Susan Jacoby’s new book, The Age of American Unreason, is based on the solid premise that most of us are dumb as stumps and can’t stand anybody who isn’t. According to the New York Times review, here’s what inspired her to write it:
Walking home to her Upper East Side apartment [on 9/11] , she said, overwhelmed and confused, she stopped at a bar. As she sipped her bloody mary, she quietly listened to two men, neatly dressed in suits. For a second she thought they were going to compare that day’s horrifying attack to the Japanese bombing in 1941 that blew America into World War II:
“This is just like Pearl Harbor,” one of the men said.
The other asked, “What is Pearl Harbor?”
“That was when the Vietnamese dropped bombs in a harbor, and it started the Vietnam War,” the first man replied.
If you doubt that Ms. Jacoby is onto something, ask yourself why the Times felt compelled to explain Pearl Harbor to its readers.
Every so often a newspaper, magazine or web site publishes statistics that reflect the knowledge and intelligence of the American public. It is usually a survey asking Americans who their VP is, or where is Iraq on a map, or when was the Civil War. The results always astound me. The number of people who don't know this stuff is staggering. I keep thinking I should cut and paste these statistics and put it in one ongoing document. When anyone says that the people of the U.S. are intelligent, or not stupid, I could instantly pull it out. Now I can only smile and try to remember an item from one of those articles. One should never forget that they voted Bush into office twice and most Americans bought into the Iraq crap. What else do we need to confirm the idiocy of the American public?
Posted by: Political Sports on February 14, 2008 6:02 PMOur society is a mess and there will come a time when many will pay for their stupidity even more than now.
Posted by: One Fly on February 14, 2008 7:37 PMStupid is as stupid does. 2004, anyone?
Posted by: Aitch Jay on February 14, 2008 9:00 PMFirst of all, there's a distinction between ignorance and stupidity which seems to me very relevant to the current discussion. Attributing our problems to the stupidity of the average American absolves us of responsibility for fixing the problems. If, on the other hand, we were to agree that ignorance is the issue, it would be incumbent on us as a society to remedy that. Which we could if chose, though we might have to give up the comfort of the couch. If our kids are not educated about history, is it their fault?
Second, it's factually inaccurate to claim that Americans ever voted George W. Bush into office. These claims diminish us a society, though they allow us to retain our comfortable positions on the aforementioned couch.
Posted by: Chuck Dupree on February 14, 2008 9:49 PMYes, we have to REMEMBER THE MAINE!
Posted by: Old Fogey on February 15, 2008 8:19 AM