Fahrenheit 451 - Dystopias and Apocalypses - Extra Sci Fi

[@extrahistory]

Fahrenheit 451 is about many things. In Bradbury's younger days, just coming out of the McCarthy era, he said the book was about censorship and book burning. Later in life, he said it was about the dangers of easy entertainment. Let's analyze these viewpoints a little further.

[@pyeitme508]

Please make a video about the Division 2?!

[@pyeitme508]

Or make Ghost Recon Breakpoint video?!

[@lillersox]

Extra Credits and watch the stream.

[@sethleoric2598]

I like how you showed Sandman, that comic is basically a novel with pictures... which is also what comics are

[@madmandrawings2922]

Could you make a video about. I have no moth but I must scream.

[@nathanboucher5375]

"You dont have to burn books to destroy a culture. Just get people to stop reading them." -Ray Bradbury

[@VeryProPlayerYesSir1122]

"You dont have to ban all guns to destroy individual liberty. Just get people to stop buying them due to insane amount of paperwork." -Every anti-gun people

[@goose4919]

Internet Troll I disagree wholeheartedly

[@ryanjapan3113]

Internet Troll what?

[@vgmaster9]

@@VeryProPlayerYesSir1122 "You don't have to outlaw abortion. Just get people to sue the abortion clinics and the mothers." -Every anti-abortion people

[@mrpineapple3942]

@@VeryProPlayerYesSir1122 Why do I see you everywhere?

[@GallowglassVT]

"If you hide your ignorance, no one will hit you and you'll never learn." Best quote from the book.

[@hacim42]

i love that part of F451 where they made airpods but that actually happened

[@Gogobgo]

I renamed my BT headphones "Seashells" because of this. It's wild to think about.

[@biliminsrlar5752]

@@Gogobgo XD

[@sirspirant4016]

It’s actually scary how much from the book came true

[@ecurewitz]

he also predicgted chatrooms and" reality"TV

[@bruhsselsprouts3986]

Would’ve been great if this video came out before my Fahrenheit 451 essay final happened

[@ionitaghiran]

oof

[@charlene...]

Heck. Yes.

[@cinemachild1542]

stuff like this happens to me way too many times

[@flameBMW245]

F

[@z-beeblebrox]

See that's why it's called *Extra Credits* and not just *Credits*

[@andrejg4136]

I love the two-pronged approach to this book. We as a society have to not just fear a government gone rouge, but putting ourselves in straight-jackets because it's 'safer' that way.

[@Lowlandlord]

Little extra relevant with certain state governments banning books and expressing certain things, or dressing certain ways.

[@randominternettoaster7859]

why is the government red in french

[@bugzilla1]

Bradbury himself acknowledged easily accessible media can be fine as long as the content isn't just brainless drech. Hell, He wrote an episode for the Twilight Zone (a show he was a fan of). And he himself grew up on mindless fun fiction like Buck Rodgers and Edgar Rice Burroughs work.

[@ant1carry]

He acknowleded that in Fahrenheit 451 itself.

[@biliminsrlar5752]

In Fahrenheit 451 Faber says Montag exactly that.

[@VeryProPlayerYesSir1122]

"You dont have to ban all guns to destroy individual liberty. Just get people to stop buying them due to insane amount of paperwork." -Every anti-gun people

[@biliminsrlar5752]

@@VeryProPlayerYesSir1122 how tf having guns is individual liberty?But yeah it's true.

[@VeryProPlayerYesSir1122]

@@biliminsrlar5752 having of owning a gun is individual liberty.

[@asterisk4163]

You meant Celsius 233?

[@OverseerMoti]

Or Kelvin 506(.15)?

[@askari0079]

LOL

[@suwinkhamchaiwong8382]

Nice one

[@vidiliblobboop1239]

or texas in winter

[@VeryProPlayerYesSir1122]

"You dont have to ban all guns to destroy individual liberty. Just get people to stop buying them due to insane amount of paperwork." -Every anti-gun people

[@CJGuy01]

Sadly a lot of classical books, books I read as part of my Jr High curriculum have been banned from schools because their content was "offensive". The Adventures Of Huckleberry Finn, To Kill a Mocking Bird, and so on. American Classics that addresses the state of America at their times and gave criticism where criticism was due. Wouldn't be surprised if some schools tried to ban the Holocaust novel Night.

