What's sad in this article is that the writer gives us a partial reading of Susan Jacoby's work, The Age of American Unreason, which I, too, recently read. She attacks not only the pundits on the Right, but those on the Left who have both engenered myths of anti-intellectualism. What is really sad is that most common people actually do read a hell of a lot more than either side gives us credit for.
Just look at the economics of bookstores. More books in all branches of knowledge are sold per-capita in our age than in all previous ages of the history of this planet. It's not that we are dumb and stupid, it's that most of us have to work our butts off in low paying jobs for 10-12 hours a day which leaves us very little time to debate the fine points of aesthetics, philosophy, fine art, politics, or any other subject that matters... But does that mean we're dumb? Of course not...
As I've traveled across American over that past eight years as a contractor working in many diverse regions I've found people not only to be intelligent, but also to be active in their local communities trying to do postive things to make a difference. Sure there are those who blow it from time to time, those who choose the easy path of escape into alchohol or drugs, but for each of those there are ten fold who choose to change things for the better. Many small underground magazines attest to the fact that there are diverse ethnic, social, and gender or religious based groups that actively participate in local politics in every town or city in this country.
So when I see pundits on either side decrying the sad state of dumbness in the American people I want to puke, to just slobber all over these pundits and show them a bit of their own medicine.
Jacoby's main argument is that the new Infotainment economics is driving an anti-intellectual wedge into the American social environment that is causing people to drift into lazy styles of play and thinking. Like she says: "I too am nibbling at the edges by talking about the need for political leaders who address Americans as thinking adults; for intellectuals with the will to step up and bring their knowledge, instead of a lust for power, to the public square(p. 315)." For her it is the Infotainment industry that is the passifier of the Amercian Mind, as well as people settling for easier satisfactions in play and mental effort, rather than the hard won battles of intellect and culture that once made our country great, that is brining about this drift into anti-intellectualism at the moment.
Her solution: "If there is to be an alternative to the culture of distraction, it can only be created one family at a time, by parents and citizens determined to preserve a saving remnant of those who prize memory and true learning above all else(p. 316)." Let's hope that might happen...
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branchandroot
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Date: 2008-10-29 06:54 pm (UTC)Just look at the economics of bookstores. More books in all branches of knowledge are sold per-capita in our age than in all previous ages of the history of this planet. It's not that we are dumb and stupid, it's that most of us have to work our butts off in low paying jobs for 10-12 hours a day which leaves us very little time to debate the fine points of aesthetics, philosophy, fine art, politics, or any other subject that matters... But does that mean we're dumb? Of course not...
As I've traveled across American over that past eight years as a contractor working in many diverse regions I've found people not only to be intelligent, but also to be active in their local communities trying to do postive things to make a difference. Sure there are those who blow it from time to time, those who choose the easy path of escape into alchohol or drugs, but for each of those there are ten fold who choose to change things for the better. Many small underground magazines attest to the fact that there are diverse ethnic, social, and gender or religious based groups that actively participate in local politics in every town or city in this country.
So when I see pundits on either side decrying the sad state of dumbness in the American people I want to puke, to just slobber all over these pundits and show them a bit of their own medicine.
Jacoby's main argument is that the new Infotainment economics is driving an anti-intellectual wedge into the American social environment that is causing people to drift into lazy styles of play and thinking. Like she says: "I too am nibbling at the edges by talking about the need for political leaders who address Americans as thinking adults; for intellectuals with the will to step up and bring their knowledge, instead of a lust for power, to the public square(p. 315)." For her it is the Infotainment industry that is the passifier of the Amercian Mind, as well as people settling for easier satisfactions in play and mental effort, rather than the hard won battles of intellect and culture that once made our country great, that is brining about this drift into anti-intellectualism at the moment.
Her solution: "If there is to be an alternative to the culture of distraction, it can only be created one family at a time, by parents and citizens determined to preserve a saving remnant of those who prize memory and true learning above all else(p. 316)." Let's hope that might happen...