“Professor Jacek Dabala’s short polemic, A Pre-Collapse Cure for Stupidity, serves as

a straightforward, blunt instrument intended to jar us out of our collective stupor

in the face of catastrophe. Squarely taking on critical, timely issues such as climate

change, democracy, populism, and the state of journalism, Dabala deploys a provocative,

untimely language intended to persuasively argue that our present world is

the outcome of a mass stupefaction of our own making.

Professor Richard Baxstrom, University of Edinburgh

“Do we need an informed public and knowledgeable narrators making sense of

things at a time of great complexity and uncertainty? We do. But as Jacek Dabala

points out in his engaging new book, the globe is facing endangered democracies,

empowered politicians drawn to totalitarianism and journalists lacking the skills to

respond. Chief among Dabala’s necessary conclusions: We need better education

teaching “the meaning and real value of democracy and freedom.” And we need it

now. Before it’s too late.”

Professor Steven Beschloss, Arizona State University

“Born of frustration and an awareness of impending climate disaster, in this short

book Jacek Dabala sets out his sense of the whole problem. Dabala reveals a vicious

and self-reinforcing cycle of propaganda and stupidity built of short-sighted, selfserving

or outright malevolent voices in politics and the media.”

Professor Nicholas J. Cull, University of Southern California

“In these provocative and timely essays, Jacek Dabala issues a clarion call to educators,

journalists, and politicians to address the major crises facing the world today

by ending the “circle of stupidity” that perpetuates bad governance and misinformation

with devastating consequences.”

Professor Diana Owen, Georgetown University