Brilliant article that relates to my previous deeper points as to why Trump won over Harris. In effect, a large portion of our society’s capacity to make sense and understand the complexity of the world is getting worse not better (which is called regression in developmental psychology).
To overcome this, we have to build safe environments that don’t shield us from the world but rather feel like a safe harbour that we can explore the world from.
Losing the ability to comprehend the world around us and make sense of complex ideas is an existential crisis.
The decline of reading comprehension carries worrying implications for society at large. The tools needed to make sense of an increasingly complex world are at stake. Without the ability and inclination to read deeply, we lose foundational capacities to understand issues, weigh facts, debate respectfully, empathise with different views, separate truth from falsehood, and engage intellectually with media.
Without nuanced analysis, parties propagate misinformation to confirm their biases.
Complex social challenges get oversimplified into stereotyped wedge issues.
A society that cannot patiently read long-form texts struggles to make sense of the world in ways that enable wise judgment, empathy across differences, effective policies, technological progress, economic justice, scientific reason, and fact-based truth to prevail over misguided beliefs. Reviving reading comprehension may be among the most urgent priorities for the future of civilisation.
Joan Westenberg