"If we’ve been bamboozled long enough, we tend to reject any evidence of the bamboozle. We’re no longer interested in finding out the truth. The bamboozle has captured us. It’s simply too painful to acknowledge, even to ourselves, that we’ve been taken." - Carl Sagan

submitted by LarrySwinger2 from (self.quotes)

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[–]blowininthewind 1 insightful - 1 fun1 insightful - 0 fun2 insightful - 1 fun -  (0 children)

i think many civilizations have this tendency, rooted in human nature itself.

civilizations create the illusion of eternal life, and individuals give up their own understanding of the world to become a part of this illusion. so all techinical progresses are used to fulfill this illusion of eternal life, making it more comfortable, etc. but no technical progress shall be made beyond what is practical to fulfill that goal (space technology, genetic engineering on humans, etc.)

so in the long run civilization declines for that reason. people got more and more stuck in their belief that their world will prosper forever. more and more charlatans emerge, etc. until the collapse.