Selective Readers (or Viewers)
Today, far too many adults in the United States seem to be angry with our society because, as children, society forced them to read when they didn’t want to and what they didn’t want to read.
These children grew up to be a part of a very large adult population that carry the memory of the anxiety and humiliation because they were forced to read a book they didn’t want to read and certainly not when they were told they must read. They remember vividly how devoutly they prayed to be anywhere else and not reading.
And so today, most adults, when they must read something, only read what they like, what they think they already understand, what they enjoy, or what they lust after.
Good luck trying to convince the “selective” reader that America is counting on them as responsible adults and citizens to explore other viewpoints than their own in order to find any way, the most pragmatic way to move America forward and beyond its current schizoid phase of politics. But that would take reading uncomfortable things and that isn’t possible.
So even if rational, pragmatic discourse could save America, we are asking a hell of a lot to expect these “selective” readers to become what? Patriotic? Responsible, Disciplined, reasonable?
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