Reading Is Magic

4 hours ago

The essay discusses the decline of literacy and its potential impact on politics, referencing Alexander Luria's studies showing that literacy fosters abstract thinking, while illiteracy ties cognition to direct sensory experience.
Luria's experiments in Uzbekistan revealed that literate individuals could group shapes geometrically and solve syllogisms, whereas illiterate subjects refused to engage with abstractions, insisting on reality-based reasoning.
Modern trends show declining reading abilities, even among elite students, who struggle with complex texts like Dickens' 'Bleak House' and rely on AI tools, paralleling Luria's findings in pre-literate societies.
The post-literate era may shift politics away from abstract reasoning, leading to tribal or patronage-based conflicts, as seen in polarized gender dynamics and the rise of streamers who use repetitive, oral-style communication.
Historical examples, such as the Soviet mass literacy campaign and the printing press era, illustrate that literacy can also fuel irrational movements, suggesting a post-literate future might involve new forms of madness rooted in digital sensory experiences.

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