The Age of American Unreason CSPAN2 8pm est.

[Viva_La_Revolution]

Author: Susan Jacoby

Sunday, March 30, at 8:00 PM
Monday, March 31, at 7:00 AM

In "The Age of American Unreason," Susan Jacoby claims that American culture has become anti-intellectual and anti-rational. She contends that society has become unwilling to listen to contradictory viewpoints and learn from cultural opponents and the result could have destructive consequences. Ms. Jacoby points to the dumbing down of language, the impact of the media, and an age of celebrity worship as contributing to this mindset and says that society needs to be more self-aware if it is ever to change. This event took place at the Philadelphia Free Library.

Susan Jacoby is the author of seven other books, including "Freethinkers: A History of American Secularism" and "Half-Jew: A Daughter's Search for Her Family's Buried Past."
http://www.booktv.org/program.aspx?ProgramId=9180&SectionName=&PlayMedia=No


From The New Yorker
Identifying herself as a "cultural conservationist" (but by no means a cultural conservative), Jacoby laments the decline of middlebrow American culture and presents a cogent defense of intellectualism. America, she believes, faces a "crisis of memory and knowledge," in which anti-intellectualism is not only tolerated but celebrated by those in politics and the media to whom we are all "just folks." The Internet, for all its promise, is too often "a highway to the far-flung regions of junk thought." Meanwhile, twenty-five per cent of high-school biology teachers believe that human beings and dinosaurs shared the earth, and more than a third of Americans can’t name a single First Amendment right. In such an environment, Jacoby argues, the secular left and the religious right can have no fruitful dialogue on issues like the separation of church and state. She offers little hope that the situation will improve, opining that, despite increasing levels of education, "Americans seem to know less and less."
http://www.amazon.com/Age-American-Unreason-Susan-Jacoby/dp/0375423745

[genie_weenie]

1. Watch Susan Jacoby on Bill Moyers Journal.

http://www.pbs.org/moyers/journal/02152008/profile.html

[Viva_La_Revolution]

2. oohh! thanks!

:)

[genie_weenie]

5. The book is excellent!

Especially her dissection of Bush's use of "Folks".

The specific political use of folks as an exclusionary and inclusionary signal, designed to make the speaker sound like one of the boys or girls, is symptomatic of a debasement of public speech inseparable from a more general erosion of American cultural standards. (pg. 4, Jacoby, Susan The Age of American Unreason., New York. Pantheon Books, 2008.)

[ThomWV]

8. It will be shown again tomorrow morning at 7:00 AM eastern

I have the autotune already set to it but it will be nice to watch during dinner.

[hoosier_lefty]

3. Uh....

"...She contends that society has become
unwilling to listen to contradictory viewpoints..."

She must read the DU forums!

[Viva_La_Revolution]

4. Most of us here understand the importance of contradictory views...

but we also need a safe place where we don't have to constantly fight off the lunatics. That place for me is DU. :)

Welcome!

[Viva_La_Revolution]

6. One hour reminder kick! nt

[Viva_La_Revolution]

7. 2 minute kick! nt

[Viva_La_Revolution]

9. "Bush might as well have had "Ignorant and Stupid' stamped on his forehead.."

:rofl: