The Washington Post published a blunt, acrimonious, and utterly superb article by Susan Jacoby this past weekend, which took aim — and hit the mark — at the demise of true intellectualism in the nation. A National Science Foundation poll observed that as many as one in five Americans believes that the sun revolves around the earth. Shocking1. Jacoby writes that the dumbing-down of America is the inevitable byproduct of a culture who will not tolerate any source of information besides fast-paced, sound-bite-ridden visual media2. People have become wholly uninformed, and even graduates of higher education are complicit, reading less frequently and watching obsessively. What is worse, she notes that the citizenry does not seem to care. The blend of ignorance and indifference is of greatest, and gravest, concern.

An exemplary excerpt:

Not knowing a foreign language or the location of an important country is a manifestation of ignorance; denying that such knowledge matters is pure anti-rationalism. The toxic brew of anti-rationalism and ignorance hurts discussions of U.S. public policy on topics from health care to taxation. … There is no quick cure for this epidemic of arrogant anti-rationalism and anti-intellectualism; rote efforts to raise standardized test scores by stuffing students with specific answers to specific questions on specific tests will not do the job.

I do recommend you read the full article. In fact, it would be ironic if you did not. In any case, three cheers for science, reason, and true intellectualism, which are not elitist, but are wonderfully and uniquely part of the natural human capacity.

Footnotes:
(1) Please note that America is not alone in its appalling ignorance. This video shows a Frenchman stumbling over the same question on a foreign version of “Who Wants to Be A Millionaire.”
(2) I am tempted to cite my own site as an example of this trend. However, I really do my best to provide you, the readers, with informative, well-researched content. But, of course, you are the judge.