[@RyBrown]

Christian Jones daaaang, where do you go to school. Where I go to school the bigger problem is relying more on technology. Those books are straight classics so that’s really saf

[@fluxuous6907]

I was actually REQUIRED to read to kill a mockingbird and night in middle school

[@CrimsonBlasphemy]

With some of those ban choices I'd want know your geographic location. I could possibly see Huckleberry Finn getting dropped in favor of a modern book, with a modern setting, with similar literary and societal merits. However "To Kill a Mockingbird" is often a target of efforts to ban, and usually in the most racists and bigoted areas of America. Although there are some criticisms to

[@GiordanDiodato]

ironically Fahrenheit 451 is one of the most challenged books due to the cursing.

[@raspberrycrowns9494]

Well to be fair Huckleberry Finn did say the n word a lot

[@akihikosakurai4013]

5:18 he died in 2012 so he definitely knew about Smartphones

[@ranwolf76]

I'm reasonably sure he meant at the time of writing the book

[@Melvinshermen]

Comradestalin 48 he thought that is too Many machines thing

[@atulanand7815]

World did start going weird since 2012

[@bbface21]

"We have to look for the challenges in all of the media we consume" Like seven minute KZbin videos that gave me a whole new perspective on both Bradbury and the Dune series. Excellent work!!!

[@bottasheimfe5750]

Love that mention of Papers, Please. That game sparked a big discussion with my father's side of the family, who grew up in Communist Poland. I really wanted to know if the portrayal of Travel through a totalitarian regime was as oppressive as it's portrayed in Papers, Please. Unfortunately they didn't travel around the Iron Curtain much, but they did share stories of the terrible things the regime did. My grandfather, for example, was a political prisoner for six years. He only got out alive when Reagan took a bunch of Political prisoners as part of a deal with the USSR. That's how my father's family came to America. Actually there was a similar deal for Grandpa to go to Canada Alone, or for the whole family to go to Australia, but New York was closer and more familiar.

[@irondolphin9387]

Bottas Heimfe That is very interesting. Did your grandfather ever go back to visit Poland after the collapse of the USSR?

[@eleSDSU]

Thanks for sharing, our grandparents had quite a ride, mine came from Germany and Poland.

[@bottasheimfe5750]

@@irondolphin9387 he only returned when his brother passed away about 6 years ago. My grandmother lives there now, though. Mostly because the healthcare is better

[@dissonanceparadiddle]

I swear ray Bradbury saw the future he got so many tiny details right like the sea shell earbuds

[@harrisonlee9585]

If there's another season of Extra Sci Fi after this, it'd be great if y'all looked at Rod Serling, Gene Roddenberry, and the screenwriters that got sci-fi into mainstream American television.

[@justinthomas7222]

^^^^^ THIS ^^^^^ THIS ^^^^^ THIS ^^^^^ THIS ^^^^^ THIS ^^^^^ THIS OKAY I'LL STOP NOW.

[@garrettallen7427]

Harrison Lee is also love to see what they could do if they’d cover Philip K. Dick, he’s written some of the most profound and important Sci-fi of the 20th century, like do androids dream of electric sheep and Man in the High Castle, and many Hollywood movies are based off his works like blade runners, a scanners darkly, things like that. I’d love to hear there take on him.

[@barrybend7189]

I would also say look into major examples of Japanese cyberpunk like Battle Angel Alita, Ghost in the Shell and Akira.

[@Rocketboy1313]

+

[@nichsa8984]

@@garrettallen7427 AI everything was removed economy mass growth

[@MANA-YOOD-SUSHAI-1]

“Where they have burned books, they will end in burning human beings.” ~Heinrich Heine

[@furyberserk]

I'm just thinking knd.

[@VeryProPlayerYesSir1122]

"You dont have to ban all guns to destroy individual liberty. Just get people to stop buying them due to insane amount of paperwork." -Every anti-gun people

[@RadikAlice]

Sounds about right, in the days of Joan of Arc that weren't all that many books. But in the end, every person is a collection of ideas and images in some way

[@mariaprieto6679]

Esalinéa se la atribuye a Nostradamus

[@jedrekjanik4173]

Montag be like:

[@SirSoliloquy]

I’m pretty sure there’s a quote in Fahrenheit 451 where one of the characters outright states that the TVs *could* have better programs, but they don’t. So I feel like you misinterpreted Bradbury’s point about easy-to-consume media. Keep in mind that this book was written in the 50s. There was barely anything challenging on TV back then. Bradbury went on to host a TV show of his own in an attempt to combat the dumbing down of media that he saw, so it’s clearly not the medium itself that he had a problem with.

