The Age of American Unreason by Susan Jacoby

This is a very scholarly work from a decidedly leftist position regarding the development of anti-intelligent and anti-rational forces in the political arena at the same time of the unfolding of increasing influence of the fundamentalist/evangelical religious right. Essentially, it is an explanation of how we ended up with Bush in the first place. Before I go farther with this, the material obviously, it fits into my own political beliefs, but I know it does not for Don or Chris – I don’t know David. One of the points Jacoby makes is that in the face of polarization of today’s political climate, people typically only hear what they want to hear and do not challenge themselves by listening to and thinking about the opposing views. I do my best to read neocon literature, so I would challenge you to take a look at this. She starts from our founding fathers in discussing intellectual, political, and religious trends, and works her way to thru the 60s to present time stuff. There are lots of stats and lots of criticisms of other alleged intellectuals. This book has been a nice break from the more frivolous reading, but I’m ready to get to that too.

WC Don