Modern mind: arrogant, ignorant and sloth
Image via Wikipedia Does this not confirm Hilaire Belloc 's extraordinarily prescient description in 1929 of what he termed the "Modern Mind" - that cultural conceit that has been formed through the intermingling of arrogance, ignorance and sloth - and the "instrument" which feeds and deepens its malaise? " The popular Press ," writes Belloc, tends to present "as objects for admiration a bundle of things incongruous: a few of some moment, the great part trivial. Above all it grossly distorts ... Thus the 'Modern Mind' dislikes thinking: the popular Press increases that sloth by providing sensational substitutes. Disliking thought, the 'Modern Mind' dislikes close attention, and indeed any sustained effort; the popular Press increases the debility by an orgy of pictures and headlines. The 'Modern Mind' ascribes a false authority to reiteration; the popular Press serves it with ceaseless iteration ... In all these ways and...