[@Crosis101]

SirSoliloquy well also he was confronting “reader’s digest” and “paper back” culture which we don’t have in the same way anymore. Paperback copies now a days are exact 1:1 of the hardback, in the time when this was written they could re-edit the book so they would be shorter or easier to read...

[@Icebrick2]

You're correct, I don't have the book on hand, but I'm pretty certain Faber mentions how television could have depth, but it's unwanted.

[@ezaf-bayleaf9043]

I'll throw my 2 cents in and say this- 451 is important for one really special reason: Totalitarianism doesn't magically appear, it has to start as a popular movement so if you want to stop the events the you read in these dystopian novels you have to make sure that you're their to counter it when it starts.

[@GiordanDiodato]

it's basically 1984

[@kohakuaiko]

Interestingly, Bradbury authorized a graphic novel adaptation of this book.

[@eleSDSU]

Maybe he didn't object to the format of the media being consumed and the "ease" he talked about was about the cultural effort required by the media to be enjoyed, the difference between laughing at Jackass versus Mel Brooks.

[@KitchenSinkSoup]

The comics in the book don't have words, they're just pictures of explosions and action. He didn't object to comics as an idea, just the way they were mostly being used at the time, for cheap entertainment instead of exploring issues like many do now (he said the same for T.V.).

[@Kobolds_in_a_trenchcoat]

@@KitchenSinkSoup thanks for the explanation, I hate when people talk about comics as if they are intellectually void. Interestingly, I actually think wordless comics could be pretty good and engaging.

[@AverytheCubanAmerican]

I read that book in school two years ago, it's a very interesting book

[@bubbalucas4036]

Remember me, from The Armchair Historian's stream?

[@bayern1445]

*You cant escape me* I like your politics

[@SirDavid290]

Me too.

[@SimonRaahauge1973]

The movie isn't bad either.

[@thatgui88]

I found the concepts interesting but i found the book annoying to read near the end of the book.

[@theowl2044]

In the past century, many have tried telling us where our world is headed. Yet nobody ever listens.

[@carloscaro9121]

Bradbury was also wrong in treating the modern world as uniquely full of low-brow, cheap media. There were always penny dreadfuls or bawdies or burlesques or Tijuana Bibles or cheap theater or traveling performers or drinking songs or bread and circuses and so on.

[@MadnerKami]

Bradbury strikes me as someone who'd oppose the printing press if he lived in that time or the invention of writing, back when telling stories was the only way to tell them to other people.

[@GiordanDiodato]

low brow and cheap media was always there.

[@nichsa8984]

@@MadnerKami the future disaster level of dystopian=dragon can you survive in future where everything is a futuristic automation AI advanced

[@GiordanDiodato]

plus for every TTG or Fanboy and Chum-chum, there's a Steven Universe

[@RAID3N_2013]

Now I see where the movie Equilibrium got it's inspiration from.

[@SimonRaahauge1973]

Darkness comes in many forms. The worst forms are those disguised as benevolence.

[@TheROOTminus1]

I used to think that film was an imitation of 1984 (in the sense of sincere flattery) till I found out about F451. To my mind it's a near perfect amalgamation of the two

[@sirfredrin6302]

I would say Kerbal Space Program makes Rocket Science, the thing that people compare to being complex and difficulty, interesting and easier to understand. This is just one example of an easy to consume media with worthwhile content.

[@madmandan1935]

Don't forget some other amazing games such as Valiant Hearts.

[@nullpoint3346]

Bold of him to assume people like the cover.

[@totallycrazystudios1801]

Referring back to what you were talking about with media, people often scoff at kid shows yet they can be so deep and teach lessons that you wouldn't get other places. One of my favorite shows, a TV7 cartoon, often shows the main character struggle with morality. Sometimes picking or wanting to pick the mean or wrong things. But often when she does it shows it as a bad thing. But it also shows her putting aside differences and being nice to people who were mean to her. Such as apologizing to her bully when she took her phone or apolozing and offering friendship to a girl who she humiliated because she jealous of her flirting with the guy she like. She tries to be nice to the mean girls. Most media shows people being hurting those who hurt them.

