"The Age of Unreason" by Susan Jacoby

[MountainLaurel]

Anyone read it yet? What did you think? Is it a dense read, or did it go quickly?

I'm waiting for it to get through the public library holds list to me, but I was curious about DUers' reactions.

[PDJane]

1. I'm in the process of reading said book at the moment.

It's thought-provoking, humourous in places, frightening in others; it does tend to attempt to impose a rational explanation on various irrational energies.

It's interesting, and worth the read. Not nearly as heavy as, say, Shock Doctrine!

[MountainLaurel]

3. Thanks for the report

I ended up leaving The Shock Doctrine because it pissed me off and frightened me so much. (Mr. Laurel is able to read it a few pages at a time, so he gives me the synopsis.)

[Adsos Letter]

2. Have not read it yet, however...

...if it is as good as her "Freethinkers" was it ought to be worth a read.

[zeos3]

4. I bought this book recently

I had to set it aside for a bit because of work (ugh). I got through the part about social darwinism in the beggining, it was good, she makes a lot of good points.

[MountainLaurel]

5. Kicking to see what others think

I ended up buying the book because the library had it "In Processing" for 2 months. I've read the first chapter and found myself nodding as I went along.

[alarimer]

6. She made a lot of good points.

But she tended to blame technology a lot for the problems we are having, sort of curmudgeonly in some ways. I think we are just going to have to deal with the fact that the world is changing, maybe not in the direction a lot of us would like. It's time to adapt, rather than fight against new technologies. Our antiquated educational system is just going to have to deal with it. And we will have to adjust, rather than wringing our hands about everything. Yes, I get that the old days were "better" in some ways but it is far too late to turn back.

[prairierose]

7. I have not finished it yet...

it is very dense. I find that I have to read and then put it down to digest for a bit. It is fascinating and has made me think very deeply about this country and its history as well as what we are today. This has actually done more to answer my constant question, "why are americans so stupid?" than anything else I have been reading. I am planning to buy the book when it comes out in paperback. I feel that it is an important book for me to have a as a good reference in my library.

I am also reading Shock Doctrine. I bought that when it came out in paperback recently. Yes, it is scary, but I would rather be informed than ignorant of the underlying reasons for what we have/are seen/seeing happen in the world.

I think that these two books could help many to understand so much of what we have witnessed in the last 30 years and how we got to this place today. If we understand the underlying philosophy that has led us here, maybe we can begin to create memes to counter these dreadful ideas.

[MountainLaurel]

9. Finally finished it

After almost a year. But I'm so glad I did. There is so much food for thought here, particularly now that a new administration is at the helm. I think this was one of my favorite passages:

What might help alert the public to the deeper significance of our nation's intellectual shortcomings? Real political leadership, comparable to Franklin Roosevelt's effort to educate Americans in the late 1930s about their stake in the future of Europe and the threat posed by Nazism, could take advantage of the public anger about the war in Iraq to make this a truly teachable moment instead of a simple repudiation of a failed policy. But it would take awesome courage for a candidate to say to voters: "The problem isn't just that you were lied to. The real problem is that we, as a people, have become too lazy to learn what we need to know to make sound public decisions. The problem is that two-thirds of us can't find Iraq on a map, and many members of Congress don't know a Shiite from a Sunni. The problem is that the public doesn't know enough or care enough about culture to be outraged when a United States secretary of defense, informated that some of the oldest artifacts of Western civilization are being looted from a Baghdad museum on our watch, says dismissively, 'Stuff happens." The problem is that most of us don't bother to read newspapers or even watch the news on television. Out own ignorance is our worst enemy.(bolding mine)It is so much easiest, so much safer politically, to simply say, "You were the victims of a lie," than to suggest that both voters and their elected representatives, in both parties, must shoulder much of the blame for their willingness to be deceived.

This encapsulates the problem as well as raises the start of a solution. Unfortunately, I believe, as does Jacoby seemingly, that it may be too late to go back.

[MJW]

8. It is a very good book ,

and fits in neatly with Richard Hofstadters Anti Intellectualism in American
Life , written in the early 60s .

I have Shock Doctrine on order . It should be here Wednesday!

I can reed.;I just cant spel

[JitterbugPerfume]

10. I read it a while back

it was pretty interesting , and gave me a lot to think about.

[BurtWorm]

11. I liked Freethinkers better.

She seems off-base and fuddy-duddy on some subjects, particularly having to do with the internet. Blogging, for example. She has the standard newspaper person's anti-blogging stance, but she doesn't ask any deep questions about why one medium seems to be dying and another rising out of its ashes. Nor does she explain why blogging is "unreasonable." Compare Glenn Greenwald and The New York Post to see why the media are not really the point.

But with that caveat in mind, it's a worthwhile and enjoyable read.

[ashling]

12. I have only read a page or two

and won't get back to it til I have read a bunch of other stuff. Looks interesting, though. I bought it online after I saw the author on booknotes/CSPAN