Parsing English

When I first read this sentence:

In Modern Fascism Veith relies on Postman to show how electronic media, particularly television, has eroded linear logic, sustained inquiry, tradition, and deferred gratification.

I thought it meant:

In Modern Fascism Veith relies on Postman to show how electronic media, particularly television, has:

• eroded linear logic, 
• sustained inquiry, 
• tradition, and 
• deferred gratification.

It took me a second to figure out that what it meant was:

In Modern Fascism Veith relies on Postman to show how electronic media, particularly television, has eroded:

• linear logic, 
• sustained inquiry, 
• tradition, and 
• deferred gratification.

Which means something completely different. All we would need is an adjective describing tradition to make it completely ambiguous.

From a post by Marcel.