Hi Lawry,
Could you clarify some of your statements please?
LAWRY:
An important theme in the founding of this country was an
anti-intellectual one; a populist religious faith and passion were very
influential. We did also have a thoughtful and well-educated parallel and
contradictory element
ROG:
So we have intellectual and non-intellectual (social?) elements. Is this
peculiar to the US in your opinion?
LAWRY:
The fundamentalist religious
mythos, though, has always been present in the US, and helps explain the odd
twists and turns we sometimes see in US actions, life and policy. Our
thought-less but passionate response to Sept 11 comes very much from this
element.
ROG:
Which thoughtless response are you referencing? The military retaliation
against the fundamentalist religious terrorist mythos? And while you are at
it, could you please clarify which odd twists and turns you are trying to
explain, and how American culture is more or less subject to them than other
modern cultures?
LAWRY:
This element, I think, is also involved in the low level of thoughtfulness
shown in much of our mass media, including Newsweek.
1)The fundamentalist
tradition included the idea that one didn't have to study things to know
their essential truth,
2)one could know essential truth simply through faith
and the goodness of human instinct.
3) So it is viewed as acceptable to
formulate major opinions of difficult subjects without really studying
things or knowing much about them.
4) Our news media are not required,
therefore, to reflect careful thinking, true journalistic reporting, or
careful adherence to the facts.
ROG:
Could you please provide some compelling evidence of for each of these
assertions? After all, we wouldn't want someone to accuse YOU of point number
3.
LAWRY:
Personally, this worries me, as it almost ensures that the US will make
major mistakes in its foreign and domestic affairs, and that when crises
occur, the people will not have the mental skill or informational basis
needed to think and act wisely.
ROG:
As opposed to what? What are you comparing the US to? You go on to contrast
it to a different problem of elitism leading to "naivete and cognitive
exploitation" in Europe, but you never really offer an ideal or a solution.
LAWRY:
In the US, the press is viewed as just one more
voice in the raucous argumentation that passes for discourse here.
In both areas, TV is recreational -- what a loss it is to our species!
ROG:
What do you have in mind as a suggestion for superior discourse? You already
implicated all of mass media, so I take it you aren't recommending the NY
Times or PBS. What are you recommending?
Rog
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