[@pinkdogroslyn8832]

Bradbury’s works are iconic to me. I hope one day I may be able to make books as amazing as his. Thank you guys for covering this stuff.

[@antipoti]

The book Fahrenheit 451 being censored is the biggest irony that could happen to it.

[@amanzeihedioha]

Jeff Smith’s Bone. Thank you😉

[@whatstuntman4876]

I saw Bone and had a wave of nostalgia come in. Then sadness.

[@schnitzelpaladin3718]

@@whatstuntman4876 your papers, please

[@pointly]

"Where they burn books, they will, in the end, burn human beings too." -Christian Johann Heinrich Heine

[@schlaier]

I'm not sure but I thought I heard you guys putting forward the very logic that leads to censorship for just a second

[@MarcusKrestaevus]

Thanks, I really needed this, my teacher has made our entire class to read this book, the helped me understand this book Thank you extra history

[@AsiniusNaso]

“You don't have to burn books to destroy a culture. Just get people to stop reading them.” -Ray Bradbury

[@teletummy]

I recently read Fahrenheit 451 and loved it! I haven’t read the first 450 though, looking forward to it

[@theminnesotan592]

Important note: Most of the buildings are completely fire proof in the world presented in 451. So what burns is the items in them not the building itself.

[@Alorand]

Funny thing is that the title is a mistake. Paper ignites at Celsius 451 not Fahrenheit. Bradbury asked a scientist who told him 451 degrees without clarifying that as a scientist he was using Celsius.

[@redkingrauri3769]

I wonder how Bradbury would feel about audio books. Easy to consume and they let you do more than one thing, but the book remains (usually) all intact.

[@redkingrauri3769]

@@Highice007 XKCD had a comic where some book burners bought kindle editions of all the ones they wanted to burn because they were cheaper. They died of toxic fume inhalation. And nothing of value was lost.

[@seanehle8323]

I'm so tickled to see the Sandman by Neil Gaiman in your very limited list of notable texts.

[@demono6708]

"comics are allowed" *laughs in Alan Moore*

[@dragma907]

Good to know this channel is a subversive element. Countering arguments with arguments is the cornerstone of western thought, not a "naive argument".

[@tetrapack24]

So what is your response to the problem they've raised with this idea in the video?

[@dragma907]

@@tetrapack24 Stop radical leftists from dictating who can and can't speak or have an opinion.

[@Horzuhammer]

Oh man, respects for referencing *Bone!* I used to just gobble up those books when I was a kid. Hardly heard 'em even mentioned since the '90s though. Really want to revisit the series now.

[@plackt]

Woo! BONE comic at 6:18! I loved those books.

[@l3ftward]

i love how i ended up understanding the book's premise and forming some opinions of my own without you ever actually explaining what the book's about /gen

[@MK-dr7dx]

Thank you for bringing up the point that the medium content exists in does not determine its quality. Comic books, radio, television, video games, etc. can be so much more than just mindless entertainment, so why are they still used as scapegoats for the deterioration of society? It's not like stupid books don't exist.

[@seanatsheezy]

Paradise lost was one of the works that got me thinking whether or not "evil" is something we humans are actually capable of. Evil actions sure but can evil intent exist? Disorder of the mind (mental illness), desperation from your environment (bankrupt) or a genuine belief that what you are doing is "good" (religious extremists)? Can these three factors provide a better reason for evil actions than simply "they are evil"? Can any natural creature be evil?

[@neuralkernel]

"The medium is the message." - Marshall McLuhan

[@openthinker6562]

Keep up the great work on amazing titles! Do you plan to make episodes on another type of genre? How about zombies, and their evolution in entertainment (from slow walking bodies in the original John Romero series to fast, unstoppable hordes like in WWZ, and different forms like from the Resident Evil series of games)?

[@jaymobb6025]

And the wildfire virus in the walking dead, and all of the other viruses

[@10gamer64]

The zombies in wwz are the classic ones

[@joonseolee7005]

I always love the start of Extra Credits. Extra Credit is the best!!!!

[@joshuajordan6278]

Appropriate that this comes out when I'm in the middle of rewatching Code Geass. Definitely quality material

[@ryl0_or934]

Being in the middle of my replay of Spec Ops the Line, I appreciate your viewpoint on forms and content of media

[@GiordanDiodato]

it's a shame that game didn't do well sales wise, but that's what happens when you try something different and question everything.

