The Age of American Unreason

[WVUforREDSKINS]

I hear it its very good and highlights the consequences of our stupidity.

I am gonna get this book. Even though it confirms what I have already known, it looks like a good read.

http://www.susanjacoby.com/

THE AGE OF AMERICAN UNREASON

This impassioned, tough-minded work of contemporary history paints a disturbing portrait of a mutant strain of public ignorance, anti-rationalism, and anti-intellectualism that has developed over the past four decades and now threatens the future of American democracy. Combining historical analysis with contemporary observation, Susan Jacoby dissects a culture at odds with America’s heritage of Enlightenment reason and with modern knowledge and science. With mordant wit, the author offers an unsparing indictment of the ways in which dumbness has been defined downward throughout American society—on the political right and the left. America’s endemic anti-intellectual tendencies have been exacerbated by a new species of semiconscious anti-rationalism, feeding on and fed by a popular culture of video images and unremitting noise that leaves no room for contemplation or logic

click for more...

[ChiefBigMeat]

Thanks for the link.

I remember seeing an interview with her and meant to check it out, but forgot the name.

[ChocolateCitySkin]

I'm going to check this out -- should be an interesting read.

[Jumbo]

This is the writer that Smoot Point Really got all riled about in another thread. He described her as "a self-admitted atheist", a phrase I still love.

Prepare to be boarded!

[ChocolateCitySkin]

This is the writer that Smoot Point Really got all riled about in another thread. He described her as "a self-admitted atheist", a phrase I still love.

Prepare to be boarded!

Kinda weird that shes an atheist I heard her yapping about the four gospels and blah blah genesis this and that on tv the other day. She just stated that 2/3s of Americans didn't know what they were but kinda weird thing to bring up as an atheist.

[CurseReversed]

No matter how fat, lazy and ignorant we look, I believe americans will always be genetic sleeping giants. The majority of our population has just been tranquilized by decades of entertainment overload, decadence, and easy living. If a worthy occasion were to arise, I think you would see the same great and honorable traits that enabled our ancestors to turn this country into the great nation that it is today, reveal themselves again in their descendents...us.

Probably to the unfortunate surprise of whoever chose to rely on their perception of our current state of "unreason", as a reason to initiate such an occasion.

[WVUforREDSKINS]

No matter how fat, lazy and ignorant we look, I believe americans will always be genetic sleeping giants. The majority of our population has just been tranquilized by decades of entertainment overload, decadence, and easy living. If a worthy occasion were to arise, I think you would see the same great and honorable traits that enabled our ancestors to turn this country into the great nation that it is today, reveal themselves again in their descendents...us.

Probably to the unfortunate surprise of whoever chose to rely on their perception of our current state of "unreason", as a reason to initiate such an occasion.

Bad genetic sleeping giants. I don't know man. I don't think we will ever have a generation as great as, say my grandparents generation.

How great of a society can we produce when music is run by corporations and the choices no TV are watching people pick numbered cases, see adults that are dumber than 5th graders, or watching fat people get on a scale to see how much weight they have lost.

China will be number one in ten years, and deservingly so.

[#98QBKiller]

Bad genetic sleeping giants. I don't know man. I don't think we will ever have a generation as great as, say my grandparents generation.

How great of a society can we produce when music is run by corporations and the choices no TV are watching people pick numbered cases, see adults that are dumber than 5th graders, or watching fat people get on a scale to see how much weight they have lost.

China will be number one in ten years, and deservingly so.

I think it's up to our generation to raise our kids with a better work ethic and teach them to be skeptical of certain things (like the mainstream media) if we want to see things change.

[33]

I think it's up to our generation to raise our kids with a better work ethic and teach them to be skeptical of certain things (like the mainstream media) if we want to see things change.

But I want to change the fat, lazy, dumb peoples kids. How do I do that?

[#98QBKiller]

But I want to change the fat, lazy, dumb peoples kids. How do I do that?

Kidnap them and put them in woodchippers? :whoknows:

[twa]

But I want to change the fat, lazy, dumb peoples kids. How do I do that?

Quit feeding and enabling them?

[Bang]

Bad genetic sleeping giants. I don't know man. I don't think we will ever have a generation as great as, say my grandparents generation.

How great of a society can we produce when music is run by corporations and the choices no TV are watching people pick numbered cases, see adults that are dumber than 5th graders, or watching fat people get on a scale to see how much weight they have lost.

China will be number one in ten years, and deservingly so.

And in that generation corporations decided what music you could listen to even more than it is now, artistic freedom was unheard of unless you followed the prescribed trend of the day... the program choices on radio included such luminescence as "Amos and Andy", the government encouraged everyone to smoke, and the overwhelming majority of the country back then were lucky to graduate high school much less go to college. Never mind that they believed women weren't smart enough to vote and that black people would give them cooties if they drank from the same fountain.

So while you wax poetic about how great those days of perfectly formed physical specimens, high education and moral fiber, realize you're dreaming about a fairy tale that didn't exist.

