibility." Neil Postman
Read more
Quote by Charles Wright Mills about America, conservatism, political ideology, and powerCopyright © yoice.net – Quote Artwork
/
0 Comments
"America—a conservative country without any conservative ideology—appears now before the world a naked and arbitrary power, as, in the name of realism, its men of decision enforce their often crackpot definitions upon world reality. The second-rate mind is in command of the ponderously spoken platitude. In the liberal rhetoric, vagueness, and in the conservative mood, irrationality, are raised to principle. Public relations and the official secret, the trivializing campaign and the terrible fact clumsily accomplished, are replacing the reasoned debate of political ideas in the privately incorporated economy, the military ascendancy, and the political vacuum of modern America." Charles Wright Mills
Read more
Carl Sagan quote about science as a way of thinking and the decline of America's intellectual vitalityCopyright © yoice.net – Quote Artwork
/
0 Comments
"Science is more than a body of knowledge; it is a way of thinking. I have a foreshadowing of an America in the time of my children or grandchildren – when the United States is a service and information economy; when Almost all major manufacturing industries have moved to other countries; when terrible technological powers are in the hands of too few, and no one representing the public interest can understand the issues; when people have lost the ability to set their own agenda. Lost or deliberately questioned by those in power; when, holding our crystals and nervously consulting our horoscopes, our vital faculties decline, in distinguishing between what feels good and what is true Unable, we go back to superstition and darkness, almost without noticing. America’s downfall is most evident in the slow decay of real content in the most influential media, 30-second sound bites (now down to 10 seconds or less), credible presentations on lowest common denominator programming, pseudoscience and superstition, but especially From a kind of celebration of ignorance." Dr. Carl Edward Sagan
Read more
0 replies

Leave a Reply

Want to join the discussion?
Feel free to contribute!

Leave a Reply

Chris Hedges on Surveillance and SecurityChris Hedges quote about surveillance, monitoring, privacy, and securityCopyright © yoice.net – Quote ArtworkSophia Loren quote about beauty, confidence, and radianceCopyright © yoice.net – Quote ArtworkSophia Loren Quote About Beauty and Radiance