Ben asked a question yesterday — “I often wonder what happened to the political activism of music in general” — and it reminded me of an article I saw in Sunday’s Washington Post that I wanted to share this week.
The article, by Susan Jacoby, is called “The Dumbing of America.” Jacoby discusses some of the issues that I think contribute to a lack of political interest and activism: “Americans are in serious intellectual trouble — in danger of losing our hard-won cultural capital to a virulent mixture of anti-intellectualism, anti-rationalism and low expectations.” She uses the phrase “arrogant anti-rationalism” later in the article, and that’s appropriate.
We touched on this with the education discussion three weeks ago. What do you think? Is Jacoby’s “video culture is destroying print culture” argument valid? Are we dumbing ourselves down with songs about bubblegum instead of revolution? Or is this just an element of the media elite whining about declining newspaper sales? Rampant snobbery and reading of books, constant picking on our Decider-in-Chief, wanting more money for schools…all those nasty liberal tendencies. Should we be worried or sit back and enjoy the ride?
Jacoby leads with an Emerson quote: “The mind of this country, taught to aim at low objects, eats upon itself.” That made me wonder: Haven’t the intellectuals of every age bemoaned the stupidity of the little people? It’s easy to read books when it’s your job, right? Fix up a cozy office in your ivory tower, toss another log on the fire, and sit down to write about how nobody is as smart as you. Maybe it’s not so easy when you’re working all day and feeding kids when you get home, then cleaning up and looking for just a few minutes of quick, relaxing entertainment before you start the whole ordinary, mind-numbing process again the next day. Instant access via the Internet and cable news networks provides us with more information than we’ve ever had access to in our history. And now you’re moaning about short attention spans?
I see both sides. I do believe we’re placing less emphasis on education, and by that I mean core education, a liberal arts education, a learning process that creates well-rounded citizens who care about the world and their place in it. But I’m not ready to write us off just yet. We’re never going to have a nation of folks (ewww! that’s the word Jacoby hates…somebody whack me with a ruler!) hauling around backpacks filled with Trollope, Dickens, Dostoevsky, and Hobbes.
Or will we? Which way are we heading? I think it’s far more likely we’ll be plugging cables into the backs of our heads than reverting back to reading musty old books in rickety tree houses. I’m not saying that’s what I want, but we are addicted to quick hitting infotainment. The rules are changing.
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I need to read the posted article before I comment on politics. I am sure I am going to find that I fall into the low expectations category. I hope I am not an arrogant anti rationalism because that sounds bad. What I did want to comment on is how you touched upon less emphasis on a core education. I agree completely. Entry level positions are requiring more education as far as degrees are concerned, but everyone is so specialized. Take health care for example. In the old days there was one doctor who handled all problems. Now there is a specialist for every part of the body. The specialist knows more about that one part of the body, but the problem is the entire body is connected. Often people are medicated to fix one problem and then that causes another. Or problems can be missed because there wasn’t one person is charge to put all the pieces together. And then don’t get me started on the insurance companies not paying health care providers appropriately. And no I don’t think Hilary Clinton is the anwser for improving our nations health care.
I think we, as a society, are pretty much holding our own. I see all the statistics this person let off. But like you said this is a changing culture. Maybe we should be asking if all this new medium were available back then, what would the populace would be doing?
I think one of the problems with our current culture starts with the expectation that we are supposed to know what we want to do when we’re in 4th grade and the resulting straying from a well-rounded liberal arts education after that. How many people are tracted when they are in 4th grade, go through the AP programs straight into engineering or med or accounting programs without any ability to think? Of course they can’t make decisions about the world — they don’t know where anything is, they don’t know anything about the people there, and the biggest thing is that they don’t care. There is no interest in learning about the other — just to paint them as the other so it is easier to watch them being bombed or easier to watch them starve or dying of AIDS.
