Traditional solutions no longer work. Education, instead of breaking down barriers to continued learning, is teaching young people that their feelings are more important than anything else. “Going to college” is, for many students, just one more exercise in personal self-affirmation. The media, mired in competition at every level, now asks consumers what they’d like to know instead of telling them what’s important. The Internet is a mixed blessing, a well of information poisoned by the equivalent of intellectual sabotage.
