Dumbing down

I´ve just read a very interesting article on this concept: " Dumbing Down". It can be related to a huge different ideas. But, in a nutshell, this term is used "to criticise attempts to reach a wider audience no matter the cost". It always involves a complaint about the simplification of our "style of life" and our development as human kind.
In these times, this concept could define the mainstream of our "TV based culture": TV shows full of gossip about Big Brother and the likes, Football (the drug of the people) and so forth.

"Dumbing down is something about freedom and being flexible" Maybe someone could agree with this bullshit when it comes to make escuses about TV shows or his lack of knowledge about basic gramatical rules (maybe because of the SMS)

But my understanding is that there is a big difference between "freedom to do somehting" and "freedom from something". "Freedom from" allows us to do what ever we want. But in fact if you don´t know anything or you are not capable of doing much, all that freedom is for nothing.

On the other hand "Freedom to do something", it is about choice. It is about the power to choose between diferent options. In other words... it is about knowledge (a concept that maybe is losing its meaning)