Age of nonsense

Nonsense is booming. The United States has become the world’s largest producer of industrial-strength humbug. Fortunes are made generating absurd and impossible news.

This new industry is the child of the information age. Mass production has been combined with electronic messaging. Fanciful broadcasting fills air time. Fortunes are made by skillful enthusiasts who announce important-sounding rubbish. Huge organizations compete to create new nonsense.

This new age of nonsense comes as a surprise to historians, journalists, politicians and side-street supervisors.

Some years ago, World War II people were labeled The Greatest Generation. We may be The Consternation Generation.

This story was originally published December 28, 2017 at 4:49 PM with the headline "Age of nonsense."