I read this last night and it sent shivers down my spine – prophetic!

[freshwest]

38. The problem of home schooling, despite access to the public library in communities or the internet,

and only if the parent is so inclined to stress science, reasoning and history as opposed to religion, is lack of public infrastructure still. Public schools have provided for science laboratories and other ways to test one's ability and desire for critical thinking skills and scientific experimentation. This was the gift of the New Deal, using shared resources to fund the Commons where all could learn.

I was fortunate to grow up in the era of government sponsored R & D, where the knowledge gained was applied universally. The schools I attended were built by the WPA, gorgeous, large building with all kinds of vocational, arts, physical education facilities as well as well-equipped lab classrooms that were designed into the buildings.

Some of the most whacked out wing nuts are the result of home schooling with religious and anti-government overtones, due to isolation and too many times, physical and sexual and even what I'd term religious abuse. These are not producing well rounded individuals who are willing or able to function in an increasingly diverse society. In fact, many are groomed to live their entire lives separate from and in opposition to the larger society. This is where the secessionist and fortress mentality has emerged, with their belief system justifying crimes on the people they do not consider part of their world.

The world that Carl Sagan is describing in the OP is feudal in economic, social and scientific constructions. I want no part of it and it wants no part of me. I am its enemy, the fossil Rush disdains, the evil one Beck warns his benightedly followers about, and among the ones they want to die off, or be killed. No time to rest.