[@lordinquisitorjohn1357]

We literally just did this for school I love this book so much. Thr movie is good to.

[@johnnymechavez429]

Did you use heavy flamer as you burn those heretic books?

[@lordinquisitorjohn1357]

@@johnnymechavez429 HA Ha Ha that's funny of course not we exterminatused the planet.

[@DeadBaron]

Now it's coming true, but the burnings take place digitally.

[@nichsa8984]

@@adameichelberger642 very not easy sale on disturbing too much

[@DocFlamingo]

This is golden; where the utter lack of self-awareness of this channel truly shines.

[@Nerdnumberone]

I can only imagine the sorts of metaphors and hidden meanings those radical bibliophiles would sneak into various mediums to get around the censors. Humans are surprisingly adaptable and good at finding loopholes.

[@steggieweggie]

Shout out to illustrator for the Bones cameo. Not enough people have read that series

[@jamesbernald2850]

The existence of TikTok partially proves what Bradbury was thinking.

[@DekuOfPower]

Honestly this season is some of the most interesting stuff I've seen from you guys. Excellent work all around!

[@1Maklak]

Thing is, Guy Montag did become antisocial and wrapped from reading all those books he hoarded. His wife even complained to her friends before his arrest that all he did recently was to read and avoid talking to her.

[@bobthecopywriter]

PLEASE tell me that the shot of a book labeled “Discworld,” means Extra Credits will focus on Terry Pratchett soon!

[@sonofthewolfguardianofthef1214]

4:30 imagine being the editor who read through the book then had a bunch of people bust his door down telling him to take some of the parts out

[@shawnheatherly]

This is why games that give me pause and make me examine them in a different light are often the ones that stick out the most.

[@SoupSaladSandwhich]

As someone that finds it very hard to read this really helped with my understanding of the book. Thanks!

[@gmosphere]

1:53 Its weird that Bradbury dissed comics. Ironically my first introduction to Ray Bradbury was a paperback reprint of EC Comics' Bradbury adaptations

[@lukaslambs5780]

I just finished this book as an audiobook and the book does briefly specify that there can be worthwhile stories/ideas found even in new age media!

[@Cirnenric]

1. Ironically as a science fiction writer Bradbury disliked and avoided technology. He had a deep suspicion. 2. Being critical of everything isn’t always a good. There is value in ideals.

[@ethanonianwa2967]

This was honestly one of my favorite books in high school.

[@johnstuartkeller5244]

How much longer before sensitivity readers rewrite Bradbury's book, burning its meaning and impact with invisible fire?

[@georgewilliams8448]

Thank you for another informative and well presented video!

[@patrickblanchette4337]

5:01 He wasn’t wrong to be worried. Cellphone while driving (somewhat close to this example and something we are all guilty of) leads to a lot of deaths each year. Let’s not forget that not paying attention to one’s surroundings can be disastrous even when walking.

[@seanosullivan5013]

I love the papers please take and the bone graphic novels! Nice reference!

[@player1ready664]

I have been waiting for this episode since extra sci fi was announced

[@alphacentari555]

its crazy how accurate this book is too present day

[@Prich319]

Ray Bradbury would be disgusted by what's going on nowadays.

[@SalamanderMagic]

Woah, I was supposed to finish this book for class by tomorrow. What a coincidence!

[@kchishol1970]

So, Ray Bradbury equated comics with illiteracy in Fahrenheit 451? That's really rich considering he didn't mind EC Comics adapting his stories into their SF comics once the publisher acknowledged his work and paid him.

[@thescottishgiant855]

I only watched your history video until now it's amazing

[@tommykarrick9130]

That ending feels like a hint at some grand extra crossover I can see looming in the distance an extra credistori-fi where they smash extra credits, extra history, and extra sci-fi together and show the story of someone who made a sci-fi game that impacted the genre

[@friedrichkurth5844]

You stated that fascism to a certain extent came from publications being unchecked. I think that’s a dangerous idea because who knows what will be called the next „Wrong“ publication

[@XX-sp3tt]

I don't remember comics from my reading, nor do I remember porn. And the 'interactive' TV was the wife paying extra for the actors to say the wife's name during the show (like the hundreds of others with her name) and her saying a line when they looked at the camera and a light flashed. And Montag calling her out on barely having a clue on what the characters were even supposed to be to each other, or what their motives or goals were supposed to be. The Family being a shallow soap opera.

