DUMBING DOWN: Culture, Politics and the Mass Media

Section 1: Dumbocracy in Government

Tam Dalyell: 'On Decline in Intelligent Government'. A look at how government has changed: spin displacing democracy.
Ivo Mosley: 'Dumbing Down Democracy'. Efforts to increase the influence of government dumb us all down and are a threat to freedom, democracy and civilization.
Michael Oakeshott: 'The Masses and Representative Democracy'. History since the middle ages as a conflict between two human types, the individual and 'mass man'.
Redmond Mullin: 'States, Dissent and Constructive Disorder'. A critique of the State as purveyor of charity.
Michael Johnson: '"Dumbing Up: The Consequences of Permanent Revolution in the Civil Service'. Job insecurity in the civil service, and intelligent government.
Dominic Hobson: Government as Business: "Let's Play Shops!" The state as an extension of business.

Section 2: Dumbocracy and Culture

Ravi Shankar: Interview. The betrayal of young people by the commercialisation of culture (et al.).
Philip Rieff: 'The Impossible Culture'. The impossibility of a culture based upon outrage of itself.
Robert Brustein: 'When PC becomes Dumbocracy'. The assault by political interests on serious culture in America.
Anne Glyn-Jones: 'Sensationalism in Modern Entertainment'. Declines in civilization through the prism of theatre.
Roger Deakin: 'Stupidity'. Is it appropriate for the State to patronise contemporary art?

Dumbocracy and the Media

Adam Boulton: Dumbing-Down And Its Critics: Democracy Under Threat? The political editor of Sky TV gives his opinion.
Oliver O'Donovan: Publicity. 'The media are not the product of a conspiracy. They are the sign of the universal corruptibility of man's communications, of which theology has always known.'

Dumbocracy in the Visual Arts

Laura Gascoigne: 'Mumbo-Dumbo'. The unholy marriage between the establishment and 'Conceptual Art'.
David Lee: 'What Contemporary Art Means To Me'. The editor of 'Art Review' ponders on the visual arts.
Peter Randall-Page: 'Form, Transformation and a Common Humanity'. The sculptor muses on art's role for humanity.
Bill Hare: 'Glasgow Belongs to Whom?' A tale of two cities; Glasgow and its self-reinvention.

Dumbocracy in Education

Michael Polanyi: 'The Eclipse of Thought'. How a decline in respect for pure thought led to totalitarianism, barbarity and loss of intellectual freedom.
Claire Fox: Education as Social Inclusion. When education is used for political ends.
Andrew Williams: The Dumbing Down of the Young Consumer. Young people treated as consumers; can educators compete?

Dumbocracy and Science

John Ziman: 'Heeding Voices'. Upon public expecations of science.
Jaron Lanier: 'Agents of Alienation'. Commercial attempts to exploit information technology threaten the very essence of what it is to be human.
Walter Freeman: Happiness in a Bottle? Attempts to find chemical solutions to life's problems are inherently flawed, argues an eminent neuroscientist.
'Science: The Stuff of Dreams or Nightmares?' Is science still the benefactor to humanity that it once was?

Dumbocracy and Religion

Helen Oppenheimer: 'The Truth-Telling Animal'. The importance of truth.
Nicholas Mosley: 'Dumbing Down/Dumbing Up in Religion'. On language in religion.

Dumbocracy and 'The Environment'

C.D. Darlington: The Impact of Man on Nature. A historical overview.
Demelza Spargo: Food, Agriculture and Mass Markets. The future of the countryside, and of man as a natural animal.

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