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Time for reflection, as one enjoys while reading, is increasingly rare.This alone does not explain the active rejection of intellectualism that grips US society more than any other technological culture, however. This book is dry, but full of scholarly insight and compulsively readable. How did the most successful technological society in the world manage to regress to this status. In its level of intellectual curiosity as measured by knowledge of science, geography and even its own history, the USA appears to be clustered with African and Islamic societies rather than its post-industrial peers. On this small detail alone I would take issue with Jacoby.This use of intellectuals for ideological confirmation must stop, argues Jacoby, if intellectuals are to regain a respected position and the apotheosis of the stupid is to be reversed.
US liberals are not immune to junk thought, having cloven to a series of pseudoscientific ideas about education and other social subjects. Stupidity is often deliberate, and the deliberate misuse of intellectual tools to reject reality is a form of deliberate stupidity. As Jacoby describes, the Republicans have rather successfully managed to portray expertise as elitism in a deliberate effort to get the public to reject politically- or religiously-inconvenient science. Rather, she has sought and carefully elucidated historical roots and antecedents for this society of always-on bread-and-circuses connections. Why this should be is not entirely answered by the book, as the anglosphere is without its remit.
Jacoby's book is a cogent and serious look at a subject that could all too easily have been trivialised. Jacoby also covers aspects of modern culture which are not peculiarly American, however, especially the immediacy of visual media, and I suspect that this is where the answer lies. I agree. I would not be so generous. While much of the US public has in a way opted for stupidity through religion, in effect rejecting the whole of modern science in favour of a literalist Biblical model of the world that flatly rejects reality, they are not actually that well-informed about the Bible, either. By using intellectuals as a rubber stamp in this way, the Administration not only belied its false objection to "elitism", it undermined the position of intellectuals in American life.
I would attribute this to stupidity, however, while the behaviour of US conservatives can often only be described as malign. Jacoby's answer includes the malign influence of religious fundamentalism, uniquely a factor in US life; the course taken by politics, with blame accruing to both sides but the balance due to to Republican populist tactics; a cyclical tendency in US life, with intellectualism and respect for science waxing and waning over the decades; technology itself, with a majority of American homes having two or three televisions, programming now actually targetting babies younger than two years and individuals increasingly isolated from discourse in an iPod bubble.Jacoby's book is not at all humorous, but one must occasionally smile at the inconsistencies she uncovers. As the problem in the USA is strongly linked to specifically US historical and political contingencies, as portrayed by Jacoby, this is something of a problem in its own right. Change cannot come only from above, but rationalist policies on education may begin a shift. The signs from Obama are that he is prepared to use lofty rhetoric in public rather than patronising the public as "folks" too stupid to appreciate fine words. The moment, interestingly, may have arrived for America while the rest of the post-industrial world is in decline. A majority of adults cannot name the four Gospels, according to Jacoby, and believe that "God helps those who help themselves" is a Biblical quote.Politically, Jacoby apportions blame to both left and right. The Administration employed intellectuals - Jacoby credits them with being such - such as Wolfowitz purely to provide a patina of intellectual support for the rotting hulk of its religious ideology.
At any rate, Jacoby argues, and shows with examples, that the rhetoric of the new Administration seems to have restored intellectual discourse as a credible way of addressing the public, and that must be a step in the right direction. As the title indicates, the book treats with specifically American forms of unreason, but the problem of public ignorance and junk thinking is fast advancing in the English-speaking world as a whole. At any rate, the Presidency is only the tip of an iceberg floating on a sea of individuals who have no time to read newspapers, who put a TV in their children's room to avoid reading to them and who isolate themselves from conversation behind a portable wall of sound. The signs are that Obama may pursue science-based policies and listen to intellectuals rather than merely hiring those who say what he wants to hear. She argues, fairly, that if they were stupid they would not be so dangerous, as it is an intellectual vocabulary which successfully makes irrationality sound plausible. America may be on the cusp of one of its periodic reversals. She has also addressed solutions. In the United Kingdom, the approach of Tony Blair to managing the media during an election could be summed up in the phrase, "Verbs lose elections." Jacoby lays great stress on the attention-seizing aspect of visual media such as television and the internet, in which a "race to to the bottom" is created as competing information sources vie to shout above the din and keep the user's attention with ever shorter and simpler messages.
Whether the rest of us in the anglosphere can aspire to such hope is a different question.Jacoby is concerned, even contemptuous, but she has not written a crude polemic, and certainly not a hagiography of liberals, who share much of the blame. Anthropogenic warming, evolution, prophylaxis for HIV - a longish and ignoble list of cases is shown where the spoilt fratboys of the Bush Administration successfully played the "elitism" card to undermine rationalist approaches to really serious problems and scientific understanding. No effort was made to draw on contrary opinion to reach better-informed decisions; only confirmation was required.Jacoby credits the likes of Wolfowitz with being intellectuals, despite their rejection of reality-based understanding. One can hope. Thoroughly recommended reading.
