. . .is that we live in an age exemplified by English professors who cannot speak fluent English (poor grammar, word misusage, etc.) and give forth blank states in response to quotations of The Bard.
Yes, we live in an age of a nearly universal “literacy” filled with actual illiterates, pseudoliterates who could not read their way out of a paper bag. And yet there are those who defend democracy. *sigh*
At best, in the words of Third World County’s corollary to Santayana’s Axion, “In a democracy (‘rule by mob’), those who refuse to learn from history will be the majority and will dictate that everyone else suffer for their ignorance.” But the norm is even worse: rule by those who have gulled the illiterate and innumerate into granting them power.