Familiar Words From 1974

I started reading {a history of} π again yesterday. I read this some 12 years ago but wanted to read it again as I am going through some algebra fundamentals helping my daughter with her math exams. Almost 50 years ago, in the preface to the third edition from 1974 author Petr Beckmann wrote the following words that have lost non of their relevance :

“Meanwhile, a disturbing trend away from science and toward the irrational has set in. … The disoriented and gullible flock in droves to the various Maharajas of Mumbo Jumbo. … Technology has wounded affluent intellectuals with the ultimate insult : They cannot understand it any more. … Ignorance, anti-scientific and anti-technology sentiment have always provided the breeding ground for tyrannies in the past. … Those who have not learned the lessons of history are destined to relive it.” Petr Beckmann, Boulder, Colorado, Christmas 1974