[@dalamardlight2060]

The comic books and porn were mentioned a few times. Beatty's talk about minorities and the reason for the book burnings mentions them for example.

[@timostockmann7712]

Great video. Lots of truth spoken

[@randallpcrittenden]

This video is very well done, as is all of your stuff, but I must make an observation about your ending spiel - you keep using the grammatically incorrect "mediums". The plural of "medium" is "media". It's an artefact of the Latin 2nd declension neuter endings.

[@chindanaipornsing9033]

Quick, what’s the etymologically correct plural form of octopus?

[@randallpcrittenden]

@@chindanaipornsing9033 Octopodes

[@sergiorosales8658]

At 4:50 the argument seems reductive as Bradbury addresses this exact point when professor Faber explains how TV's could also convey the same nuance as books but they lacked the "quality" and "texture". This not being addressed in the video makes me question the approach by calling the author "heniously wrong"

[@semietaa]

Outstanding and unbiased statement regarding the contentd delivery mediums and them being not inherently related to the quality of the contentg. Great video!

[@justinmaitland7335]

These books, how ironic, were supposed to be warnings, not guides.

[@LazyVik05]

I love this book

[@jacobali333]

Celsius 233*

[@bradwatson1142]

The sequel Facebook 451 is better

[@Gekiko7167]

*I see you are a man culture as well* I am talking for your blood angel symbol.

[@stantrien8106]

@@Gekiko7167 AVE IMPERATOR!!! Gloria in Excelsis Terra!!!

[@MrMeme2006]

What

[@nichsa8984]

@@Gekiko7167 where information is a brainwashed

[@draconicworkshop5679]

I just wanted to say that in your extra sci fi all episodes play list you have earth abides appear twice.

[@hanniballary]

Great video. I would say one of your best.

[@toxictransgender5920]

I actually have an exam about this soon so thank you so much

[@SweatierAcorn]

but... it's summer

[@emutv4100]

@@SweatierAcorn do you have exams other times?

[@SweatierAcorn]

@@emutv4100 during school

[@floatytrouty]

Bradbury warned us about TikTok

[@ellugerdelacruz2555]

And Cancel Culture...

[@typograf62]

Some years ago a young man, a petty criminal, turned terrorist and attacked a meeting of a carricature artist. He killed one man, not the intended target. Then he killed a guard at the local synagogue - and disappeared into the night. The media had non-stop coverage, reporters running around in the dark city and reporting rumours and smalltalk. I also watched - but with a weird deja-vue feeling. And then I rememebred the scene in 451 where Montag is hunted by "The Hound", a killer robot, and the tv-stations give the same coverage of that hunt. The young man was shot in the early morning.

[@IzzyOrnitier]

Loved this episode!

[@aria5614]

I totally agree on the dumbing down bit. There used to be great shows on Cartoon Network: Johnny Quest, Secret Saturdays, the original Ben 10 and Ben 10 Alien Force, and Generator Rex, among others, were genuinely great and thoughtful shows with some light actioney fun. Now that same channel has jokes that honestly are inappropriate even for their intended age group. And their adult swim has always been ugly brain dead trash with the odd exception, though usually those come from other stations. Like King of the Hill, which originated from Fox. So... yeah. We really don't have to look far for examples of that going on today. I blame corporate greed's Quantity over Quality approach.

[@White_Anchor]

This video got recommended to me when I ordered the book online

[@nachorodrigueze9197]

im gonna start using these videos as book recommendations

[@martinneumeyer9282]

'Prey World' by A. Merow is also a great dystopian series from Germany. You should know it

[@XX-sp3tt]

Ya know, whenever I've actually read the books you review, I can't but notice how "off" your reviews and analysis of them tend to be.

[@profeseurchemical]

medium is the message, ie how you present content is the quality of the content

[@dtindall23]

I really don't think media is easier understand today then earlier. We're all the same

[@nantukoprime]

If we aren't taught the value of the pursuit of knowledge or intellectual curiosity, then the assumed knowledge of the average citizen will continue to lower. I was in school during a period when the goal of journalistic writing went from a 7th grade reading level to a 4th grade reading level.