Post 7 "Hedges"

In his article “America the illiterate” Hedges spins his article into a politically fueled rampage about societal and governmental distrust. Hedge’s even goes as far as to make an allusion to Aldous Huxley’s “A brave New World.” This allusion seems to be a bit extreme in the context of the original argument about illiteracy in America. He also presents statistics regarding literacy rates that seemed extremely questionable. I find it extremely hard to believe a third of Americas population is “illiterate or barely literate.” Both Carr and Hedges seem to be very scared of the coming future and with rate of progression who can blame them? There is one looming factor that both authors seem to ignore and that is humanity.  We invent things in order to benefit ourselves as well as society. I would hope that by the time humanity can cure disease we might also have the intellectual capability to formulate our own opinions and make decisions for ourselves. Hedged could also be wrong and America might not be that illiterate after all. Maybe instead the world is merely changing the way information is received and processed. The digital age is transforming our society but let us remain “open minded” as Hedges put it, to all possible outcomes so that we may further our understanding of the way informational vehicles such as the internet adapt to the needs of humanity. The beauty of our species is that we have the ability to adapt and so we will continue to create inventions that meet our continually changing needs. I guess what I see in both Carr and Hedges is an inherent lack of faith in humanity. In my eyes humanity is the only thing I see having faith in.