• October 5, 2014

17. BAT Travel : Does travel broaden the mind, or just confirm prejudices? [proposed by Thor]

Aus­tralians trav­el quite a lot inter­na­tion­al­ly, most Amer­i­cans very lit­tle. How well is inter­na­tion­al tourism expe­ri­ence of Aus­tralians reflect­ed in a greater tol­er­ance of oth­er ways of life?

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16. BAT Is the “white noise” of daily media distraction deliberate social control, or just modernity out of control? [proposed by Thor]

Every­one has only 24 hours in a day. In many coun­tries the sheer strug­gle to sur­vive occu­pies most wak­ing hours. In some oth­ers, any “free think­ing time” is care­ful­ly manip­u­lat­ed by state direct­ed activ­i­ties, pro­pa­gan­da and cen­sor­ship. A pos­si­ble third mod­el is that rul­ing elites and gov­ern­ments may pre­vent crit­i­cism by dis­tract­ing the main pop­u­la­tion…

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