"I have a foreboding of an America in my children's or grandchilden's time when the United States is a service and information economy; ... when the people have lost the ability to set their own agendas or knowledgeably question those in authority; ... our critical faculties in decline, unable to distinguish between what feels good and what's true, we slide, almost without noticing, back into superstition and darkness." (Carl Sagan, 1995, The Demon-Haunted World)