Democracy (and other meaningful ways of living together) demands, amongst other things, an educated citizenry and open media. Education requires time, commitment, a willingness to tolerate discomfort and ambiguity. It leads to new perspectives, deeper understanding, broader connectivity.
Much of what current media transmit manipulates us into feeling a constant state of emergency, leading to either exhaustion or hypervigilance, neither of which move us any closer to a better common life. If democracy gets better with education and what is presented in the name of “education” actually undermines democracy, it falls to us to break the circuit.
This is not so much an argument for less engagement as it is for smarter engagement. Where we choose to place our attention, and how, matters.
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