China, who you so ignorantly say "deserves" to be the largest economy in the world, is less than 20 years removed from crushing peaceful protesters with tanks. They are currently crushing perhaps the most peaceful people on earth with tanks, and have been "ethnically cleansing" Tibet for decades. They achieve their low manufacturing costs by what we would consider slave labor in this country. They enact very little pollution control and are poisoning themselves at a rate that would make our worst polluting days look like breaths of fresh air. Their factories dump toxins in their water at such alarming rates that villages and even entire cities downstream from some plants have days in which they can't drink any water due to the chemical content dumped in it. (Last year in fact a large city had a crisis in which a chemical company poisoned the river and no one could use the water for several weeks until the local gov't decided enough of the poison had drifted downstream and it was OK to drink.)

Their government is nothing but corrupt. Local officials live like feudal lords, and those who live andc work in their provinces live like serfs.

For all your disgust at our country, you should maybe open your eyes to a lot of the rest of the world, then get back to me on how bad you think we are in comparison.

Familiarity breeds contempt, and it is disheartening to see such contempt for our country. You may not agree with everything we do, but your sense of disgust towards we fat morons who allow corporations to lead us around is narrow minded at best. If you're going to think that about your neighbors and yourself, you should do a little research into those you're dreamily holding up as better than us.

I think you'd perhaps gain a perspective on just how good you have it, and just how much opportunity is available to you. Opportunity you "deserve" if you make something of it.

~Bang

[Smoot Point Really]

This is the writer that Smoot Point Really got all riled about in another thread. He described her as "a self-admitted atheist", a phrase I still love.

Prepare to be boarded!

OK, so I "mangled" the words... I do think faster than most of you, but the problem is that I type even faster. She admits that she is an atheist which does make her believe that what ails America and needs to be cured is our religion. This pretty much means that "intellectualism" means freeing your mind from tradition and religion. Know what I "mean"? America really is "mean"... See? I do type faster than I think.

What struck me about her other "article" was that she was talking about how people only listen to viewpoints that support their own and her proof of that was that very few people actually came to her lecture. Most people would view that as a sign that they were either wrong (or at least unpopular)... Like most "liberals", she blames society for her own problems.

[Bang]

... I do think faster than most of you.

Wow.

Pardon me, your eminence.

Apparently as long as you don't waste time considering anything but your own razor thin view, you can make excellent time.

~Bang

[Smoot Point Really]

Wow.

Pardon me, your eminence.

Apparently as long as you don't waste time considering anything but your own razor thin view, you can make excellent time.

~Bang

I have a better sense of humor than some of you too.

In addition, my views are razor thin because they are sharpened.

[Corcaigh]

I don't buy the premise.

In the last decade fundamentalists and evangelicals have been more political and had success in getting their point of view across with the GW Bush administrations. This hasn't necessarily led to a dumbing down of the debate but it has polarized it. But no matter who ends up in the White House I don't expect this to continue.

While there is a segment of the population, fed on reality TV, and taking the easiest college courses, who lack skills to be of much value to the economy, there is a much more pronounced achievement culture to part of ociety that certainly didn't exist in my childhood.

Thinking back to my youth and what it took to be the best in high school, my own teen daughter and many of her peers are way ahead of that in terms of academic and social accomplishment. They are way more informed politically than I was in my youth.

[Bang]

In addition, my views are razor thin because they are sharpened.

When you can fit your views into one of these

that isn't surprising...

~Bang

[PeterMP]

I don't buy the premise.

In the last decade fundamentalists and evangelicals have been more political and had success in getting their point of view across with the GW Bush administrations. This hasn't necessarily led to a dumbing down of the debate but it has polarized it. But no matter who ends up in the White House I don't expect this to continue.

While there is a segment of the population, fed on reality TV, and taking the easiest college courses, who lack skills to be of much value to the economy, there is a much more pronounced achievement culture to part of ociety that certainly didn't exist in my childhood.

Thinking back to my youth and what it took to be the best in high school, my own teen daughter and many of her peers are way ahead of that in terms of academic and social accomplishment. They are way more informed politically than I was in my youth.

The elite today are more elite than ever across the board, including education. Those that are motivated and have the ability get more advanced topics and more diverse topics earlier.

I'm not sure the middle is as strong as it has been in the past.

[Dan T.]

And in that generation corporations decided what music you could listen to even more than it is now, artistic freedom was unheard of unless you followed the prescribed trend of the day... the program choices on radio included such luminescence as "Amos and Andy", the government encouraged everyone to smoke, and the overwhelming majority of the country back then were lucky to graduate high school much less go to college. Never mind that they believed women weren't smart enough to vote and that black people would give them cooties if they drank from the same fountain.

So while you wax poetic about how great those days of perfectly formed physical specimens, high education and moral fiber, realize you're dreaming about a fairy tale that didn't exist.

