The Age of American Unreason | Susan Jacoby | Food for thought, but not junk thought

The Age of American Unreason | Susan Jacoby | important

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	The Age of American Unreason Susan Jacoby Pantheon, 2008 - 384 pages average customer review:based on 92 reviews view larger image
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Food for thought, but not junk thought

It's not often that a book delivers more than expected, but that's what this book did for me. For a long time, I've shared the author's concerns about the struggle between intellectualism and anti-intellectualism in the U.S., and her recent article in the Washington Post on the subject prompted me to pick up this book. I was surprised and pleased to find that the first half of the book traces the history of this intellectual struggle in America all the way back to revolutionary times. This provides an excellent background for the current events discussion that follows. As a result, I find myself in disagreement with reviewers who said the book was too long, and the history should have been left out. That outlook seems to demonstrate some of the very points the author is making.
It's no secret that conservatives and religious fundamentalists will not like the way they are portrayed in the book. But Jacoby can be equally scathing with liberals when she feels it's appropriate.
Not everyone will appreciate Jacoby's style, which mixes historical information, data from surveys and studies, and personal anecdotes - but I liked it. Sort of like a left-leaning version of George Will. The author is 10 years older than I am, so there's enough overlap in our growing-up experiences that I could relate to her stories about coming of age in the late 1950s through the early 1970s and her analyses of those times. (From her description of "middlebrow culture," I think I was probably lower-middlebrow.) On the other hand, Jacoby is uncomfortable with many aspects of the digital/video culture that are less bothersome, and in some cases eagerly embraced, among people my age and younger. Nevertheless, she makes important points about the proliferation of "junk thought" and the difficulty in balancing the benefits and hazards of "screen media," especially for young people who are still developing their powers of judgment and may inadvertently bypass other important avenues to American and world culture. Having taught university students for several years, I think she hits very close to the mark.
This is a good read on an important topic, valuable even if you don't agree with the author's position all the time. Jacoby doesn't offer a recipe to fix everything, but as she clearly points out at the end of the book, there are no simple remedies, and she does not presume to have all the answers.

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important

All Americans should be required to read this book to learn why H.L. Mencken called us the "boobocracy". Non-Americans should read it too, to better understand why Americans are so confused and confusing.

The problem is not "elitism"

How long should a new nation retain its "frontier" status? The United States used the condition of "filling an empty continent" to disclaim any need for intellectual advancement for over a century. During the following decades, learning may have become more widely disseminated and an "American culture" may have arisen to overturn that imported from Europe. Still, there remained the attitude that the "intellectual" was a figure of elitism.) While that picture is necessarily false - what other single nation has garnered so many Nobel awards? - "intellectuals" have not been held in high regard in the US. As Susan Jacoby reminds us, Richard Hofstadter's 1963 "Anti-intellectualism In American Life" was a breakthrough effort in pointing up how and why his countrymen viewed higher learning as they did. Jacoby has done more than merely updated Hofstadter in this excellent overview. She exposes some of the root conditions leading to her country spawning a tide of "unreason".

Distilling Jacoby's presentation to its basic element, we realise that the foundation for today's "Age of Unreason" lies in education. While that seems a paradox in a nation with so many noteworthy science, economic and other figures, the general picture confirms her analysis. It's not the education system itself that draws her ire - although she has some serious comments on that topic - but the diversionary elements either distracting the young from learning or failing to help preparing them for education. The former is something long commented on - the video screen. Whether it's games, "children's" programmes or simply "surfin' the 'Net", the video monitor leads children away from real mental challenges or sources of useful and meaningful information. Instead, children - and no few adults - are inundated with "infotainment". It boils down to "junk thought" being broadcast in one form or another and retained by those least able to resist it.

That manufactured term is almost self-explanatory in declaring why decline of the printed page is another of Jacoby's topics of concern. Reading, she argues, is falling by the wayside because images and sound-bites provide quick, simple explanations of what is deemed "reality". The brevity of presentation and the superficial forms used to convey it have led the young away from understanding the complexity of everyday issues. Jacoby lists the symptoms of the loss of reading, from shrunken book review sections in newspapers to her own experience as a journalist. Where once she was commissioned to produce lengthy, analytical pieces on a given topic, editors now put severe limits on word-count. Reading is being downplayed and readers are demanding and expecting to be less challenged and less informed about subjects. Brief, easily absorbed snippets - whether informative or not - have become the norm.

Nowhere, of course, is better placed to provide the "quick answer" than is religion. Jacoby's discussion of the role of fundamentalism [she eschews adding "Christianity" to the description] is extensive and thorough. Evangelical Christianity has experienced a rollercoaster ride through the years in the US. There have been, according to the author, three "Awakenings" of religious intensity in North America, the first prior to independence, the second in the early 19th Century and the third in the present day. Each has been typified by an aversion to a perceived dominance by an "intellectual elite". As Hofstadter had noted in his earlier book, the Awakenings have spilled over into a broader social arena than religion alone. Since religion is perceived as the very underpinnings of a stable society, any ideas or information challenging religion, established or evangelical, loss of religious intensity is viewed as tantamount to leading to social chaos. Stability, whether informed or not, is the aim. Only faith can provide consistency.

Although there are some missing elements in this book - why should religion gain such a foothold in one of the world's most literate and scientifically advanced nations, for example - this is a work deserving a wide readership. Jacoby doesn't make detailed comparisons between her native country and elsewhere, yet, she's concerned about what the decline in intellectual growth means for the future. Perhaps she considers that obvious, but the poorly informed readers she's concerned about might be better served by a nudge in that direction. Given the number of recent works on these questions, Jacoby is hardly alone in her analysis of the intellectual condition of the US. In terms of communicating the issues, her writing skills place her at a more accessible level than some of her colleagues. In any case, the issues are clear and her approach unequivocal. This book is, therefore, essential reading. [stephen a. haines - Ottawa, Canada]

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Smart, but tainted by partisanship

I am glad that I read this book. It deals with critical topics and social issues. Central to the discussion is a distinction between "anti-intellectual" and "anti-rational." For example, there are highly intellectual people who are anti-rational in their social and/or political thinking. In sum, lots to chew on here, and very relevant to our country in this era.

Why only three stars? At times the author is over-confident and/or too outspoken. Her partisanship can undermine what might otherwise be a valuable discussion. For example, in dismissing the proponents of separate sex education she resorts to name-calling and innuendo, using "separate but equal" - terminology that is historically loaded and judicially rejected - to simply dismiss another point of view, rather than give the other side any benefit of scientific doubt. On this topic the author perhaps reveals a lack of understanding of science or at least the specific scientific topic involved.

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