DUMBING DOWN

Culture, Politics and the Mass Media

A collection of new essays from Imprint Academic, publishers of History of Political Thought and the Journal of Consciousness Studies. Editor: Ivo Mosley. Publication Date: April 3 2000. 336 pp. £14.95 / $25.90 (pbk), ISBN 0907845657 (pbk.)

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Reviews and advance praise for Dumbing Down:

‘If there is hope at all, it lies in the existence of books like this.’ Geoffrey Wheatcroft, Daily Mail

'At last we have a map of the moronic inferno . . . perhaps, then, this volume may take its place in the canon of critique', Laurence Coupe, PN Review

‘The lively intelligence of the essays . . . cannot and must not be dismissed as the rabid posturing of tired old traditionalists. The debate they ought to inspire is a debate our country desperately needs.’ Chris Woodhead, Sunday Telegraph

‘An entertaining and informative read, well worth £12.95.’ Septimus Waugh, Literary Review

‘Well-selected and serious essays by known and established writers.’ George Wedd, Contemporary Review

‘Page after page of wise insights, acerbic observations, and (mostly) demonstrable propositions . . . likely to rule unchallenged for a long time to come.’ Derek Turner, Chronicles

‘Bold, straight-talking polemic, Dumbing Down tackles the necessary questions of our time.’ Marina Warner

‘Dumbing down concerns us all. This book is an admirable protest against the process.’ Sir John Keegan

‘Dumbing Down raises important questions, which most of us would rather not hear, and which our public culture lacks the confidence to deal with.’ Anthony O’Hear

In the last hundred years, the word 'culture' has been re-defined. It used to signify high moral standards demanded by membership of a group. Now it derives its meaning from cultures of mould or yoghurt, and refers to whatever habits prevail.

In DUMBING DOWN, a diverse group of people explore the implications of the world-wide shedding of cultures in the old sense, and the ascendancy of a global mono-culture in the new.

From the Introduction:
Never before in human history has so much cleverness been used to such stupid ends. The cleverness is in the creation and manipulation of markets, media and power; the stupid ends are in the destruction of community, responsibility, morality, art, religion and the natural world.

As a result, a kind of numbness has taken over. In the face of an uncertain and alarming future, which holds little inspiration for present living, people fight off gloom and stupefaction by withdrawing into trivia, sensation-seeking, or addictions to money, drugs, or power.

This is Dumbing Down, a phenomenon observable in almost all walks of life; politics, culture, civil administration, the media, science, education, even the law. It is so widespread that a new term has been coined; dumbocracy.

Dumbocracy is the rule of cleverness without wisdom. It looks always for the short-term gain, forgetting that we could be around on this planet for a long time - provided dumbocracy does not get out of hand.

Some insist that dumbing-down does not exist; it is an illusion created by an elite to shore up its own waning power. But elites are a necessity in the human affairs of any great civilization. We should try to get the best elites we can, for when one elite is got rid of, another - often worse - takes its place; those who promise to rid us of one elite are bent on replacing it with themselves. As Franz Kafka wrote, 'Revolutions come and go, leaving nothing behind them but the slime of a new bureaucracy.'
 

For the table of contents, click here: CONTENTS
For the Editor's Introduction, click here: INTRODUCTION (Acrobat pdf format)

For sample essay, click below: DUMBING DOWN DEMOCRACY:

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PDF (Acrobat) format

Editor:
Ivo Mosley, ivomosley@aol.com

Publisher: Imprint Academic, PO Box 1, Thorverton EX5 5YX
E-MAIL IMPRINT ACADEMIC