The New York Times has a readers comment section that has the following statement then question.
Susan Jacoby’s new book bemoans the state of American culture. Not only are citizens ignorant about essential knowledge, she says, but they also don’t think it matters.
Why do you think Americans are perceived as being hostile to global knowledge?
Click here to see the NYT readers comment section.
The book by Susan Jacoby that the NYT is referring to is “The Age of American Unreason”. Here is the review of the book in the Los Angeles Times.
Dumb and Dumber?
“Why do you think Americans are perceived as being hostile to global knowledge?”
Because, with relatively few exceptions, they always have been.
The critical text here is Richard Hofstedter’s _Anti-intellectualism in American Life_ (1963).
One proof involves immigrants coming from countries where knowledge is honored. The longer they are here (which is to say, one generation compared to the previous), the lower their standardized test scores.
Critical text is awful old
Anti-intellectualism in American Life is from 1963. Seems somewhat anti-intellectual to be discussing the state of American intelligence based on a book written before we went to the moon.
I guess it is okay if we are discussing American intellectualism from a historical standpoint but otherwise let’s get some newer information.
let’s see
“Why do you think Americans are perceived as being hostile to global knowledge?”
Because we are.
This has been another edition of short answers to easy questions.
A reading question for the Americans
I suppose this is related to the perception of being hostile to global knowledge…
I’ve always wondered about the publishing practice of “translating” books for American audiences that are already in English. And by that I mean taking a book written in Britain or other countries and stripping out all of the slang and words like “boot” instead of “trunk.” I know it was done for things like the Harry Potter novels and books by Neil Gaiman.
Are Americans okay with this? I get a bit offended on behalf of the American public at the thought that publishers think you can’t handle “foreign” novels… but then I wonder if you like it that way.
It’s just something I’ve been curious about for a long time.