It has become more sophisticated and has expanded to the point where it is difficult to distinguish among advertising hype, P.R. image creation and substantial news. Third, environmental degradation continues. We not only need to critically evaluate much that we see and hear but also what we breathe, eat and drink. A little reading in the ecological literature rapidly reveals just what a state of siege we are in. Finally, we should not forget the sorry state of our polis.
Citizenship requires an informed populace capable of critically evaluating meaningful alternatives.
Perhaps the most depressing result of the media hype permeating our culture is that we are left, seemingly, with a choice between two equally unacceptable attitudes, a paralyzing cynicism which finds nothing worth fighting for or a mindless obedience and simplistic piety over traditional values. It occurs to me that one of the reasons why C.T. often gets reduced to a set of skills or operations is that it is immensely difficult to address values in the contemporary situation, largely for the reasons just described. But beyond that, critical rationality is itself a self-canceling power, one that eventually erodes or at least relativizes the values that engendered it to begin with. For example, Postman in his book, argues that what we value in rational discourse is largely a result of print culture and that culture is being displaced by an electronic one. Even more radically, Nietzsche has shown how the commitment to truth and honesty forces us to recognize the groundlessness of the concept of truth itself.