There is a new trend in hiring though that is encouraging — enlightened boards and HR people are trying to fill leadership positions with people who have a liberal arts education. These candidates can think outside the proverbial box, can see the complete problem in context and can work it from many different angles. The person who went and just focused on one aspect of thinking through school and career can only see things in that light. The problem is that idiot front line recruiters only want to hire single tract candidates because they think it makes it easier to fill that entry level accounting position… And the other problem is that about 75% of the kids in high school who come and talk to HR people about how to interview and what to do to prepare for the working world dismiss everything they hear because they are going to be famous. And if you think I’m exaggerating, I wish I could say I was. Especially here on this little island where junior has been told forever that he is the best at everything, — they’re going to be famous rock stars, singers, models, athletes — or just famous without any plan to get there. They want to be princesses and superstars. So in the future, when I ask a candidate about a 3 year gap in their work history, instead of hearing that they were in jail or volunteering or finding themselves, I’ll hear they were in LA trying to get on a reality show so they could be famous and don’t I remember seeing them in the American Idol audition shows. The dumbing of our culture is happening, but I don’t think it is necessarily the fault of the digital age — I think it is the fact that so many people never get out of the narcissistic stage of development. So many have only been told they’re the best thing since sliced bread and have always gotten what they wanted, so their view of the world is through a very distorted lens. They don’t think about the larger context of their place in their own world or the world as a whole — so having any responsibility for taking part in the culture as a whole is beyond the capacity of their self-involved minds. We’ve talked about this before — but it’s the problem of people who treat others and everything else like they’re merely bit players in the movie of their life with no regard for how their actions come off. The world as a whole doesn’t exist unless and until it intereferes with their personal drama. So Iraq doesn’t matter until someone they know is over there. AIDS is meaningless until their friend has it. But it isn’t the war or the disease and the actual victims that matter to them — it’s how it is affecting them. The biggest, most radical, most common sensical thing in the Bible, either New or Old Testament, is the commandment to love thy neighbor as you love yourself. Americans are falling grossly short of that goal, but if people started working on that — thinking about how their daily actions affect the people around them, about how what they do affects their community, about how people in their department are mistreated — we’d see how quickly the dumbing of America would reverse course. We’d be able to find Iraq on a map because we knew our neighbor has spent roughly 24 months over there flying missions for the Marines. We would know that racism still exists because we here about how a club is better now that it is “whiter.” We would know that there are still people that need our help because we would stop long enough to pay attention.
That’s an encouraging trend. It does seem like attempts to funnel kids into one of 3-4 tracks at an early age (and I’d say “early” encompasses high school and college, too) limit exposure to a necessary skill set: how to be a person and not a role player. A well-rounded education seems to be an afterthought if Johnny shows an aptitude in science. He’s a scientist! Who needs books or art classes or music?
I’m sure that’s not the case everywhere, but I agree that our priorities get screwy. I don’t think people realize that you can go anywhere from a liberal arts core. Hell, I did. Or, even if you specialize early — pre-med, etc. — you can include elements of a liberal arts education.
It’s interesting, too, to hear that this “Specialize! Specialize! Specialize!” trend is harming medical fields. From a patient’s perspective, it does seem that the days of the family doctor model are dwindling.
The “special snowflake” syndrome is one of my pet peeves, too. There’s such a sense of entitlement. I’m all for promoting the best possible outcome — I believe any person can become anything they want — but it’s the result of work. Work and more work, and then some luck. It’s not easy and you have to want it. The idea that you can float through school and deserve riches and fame and attention is incredibly annoying. But our culture promotes this, and it’s all over our various forms of media.
I think, and hope, that it’s cyclical. So many things seem to be…a push/pull scenario where we move too far one way, compensate, and move too far the other way. There’s a nice spell there in the middle. Maybe the HR hiring trends Sarah mentions are a signal that that’s where we’re heading, away from one-dimensional leaders and toward a more well-rounded, considerate group.
Regarding media, old media, digital media, etc. I do see a day where print is dead. I hope not, but as a fledgling writer I have to prepare for the worst. If there are more readers online than in libraries, I have to steer in a different direction. I’m not doing this for fun and games. I need money so I can go buy stuff, too!
I’m a member of healthcare and it’s not all how kite girl puts it. Every doctor is a doctor. You could say that there is a bit of difference between an M.D. and D.O. with a D.O. being one that concentrates on the whole person. But to ask someone, say a neurologist something thats better handled by say a GYN, is just stupid.
As far as a liberal arts education, I don’t have one, I got the school of hard knocks instead. Does that make me somehow less of a person? I’d say no, because we are all so different that limiting our one deciding factor to education, is fairly narrow minded. But that said, I would like to attend school some day.
Doesn’t meant that at all, MH, although I keep tossing around “liberal arts education” like it means something special. I’m just using it to differentiate between a wide-ranging vs. specific track in an education system, not specifically college or high school or whatever. Probably the wrong term but space is short in comments…
So in a sense, or in my definition of the term, I’d say you very much have a liberal arts education. It’s called life, and the people who spend years in academia are never exposed to that, no matter what you call what they’re doing. That has more value than tuition money can buy.
But that’s what I was getting at in talking about what Jacoby says…I think people in protected, safe, comfy positions are a bit too easy with criticizing people who have taken different paths. What should we value?
Actually there are lots of different types of doctors. There are two types of physicians, MD and DO. That is correct. But the title of doctor is given to more than just physicians, usually to specialized areas of health care such as the OD, PsyD, and the AuD. And I agree that in the way health care is set up today if you have a GYN problem you should see a GYN. And a smart neurologist would not try to treat a yeast infection him–or herself, mainly because I would worry about a lawsuit. It is impossible for one person to know everything. But what people fail to do is have one general physician managing the entire picture. Someone who can connect all the pieces. People use mulitple pharmacies and so even the pharmacist is at a loss at trying to make sure all the patient’s medications interact properly. With a patient who is able to accurately report case history this is not as large of an issue as it is with a patient that can not tell you anything but that they take 1/2 a blue pill with their breakfast.
