pimblr.com

American Unreason, whose title plays on Tom Paine’s late 18th century polemic, The Age of Reason, but more directly draws on Richard Hofstadter’s groundbreaking Anti-Intellectualism in American Life (1963) and such other mid- and late-20th century social critics as Paul Goodman and Neil Postman, is an important and timely attempt at assessing the present situation.
Jacoby writes in a straightforward, non-academic style — her book is intentionally rather “middle-brow” in its appeal to a general readership — but my fear is that, insofar as she receives much notice at all, she will either be shrugged off as merely alarmist (the “oh, come on, things aren’t that bad” line), or rebutted by techno enthusiasts who tout the wonders of the Internet’s cornucopia of infinite information (the “it’s all there, you just need to know where to look and have the will to find out” defence). Both of those ploys against Jacoby’s thesis strike me as woefully wrong-headed.
Slide to stupidity
American Unreason begins with Jacoby’s sketch of the current situation, as a prelude to tracing the historical sources of a gathering intellectual darkness in recent decades. “It is difficult to suppress the fear,” she says, “that the scales of American history have shifted heavily against the vibrant and varied intellectual life so essential to functional democracy. During the past four decades, America’s endemic anti-intellectual tendencies have been grievously exacerbated by a new species of semiconscious anti-rationalism, feeding on and fed by an ignorant popular culture of video images and unremitting noise that leaves no room for contemplation or logic.”
Jacoby examines various strands that make up the present cultural context, several of which have a particularly American tinge. They include a three-decade resurgence in fundamentalist Christian religion, coupled with a propensity to hold nutty paranormal beliefs. As well, there’s a media system that dumbs down public events to sound bites and sensationalism, and for the rest of prime time ensures that we’re “amusing ourselves to death” (to recall the title of Neil Postman’s 1985 book). Add to that a national attention deficit disorder fuelled by a cascade of gadgets that makes sure there are no idle hands, eyes, or ears (because we’re kept busy pushing cellphone buttons, clicking computer mouses, and pouring iTunes into our heads, often all at once). Finally, there’s the decline of reading and writing, and the erosion of what was once a functioning mid-level culture.

thetyee.ca

Tags: 29, american, april, idol