It is also, in many ways, a serious underestimation of Sagan's Parade readers. If these millions and millions who read his explanations of the universe's vagueries thought scientifically they would not get their science from a Sunday newspaper insert whose salient contributions to American culture are the diet of the week, Lloyd Shearer's Personality Parade, and advertisements from the Franklin Mint. Parade is a mobocratic, incoherent publication. The latest miracle cure for cancer is given equal billing with Keanu Reave's latest publicist-approved squeeze and recipes that include dried soup. If the science guy pops up with something about why the Hubble Space Telescope is a good investment, that gets thrown in the hopper with the latest memorial plate featuring Elvis.
Science claims to be a priveleged way of knowing.
But when it is thrown into the vat with the lifestyles of television celebrities it loses its salience. Everything shouts equally loudly. Nothing is right or wrong. Sagan was a true modernist. But and who can blame him he also lapped up publicity like a dog.