I used the liberal arts education as part of it — people who branch themselves into a many-faceted tree, whether by choice or by hard knocks and the road life throws them on, are the same. Underappreciated on the front lines, but so necessary on the inside. My grandmother is 90 and never graduated high school, but she is one of the most well read, politically minded, creative people I know. She’s also got one of the keenest business minds I’ve ever witnessed in action. She may be sly and sneaky and a little bit crazy, but the woman is multi-dimensional and has always been involved in the life around her. She ponders things — and doesn’t always rush to judgment. There’s a picture of her wearing too big hand me down panties hanging down below the too short hand me down dress she had before the great depression (because in the mountains of KY, the depression didn’t make much difference) — and she grew what she could when she could to feed herself and her family, but she always found material to make quilts for a family that needed them and always had a little something to feed anyone who walked in her door (and there have always been a good number at her door). She likes democrats and KY basketball, — but she’ll tell you exactly what she thinks is wrong with the strategy in Iraq and it makes more sense than anything I’ve heard a politician say. I respect education in all its many forms — and I like the kind that doesn’t charge tuition or make you sit in class. I just get on a kick about liberal arts educations because I realize how unbelievably fortunate I am to have been able to receive one (and to still be paying for it) and to know I use it in almost all aspects of my life.
I think we should value many different things, including school. But that’s the problem when you try to narrow it down to education, or life experience, or any other aspect really.
kite girl its called family practice… I just came from therapy and as far as everything coming together, you need to find a doctor that will do this. Mine does.
So, returning to the political angle Jacoby brings up — is our voting population less informed than ever, or are we just not reading what she’d like us to read. I’m no W. fan but I get tired of people saying “You elected a dumb president, therefore you are all dumb voters.”
Did we really have better options? I mean better, realistic options.
RE: health care. Don’t get me started. Seriously, I hate needles so I certainly present a biased perspective. We’ll have to save that for another post (or guest blogger).
Just a quick thought here on the medical field discussion…Imagine that you had a problem with your car. Specifically you had an issue with the engine. So you had to see engine mechanic. Now your engine is fixed but now the exhaust is shot…so your off to another mechanic. Wouldn’t it be nice if you could just go to one mechanic? Or better yet one center were all the mechanics worked? I Think that’s what kite girl was after MH. Think…then type, I think you’ll find the results better!
I think part of the reason people aren’t informed is because of this sense that nothing we do as voters will make a difference anyway because the politicians are going to politick and they don’t give a damn one way or the other about the people they’re supposedly representing. So — were we dumb for electing W — or are we dumb because we don’t insist on something different? I think that is the big reason that Obama is getting so much attention — he looks like a big change, but he’s still a professional politician. I think I would vote for a raccoon now if it didn’t have a background as a party pigeon.
I think there’s always been a certain percentage that is more educated than the rest of us… but really, I can’t believe W ever got elected or walks and chews gum either. Still, I would say we have more white collar jobs, and more kids going to college.
I can’t see us attaching the political issue to the education issue… that is unless your schooled, then hey why not bring it up?
Ben, that’s just stupid, and it’s not the way it works in medicine anyway. We can talk about hypotheticals all day however there is nothing wrong with my thinking process. Are you saying suddenly because of a heart related issue you now have a problem with your colon???
MH, a problem with blood supply (heart) in your body can cause problems in other areas absolutely. Maybe not specifically the colon but most definately the ears. If you doubt me on that I will mail you as many journal articles from the american academy of otolaryngology that you want proving my point. It sounds like you are lucky and have established a primary care physician that does manage your entire system and all the specialists you go and see. But not everyone does that. My only point this morning, and at this point I am sorry I mentioned it, is simply sometimes looking at the big picture is important. Ok, enough about the medical discussion. Everyone needs to be nice or Alex will kick people off. He is very strick.
Wellll this has taken an unexpected turn but that’s the fun of MoodyTunes.
I appreciate everyone’s time and contributions. I’ve never booted anyone, and I have a light hand as far as moderation goes. I like seeing conversations morph into various forms. I ask very little of commenters (I think) — stay civil, act like adults, and keep profanity to a minimum.
I promise we can have a healthcare post soon! We can talk about my cardiologist calling me back TODAY, four weeks after my echocardiogram and six weeks after my Holter monitor and seven weeks after my first visit.
Now that’s service.
EDIT — I’m adding this comic (xkcd — check it out) because it’s kinda funny:
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