Monster
03-14-2003, 08:13 PM
Right up until the invention of the radio, it was "cool" to read. Books were cool. Knowing literature was cool. Quoting literary characters, citing references, all that jazz, it was considered a social plus.
Then the radio came along. With the broadcast, it rapidly became more cool to know about the radio mystery that was aired the night or the week before than it was to know about the newest mystery novel released, or the newest Sherlock Holmes adventure...or the oldest Sherlock Holmes novel. People began becoming more enthralled with radio than with books. Books became a tool of the intellectuals, the academics, and very few others. Students, sometimes.
Then came the TV. Fast-forward and now it's more 'cool' to know about The Simpsons than it is to know about Milton's "Paradise Lost" or Joseph Conrad's Heart of Darkness. If you can quote The Sopranos, or pull a quick Clint Eastwood impression, who cares if you know about Shakespeare, or Catcher in the Rye, or any classic novel? Who cares if you know about philosophy or psychology when you can quote Parry Mason or MacGuyver, or Will Ferrel portraying Sean Connery from SNL?
Add in the computer, and the internet. Now people can go to Sparknotes.com or PinkMonkey.com or some place like that, and get a summation, study guide, outline, etc. without ever having to read the book.
Americans as a whole have become steadily dumber *cough BUSH cough* and we're doing nothing to stop it. If the United States and her citizens want to remain a world power, we need to be a world leader in philosophy, education, philanthropy, arts, history -- Europeans can name more facts about America than Americans can! -- linguistics, etc. How can we as a nation hope to be respected by the rest of the world when we are basically a slovenly bunch of bellicose morons? Ask a teenager in today's society what Ralph Wiggum says about his cat's breath, they'll tell you instantly. Ask a teenager in today's society (American society, I mean) what brought about the collapse of the USSR, or the circumstances surrounding Armenian Genocide Day (April 24th, for those of you who don't know), or why the Berlin Wall was a big deal, or even why we don't trade with Cuba...ask them any of these things and you've got a good chance at a wrong answer or no answer at all.
During the Renaissance in Italy, arts were fostered and praised, intellectuals were thought of as prizes, as people worth knowing about and talking to, as scholars who could help solve the world's problems if only the politicians would listen. Innovation was accepted, folded in willingly. New ideas, new concepts, new schools of thought, were all accepted because people knew that new ideas were just as valid as old ideas, they merely lacked the historical support base of them. Paintings suddenly had perspective, anatomy was researched openly, not with grave robbing, science and religion clashed on some issues and formed new schools of thought on others. New inventions, new styles, new fashions...everything was embraced.
Nowadays any new movement has to start out underground. It has to hide--HIDE--from society at large until it has a support base large enough to ensure its survival against the merciless Banshee-like howls of the conservatives (not political conservatives, but those who want to keep things societally stagnant) and the lemmings, zealots, and buffoons of our "great" society. If our society is to survive at all, we must innovate, we must accept new ideas as valid, we must realize that the day things stop changing is the day things stop living. We need to get off our collective asses, walk away from the TV, step away from the computer for part of the day, get out, and live. Libraries need to once again become a place where kids that everybody wants to be like go. Reading needs to be made into something interesting and fun and engaging.
We change, or we fall. It's really going to be that simple.
Then the radio came along. With the broadcast, it rapidly became more cool to know about the radio mystery that was aired the night or the week before than it was to know about the newest mystery novel released, or the newest Sherlock Holmes adventure...or the oldest Sherlock Holmes novel. People began becoming more enthralled with radio than with books. Books became a tool of the intellectuals, the academics, and very few others. Students, sometimes.
Then came the TV. Fast-forward and now it's more 'cool' to know about The Simpsons than it is to know about Milton's "Paradise Lost" or Joseph Conrad's Heart of Darkness. If you can quote The Sopranos, or pull a quick Clint Eastwood impression, who cares if you know about Shakespeare, or Catcher in the Rye, or any classic novel? Who cares if you know about philosophy or psychology when you can quote Parry Mason or MacGuyver, or Will Ferrel portraying Sean Connery from SNL?
Add in the computer, and the internet. Now people can go to Sparknotes.com or PinkMonkey.com or some place like that, and get a summation, study guide, outline, etc. without ever having to read the book.
Americans as a whole have become steadily dumber *cough BUSH cough* and we're doing nothing to stop it. If the United States and her citizens want to remain a world power, we need to be a world leader in philosophy, education, philanthropy, arts, history -- Europeans can name more facts about America than Americans can! -- linguistics, etc. How can we as a nation hope to be respected by the rest of the world when we are basically a slovenly bunch of bellicose morons? Ask a teenager in today's society what Ralph Wiggum says about his cat's breath, they'll tell you instantly. Ask a teenager in today's society (American society, I mean) what brought about the collapse of the USSR, or the circumstances surrounding Armenian Genocide Day (April 24th, for those of you who don't know), or why the Berlin Wall was a big deal, or even why we don't trade with Cuba...ask them any of these things and you've got a good chance at a wrong answer or no answer at all.
During the Renaissance in Italy, arts were fostered and praised, intellectuals were thought of as prizes, as people worth knowing about and talking to, as scholars who could help solve the world's problems if only the politicians would listen. Innovation was accepted, folded in willingly. New ideas, new concepts, new schools of thought, were all accepted because people knew that new ideas were just as valid as old ideas, they merely lacked the historical support base of them. Paintings suddenly had perspective, anatomy was researched openly, not with grave robbing, science and religion clashed on some issues and formed new schools of thought on others. New inventions, new styles, new fashions...everything was embraced.
Nowadays any new movement has to start out underground. It has to hide--HIDE--from society at large until it has a support base large enough to ensure its survival against the merciless Banshee-like howls of the conservatives (not political conservatives, but those who want to keep things societally stagnant) and the lemmings, zealots, and buffoons of our "great" society. If our society is to survive at all, we must innovate, we must accept new ideas as valid, we must realize that the day things stop changing is the day things stop living. We need to get off our collective asses, walk away from the TV, step away from the computer for part of the day, get out, and live. Libraries need to once again become a place where kids that everybody wants to be like go. Reading needs to be made into something interesting and fun and engaging.
We change, or we fall. It's really going to be that simple.