mm299: More than the economy, we’re in intellectual trouble

February 27, 2008

MUDGE’s Musings

Susan Jacoby has just released a book, “The Age of American Unreason“, and contributed to the Opinion page of the Washington Post a couple of Sundays ago.

washingtonpost

The Dumbing Of America

Call Me a Snob, but Really, We’re a Nation of Dunces

By Susan Jacoby | Sunday, February 17, 2008; B01

“The mind of this country, taught to aim at low objects, eats upon itself.” Ralph Waldo Emerson offered that observation in 1837, but his words echo with painful prescience in today’s very different United States. 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.

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mm081: Infoporn: Despite the Web, Americans Remain Woefully Ill-Informed

July 23, 2007

MUDGE’S Musings

Scary thing I found on my way to finding something else…

WIRED

Patrick di Justo Email 06.26.07 | 2:00 AM

More than a decade after the Internet went mainstream, the world’s richest information source hasn’t necessarily made its users any more informed. A new study from the Pew Research Center for the People & the Press shows that Americans, on average, are less able to correctly answer questions about current events than they were in 1989. Citizens who call the Internet their primary news source know slightly less than fans of TV and radio news. Hmmm… maybe a little less Perez Hilton and a little more Jim Lehrer.

wiredchart1

wirechart2

*The five questions: Who is the vice president? Who is your state’s governor? Does the US have a trade deficit or surplus? Which party controls the House of Representatives? Is the chief justice of the Supreme Court a liberal, moderate, or conservative?

Source: the Pew Research Center for the People & the Press

Infoporn: Despite the Web, Americans Remain Woefully Ill-Informed

Ladies and gentlemen: For your bemusement, the American electorate!

Whatever they’re doing on the web, they’re not getting wiser.

If it weren’t for the age thing, someone’s cute cat just might have a shot at the presidency next year…

It’s it for now. Thanks,

–MUDGE

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3 Comments | Internet Culture, musings, Politics | Tagged: , , , , | Permalink
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