In the most recent issue of Sierra Magazine, there is an excerpt from Al Gore's presenetation at Sierra's Climate Forum. Regardless of what you may or may not think about Al Gore, and Global Warming, I thought this quote was a pretty interesting statement on our current political system, and consistent with what I've experienced with the system.
"With regard to our political system, it now devalues knowledge and facts. It didn't used to....we grew up in a world where the truth mattered and...the merit of ideas was judged against the rule of reason. Our political system, never perfect, nevertheless paid more attention to such things.
"The political system doesn't act that way anymore. As in the feudal era, wealth and power now regularly trump knowledge, facts and reason. The diminished role of reason in the public marketplace of ideas has an impact -- from the auto industry to the upcoming presidential campaigns. The joke about the auto industry is that after the Clean Air Act was ammended in 1970, every Japanese auto company hired 100 new engineers, and every US company hired 100 new lawyers. It's not too far from the truth unfortunately."
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