The ability to knowledgeably question

The forgotten art of scrutiny.......  Thanks to Tony for posting this pic on Facebook.  The perfect illustration for this post!

Twenty-five years ago, Carl Sagan referred to a “slide back into superstition” of the religious variety and also a general "celebration of ignorance," such that well-supported scientific theories carry the same weight or less than explanations made up on the spot by authorities whom people have lost the ability to “knowledgeably question.”

The other day, I added this as a postscript to another post:

I like Sagan's reference to people who "have lost the ability to knowledgeably question" the so-called authorities who tell them things or sell them ideas. That is indeed a social epidemic, and a very dangerous one. I see the results almost every day, on blogs and in Facebook groups which I follow intermittently -- whenever a spectacular headline appears in the press following a press release relating to Stonehenge, we see a flood of comments showing that people are completely fooled by the snake oil salesmen, with hardly anybody going back to the recently published article itself and subjecting it to critical scrutiny. Why don't they do that? The reasons are many and varied -- but it's clear that people are intimidated by articles that have graphs and tables in them and by writing that is often far more complex than it needs to be.  And yes, one has to conclude that most members of the public no longer have the instinct or the ability to examine a text and work out for themeselves that what they are reading is complete tosh.

I have been looking at Wikipedia lately, and have been horrified by the extent to which the "volunteers" who manage the site are fooled into thinking that wildly speculative archaeological theories are actually factually based and "true" -- and by the blithe acceptance of press releases and newspaper articles as "supporting publications".  I know that Wikipedia depends upon its readers and volunteers for scrutinising the things that powerful vested interests place there, on the record --  but it seems to me that more and more fantasies are appearing on Wikipedia, to be accepted by gullible readers as "the truth."  So where are those who should be doing the "knowledgeable questioning"?

Maybe this is not something treated as a priority in modern universities?  

When this lack of scrutiny is coupled with the "celebration of ignorance" which we see in the mainstream media and in popular culture, we have a problem.    Another quote from Sagan:

The dumbing down of America is most evident in the slow decay of substantive content in the enormously influential media, the 30 second sound bites (now down to 10 seconds or less), lowest common denominator programming, credulous presentations on pseudoscience and superstition, but especially a kind of celebration of ignorance”

The wicked Dr Kurdling to Master Molesworth after delivering six of the best:  ".....that will teach you not to alter the ignorance of a lifetime!"