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As expected, this book was very interesting, insightful, and relevant to our world today. I felt Sagan's passion emanating from the pages, and it has given me even an even greater motivation to pursue the goal I've been chasing for the past 3 years, which is to be educated, willing to question authority whatever form it takes, and to engage my critical faculties and be able to form my own opinions. It was Carl Sagan that showed me the path in 2016 when I read his book Pale Blue Dot, which was the first science book I've ever read, and now, three years later, I know more about the world around me yet I am acutely aware of how ignorant I am and always will be.

I wish that more people would read this book.

Ethnocentrism, xenophobia and nationalism are these days rife in many parts of the world. Government repression of unpopular views is still widespread. False or misleading memories are inculcated. For the defenders of such attitudes, science is disturbing. It claims access to truths that are largely independent of ethnic or cultural biases. By its very nature, science transcends national boundaries. Put scientists working in the same field of study together in a room and even if they share no common spoken language, they will find a way to communicate. Science itself is a transnational language. Scientists are naturally cosmopolitan in attitude and are more likely to see through efforts to divide the human family into many small and warring factions. 'There is no national science,' said the Russian playwright Anton Chekhov, 'just as there is no national multiplication table.'

The bits about Thomas Jefferson were new to me so I am going to make sure I read some of his work.

"Jefferson was a student of history - not just the compliant and safe history that praises our own time or country or ethnic group, but the real history of real humans, our weaknesses as well as our strengths. History taught him that the rich and powerful will steal and oppress if given half a chance. He described the governments of Europe, which he saw at first hand as the American ambassador to France. Under the pretence of government, he said, they had divided their nations into two classes: wolves and sheep.
Jefferson taught that every government degenerates when it is left to the rulers alone, because rulers - by the very act of ruling - misuse the public trust. The people themselves, he said, are the only prudent repository of power.
But he worried that the people - and the argument goes back to Thucydides and Aristotle - are easily misled. So he advocated safeguards, insurance policies. One was the constitutional separation of powers; accordingly, various groups, some pursuing their own selfish interests, balance one another, preventing any one of them from running away with the country: the Executive, Legislative and Judicial Branches; the House and the Senate; the States and the Federal Government. He also stressed, passionately and repeatedly, that it was essential for the people to understand the risks and benefits of government, to educate themselves, and to involve themselves in the political process. Without that, he said, the wolves will take over. Here's how he put it in Notes on Virginia, stressing how the powerful and unscrupulous find zones of vulnerability they can exploit:
In every government on earth is some trace of human weakness, some germ of corruption and degeneracy, which cunning will discover and wickedness insensibly open, cultivate and improve. Every government degenerates when trusted to the rulers of the people alone. The people themselves therefore are its only safe depositories. And to render even them safe, their minds must be improved . . ."

Recommended for everyone.