Illiteracy is a weapon. Get a critical mass of the populace to have no interest in Shakespeare, Goethe, Socrates, or Cervantes and these people will find other ways to amuse themselves. Eventually they will amuse themselves to death.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Amusing_Ourselves_to_Death

https://www.health.harvard.edu/blog/why-life-expectancy-in-t...