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A collection of essays edited and introduced by Ivo Mosley.
Published by Imprint Academic, April 2000.
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 satisfaction of new needs, and in the manipulation of markets, media and power; the stupid ends are 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.'
Praise in the press for DUMBING DOWN:
'If there is hope at all, it lies in the existence of books like this' Geoffrey Wheatcroft, the Daily Mail.
'The lively intelligence of the essays cannot and must not be dismissed… to be read and enjoyed by all' Chris Woodhead, the Sunday Telegraph.
'An entertaining and informative read' - Septimus Waugh, Literary Review.
'Well-selected and serious' Contemporary Review.
'Bold, straight-talking polemic; Dumbing Down tackles the necessary questions of our time' - Marina Warner;
'At last! A guide to the moronic inferno!' Laurence Coupe, PN Review.
For sample essay, click here:
DUMBING DOWN DEMOCRACY
Editor: Ivo Mosley, e-mail ivomosley@aol.com
Publisher: Imprint Academic, PO Box 1, Thorverton EX5 5YX
E-MAIL IMPRINT ACADEMIC
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