This long lament over the decline of intellectual vigor in America had a number of interesting effects on me. It does not quite convince me, however, that science, academia, and secular realism will provide what is needed for individuals to pursue, much less achieve, life, liberty, and happiness.Her judgmental dismissal of new technologies, no matter how well buttressed with examples and reason, left me shaking my head. I felt heartened that someone was raising the flag and sounding the call to start thinking again, and I felt some solace that there still are intellectuals out there, however few and far between, but I also felt my chest swell a bit to be part of that glowing and bright band of individuals who value true dialogue and conversation, who seek understanding and clarity of mind, and who choose to learn because of the shear pleasure of doing so. Rah Rah.Jacoby's piercing and detailed analysis of American history, the movements towards and away from intellectual rigor, and the role of religion and politics in shaping an ignorant culture is impressive. She is missing so much of the power of the internet, for example, that I wonder where she was Googling to in her perusal of blogs and message boards.Her barbed criticism of purveyors of junk thought, junk science, and junk ideas, is brilliant, but then she herself makes some grand pronouncements -- arguing, for the most part, from a position which can only be described as pure rhetoric. This demonstrates that even the brightest and keenest mind finds it hard to stick to evidence based argument.I wish everyone would read this book, but chances are it will be read mostly by other intellectuals who will commiserate and feel a deep twinge of nostalgia.
it is obvious merely by turning on the radio or watching computer news flashes that topics ranging from runaway air balloon frauds to the degree of severity of Tiger Woods' injuries from a night's car episode to the varying number of deaths reported during world events that 'gossip' has replaced thinking. Susan Jacoby's book THE AGE OF AMERICAN UNREASON may anger many readers who identify most closely with the complaints Jacoby observes, but whether the reader agrees with her analysis of the dumbing down of the American mind instilled by the current reliance on twittering, computer blogs, talk show hosts, the shocking statistics about the quality of education let alone the fact the few Americans even read books of any kind, or the demise of real journalism in this country, the writer takes a stance that should serve as a wake-up call. Jacoby warns that we tend to repeat shallow reports instead of thinking and investigating or searching for fact.To quote Jacoby from her introductory comments to this analysis of the Age of American Unreason: 'America is now ill with a powerful mutant strain of intertwined ignorance, anti-rationalism, and anti-intellectualism - as opposed to the recognizable cyclical strains of the past - the virulence of the current outbreak is inseparable from an unmindfulness that is, paradoxically, both aggressive and passive. Often in order to make a point or substantiate a thought the author must overstate the case and perhaps this is the way many readers find Jacoby's writing. But the topics Jacoby discusses, whether in giving examples of the speeches by some of the leaders of the country or analyzing the trends in communication (a shallow repetition of instant word of mouth or blog or twitter). This condition is aggressively promoted by everyone, from politicians to media executives, whose livelihood depends on a public that derives its opinions from sound bites and blogs, and it is passively accepted by a public in thrall to the serpent promising effortless enjoyment form the fruit of the tree of infotainment.' Frightening words, yes, words that anger many readers perhaps, but there is truth among these words and the rest of her book that deserves to be at least considered when we evaluate the present condition of our minds. Grady Harp, November 09
It will doubtless contribute more to the problem than the solution. I am sure most readers will find it self absorbed and conclude if that is the cure I will keep the disease.
However I found getting through the book extraordinarily painful. Susan Jacoby struggled with critical thought.
I bought this book in thorough agreement that my fellow Americans and I need to increase the value we place on knowledge and objectivity. In fact the greatest problem with the book is that over and over again the same message comes through, "everyone needs to think the way I think".
She provided observations that demonstrate the problem but she never delivers any insight. Worse she damns religion, technology and popular culture as the problem and implies that the only solution is that all Americans abandon all forms of media except print and emulate her devotion to history, classic books and classical music.
This book will not stimulate any meaningful debate it is a very poor attempt to cover a serious problem in America. John
Not on par with Richard Hofstadter's classic Anti-Intellectualism in American Life. We may even have to start providing incentives to build and use rational conversation skills. We're never going back in time.
but. Susan provides no solutions. Leftward biased and long-winded.
Second, the average political candidate's soundbite has decreased from 32 to 8 seconds on the nightly news since the 1960's and candidates have adapted to an electorate and news media that lives with short attention spans. Susan Jacoby clearly documents how and why we have lost a common sense of "society" amongst the well-read citizens and why our politics is so polarized. First, the virtual world and its commercialization is too attractive compared with reading the great books and the New York Times on Sunday.
I recommend that those who believe that rational discourse from the American middle is of value need to increase their involvement in education, work, social groups, church and politics as time allows to set an example. I know this is a weak solution, but expect that some kind of change can help us - perhaps social media tools to connect those who actually read books and discuss politics
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