Not only are Americans dumb, but they're getting dumber and on top of it all, they're accepting of their ignorance too. That's American culture for you in a nutshell, at least according to Susan Jacoby, the author of book The Age of American Unreason, which was released last month. In a recent New York Times article, Jacoby alleges that anti-intellectualism, the view that “too much learning can be a dangerous thing,” and anti-rationalism, “the idea that there is no such things as evidence or fact, just opinion,” is prevalent in many aspects of society today. The article notes that Jacoby "is quick to point out that her indictment is not limited by age or ideology."
But, as a millennial, it's hard to feel like Jacoby is pointing fingers at all generations equally. Her book takes aim at the technology and communication mediums that Generation Y is championing and embracing. A description of the book on her Web site, says:
The book surveys an anti-rational landscape extending from reality TV and “infantainment” videos for babies to a pseudo-intellectual universe of “junk thought.” This vast kingdom of junk thought reaches from semiliterate blogs of all political persuasions to institutions of so-called higher education that offer courses in “fat studies” and horror films but do not require students to obtain a thorough grounding in American and world history, science, and literature. Throughout our culture, disdain for logic and evidence is fostered by the infotainment media from television to the Web; aggressive anti-rational religious fundamentalism; poor public education; the intense politicization of intellectuals themselves; and—above all—a lazy and credulous public increasingly unwilling or unable to distinguish between fact and opinion.In a Washington Post op-ed, Jacoby also uses statistics about the decline of reading amongst Gen. Y to illustrate her disdain for video, which she writes is "first and foremost among the vectors of the new anti-intellectualism."
With that sort of attitude, I can't begin to imagine how displeased she'd be with Ryan Healy's blog post, "Blogging is the New Graduate School," in which Healy describes the cerebral and professional benefits of the many tools that Jacoby criticizes. She'd probably find Monica O'Brien's post about using podcasts or vodcasts to improve presentation skills just as problematic. And of course, those are just two examples of the thousands of similar posts from Gen. Yers praising the way the Web can enhance skills.
So what's going on here? Are so many people in our generation blindly focusing on the good the Web has to offer, without honestly recognizing some of the drawbacks? Or if you read between the lines, is Jacoby perhaps making a statement about millennials' general embrace of the computer-laced path to the future?
I'm not sure, but I do think Jacoby makes a relevant observation about the "shrinking public attention span fostered by video..." Jacoby describes how our use of digital media is effecting politics:
People accustomed to hearing their president explain complicated policy choices by snapping "I'm the decider" may find it almost impossible to imagine the pains that Franklin D. Roosevelt took, in the grim months after Pearl Harbor, to explain why U.S. armed forces were suffering one defeat after another in the Pacific. In February 1942, Roosevelt urged Americans to spread out a map during his radio "fireside chat" so that they might better understand the geography of battle. In stores throughout the country, maps sold out; about 80 percent of American adults tuned in to hear the president. FDR had told his speechwriters that he was certain that if Americans understood the immensity of the distances over which supplies had to travel to the armed forces, "they can take any kind of bad news right on the chin."Complex issues deserve more than 30 second soundbites, but everyone knows that two minute statements aren't the stuff that viral video is made of. So what's the answer? According to Jacoby, "it is past time for a serious national discussion about whether, as a nation, we truly value intellect and rationality." Dare I suggest that the blogosphere might be the only place with the vibrancy to address Jacoby's observations with the rigor she'd probably expect?
Video clip - Jacoby on the Today show.
3 comments:
I'm interested in this book, because I want to see if there are generational undertones. Thanks for putting it on my radar - and of course, awesome post, as usual.
Interesting post Jaclyn, and I think there are some deeply rooted issues here. First, we're so inundated with information, it's hard to filter and (maybe more importantly) elevate what we really need to pay attention to? Secondly, who do we trust? Saturation of information is the result of so many sources, each with it's own viewpoint and bias. Can we trust politicians in their weekly radio address anymore? Many people our age feel they've been burned too many times to say yes.
Not to create excuses for our generation... but at the end of the day, the majority of people are going to just watch American Idol because at least Simon Cowell tells it like it really is, and it's pretty easy to verify the information by watching the performance yourself.
Thanks Monica and Matt!
Matt, your first point is relevant and timely. The person who can resolve the issue of filtering what we want to know and what we need to know is probably going to be very rich as a result.
I think your second observation speaks very well to the generational differences between Gen. Y and older thinkers like Jacoby. It's not that we don't want to know the facts, it's that the difficulty in filtering information has inundated us with sources who are full of agendas. There's a lot out there about how we crave and respond well to authenticity, which definitely includes factual information. My bet is that Jacoby feels like technology can't help this problem. I think it probably can.
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