The Polliwog Journal

Patricia Cohen’s review of Susan Jacoby’s new book, Dumb and Dumber: Are American’s Hostile to Knowledge appeared in the New York Times, February 14, 2008.

Dumb and Dumber: Are Americans Hostile to Knowledge?

By PATRICIA COHEN

Published: February 14, 2008

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.

It sounds like an intriguing book, but what is really interesting is reading the comments on the review. Some agree wholeheartedly with Jacoby’s premise. Some attempt to find blame (many jump on the “we’ve got a horrible educational system” bandwagon). Others say that Americans are no dumber overall than people in the rest of the world. Some clarify that while some Americans are dumb, others are not. There are many, many comments (978 at this publishing).

Article readers can read comments, recommend comments, and post a comment themselves. Comments can be searched in four ways: oldest to newest, newest to oldest, readers’ recommendations, and editors’ recommendations.

Reader recommended comments include the number of times the comment was recommended, which gives an idea of how many people have read and considered that comment.

Now while it would be best to read the whole book first in order to truly comment intelligently on its content, the fact remains that a discussion over the basic premise is in action, and I say, “hooray that the days of newsprint are almost gone. Where did this kind of interaction take place before Web 2.0? In coffee shops, among retired men whose wives swept them out of the house for awhile? At the water cooler? When the paper”boy” tossed that rolled up newspaper on the porch or under the arborvitae, mom or dad (maybe even the kids) read it. Perhaps they even talked about it.

But did they talk about it with 900 other people? There is an American dialogue among netizens. It is not always brilliant commentary (YouTube), but it is often engaging, thought-provoking, and even wise (New York Times). The Internet is often blamed for dumbing down the nation, but I just don’t see it. I find network television and “news” to be far more culpable in our collective lack of global awareness.

Here’s an insightful comment from dbsweden/Sweden about what passes for news in America.

The dialogue goes beyond the coffee shops and the dinner tables, beyond the borders of the United States, and beyond the one-way mass communication of the past, which is, of course, the power of Web 2.0