China, who you so ignorantly say "deserves" to be the largest economy in the world, is less than 20 years removed from crushing peaceful protesters with tanks. They are currently crushing perhaps the most peaceful people on earth with tanks, and have been "ethnically cleansing" Tibet for decades. They achieve their low manufacturing costs by what we would consider slave labor in this country. They enact very little pollution control and are poisoning themselves at a rate that would make our worst polluting days look like breaths of fresh air. Their factories dump toxins in their water at such alarming rates that villages and even entire cities downstream from some plants have days in which they can't drink any water due to the chemical content dumped in it. (Last year in fact a large city had a crisis in which a chemical company poisoned the river and no one could use the water for several weeks until the local gov't decided enough of the poison had drifted downstream and it was OK to drink.)

Their government is nothing but corrupt. Local officials live like feudal lords, and those who live andc work in their provinces live like serfs.

For all your disgust at our country, you should maybe open your eyes to a lot of the rest of the world, then get back to me on how bad you think we are in comparison.

Familiarity breeds contempt, and it is disheartening to see such contempt for our country. You may not agree with everything we do, but your sense of disgust towards we fat morons who allow corporations to lead us around is narrow minded at best. If you're going to think that about your neighbors and yourself, you should do a little research into those you're dreamily holding up as better than us.

I think you'd perhaps gain a perspective on just how good you have it, and just how much opportunity is available to you. Opportunity you "deserve" if you make something of it.

~Bang

Post of the day, Bang. This country ain't perfect, but it's still the best in the world.

[Smoot Point Really]

When you can fit your views into one of these...

that isn't surprising...

~Bang

I've heard pictures say a thousand words, but that doesn't mean you have to depend solely on a picture to speak for you. Come on, let's make up! You aren't that "unreasonable" that we can't throw friendly banter about (notice the segue)...

[Smoot Point Really]

BTW, Bang... It was a very good post and well thought out. I didn't say that I think faster than "all", just most. I didn't agree with everything, but there is no reason to get picky. Kudos. Here are a few thoughts that may or may not be an issue with anyone in particular:

1) Everyone is biased... Bias, when applied correctly, is a very healthy thing.

2) There is a tensity toward questioning as being "noble" or "intellectual" and following as being "stupid". This is basically pushed by people like Madam Jacoby. I believe that you question, then when you are satisfied you follow whether it be a tradition or a thought or a person. The backlash against tradition, especially religious tradition goes back at least to the French "Enlightenment"/Protestant Reformation or the Great Schism, not the Vietnam War.

3) "Elitism" is just another word for "Pride"... Some would also call it "Folly".

[Bang]

I've heard pictures say a thousand words, but that doesn't mean you have to depend solely on a picture to speak for you. Come on, let's make up! You aren't that "unreasonable" that we can't throw friendly banter about (notice the segue)...

I'm really just playing around. Your post put the pencil sharpener in my head and i couldn't resist.

If I got seriously disgusted with you, I'd have a much different tone. And believe me, that doesn't happen very easily. I actually agree with some things you write about,, but you lose me on the religion thing.

And I'm OK to debate with you on it without anyone getting upset.

~Bang

[headexplode]

I saw Jacoby interviewed on Bill Moyers recently, and I thought she brought up some interesting points, but I don't know that the last few decades have been any more or less reasonable than other periods in our history. There is a case to be made, as Bang eloquently did, that we are more reasonable than in the past. What bothers me about today, however, is the distillation of the English language, particularly due to electronic communications, and the constant attempts to bring our political leaders "down to our level." For instance, could anyone imagine FDR, JFK, Nixon, G.H.W. Bush, and others recording promo spots for the WWE? This trend for the candiates to be "just like us" is getting out of hand. And yes, I know they have always done that to a degree, but it seems to be getting worse.

One could certainly argue, though, that we are "softer" than we were in the past, physically and mentally, and far more decadent. This should be a bigger concern to us than a lack of intelligence.

[Smoot Point Really]

I try to align myself with a particular Christian tradition... I am biased. I don't kid myself that others should agree with my religious perspective or that they should change their own biases to suit mine.

Anyway, I might be "borrowing" this from someone... IMO, those who follow someone else, risk being fooled. Those who follow themselves are the fool. That is why I believe it's better to follow a tradition than to forge your own.

[Smoot Point Really]

I do blame television and a lot of the sensory entertainments... Are children actually encouraged to read and write anymore? When is the last time you actually wrote a form of communication that was not typed or electronic? For me, it has been ages... How long can you listen to political speeches or debates before you want to turn the channel? How long does something actually keep your attention? Your children's attention? I've heard that there were some Priests and/or Philosophers in historic times who could carry on dialogues for hours (Saint John Chrysostom for example) and the people would be standing the whole time, riveted.

There is definitely a psychological and intellectual impact on humanity by television and electronic communications... some may be positive, but the negatives far outweigh the positives. If Susan Jacoby ever mentions something that partly gels with this, then I would be willing to agree with her on this.