I just finished reading The Age of American Unreason (Vintage) by Susan Jacoby. Terrific book, but it did make me feel a little bit stupid. In fact, after I finished the book I immediately went to the Teaching Company website and ordered the 84-lecture series on the history of the United States. I’m not joking. The book exposed my inadequate knowledge of American history and shamed me into doing something about it.
My one sentence summary of the main argument in the book is that we, The United States of America, might just be the dumbest country on the planet. This remark is intentionally hyperbolic, but you do have to look hard to find countries in which people are less informed about math, science, and history than we are. Jacoby cites a 2005 finding by the Organization of Economic Cooperation and Development revealing that “American fifteen-year-olds ranked twenty-fourth out of twenty-nine countries in mathematical literacy.”
The book is filled with discouraging statistics about American ignorance. For example, more than half of our citizens believe in ghosts and a similar percentage reject the theory of evolution. However, the book is more than a catalog of negative data on the American mind. A sentence in her final chapter provides a succinct summation:
“Anti-rationalism and anti-intellectualism flourish in a mix that includes addiction to infotainment, every form of superstition and credulity, and an education system that does a poor job of teaching not only basic skills but the logic underlying those skills.”
Right-wingers determined to justify their idiocy will dismiss Ms. Jacoby’s book as just another example of liberal America-bashing, but that would be wrong. Democracy is a full-time job requiring a serious effort to stay informed and educated. This book offers overwhelming evidence that we aren’t doing that.
Intellectual laziness results in citizens who behave as a fearful herd of knuckleheads and who are easily manipulated into voting against their own interests. Voting for a candidate because of his or her position on gay marriage while ignoring his or her record on allowing corporations to pollute our air and water really isn’t a very smart vote. Or do you seriously believe that the issue of gay marriage is more important than having clean air to breathe and clean water to drink?
Ignorance destroys the fabric of democracy and you should consider this reality when you read that presidential candidate Rick Perry is subsidizing low taxes for rich people in Texas by slashing funding for public education.
So, turn off the television, especially if it is tuned to Fox Propaganda. Unplug from your iPod. Stop text messaging about irrelevant nonsense, and stop playing video games. Read a book; it’s better for your brain and our democracy. Start with Susan Jacoby’s book.
Monte