Well, I'm with you in theory, but that's about it.

I was amused by the jacket copy on Charles Pierce's Idiot America: How Stupidity Became a Virtue in the Land of the Free:

"The culture wars are over. The idiots have won. This pisses Pierce off immensely. Like all cynics, he's secretly a romantic at heart, and his disbelieving anger is fueled by the knowledge that America doesn't have to be this way. Like an Old Testament prophet (albeit an agnostic, funny one), Pierce lets loose on the foibles of society in the secret hope that, somehow, being smart will stop being a stigma and idiots will once again be pitied and not celebrated. But don't get your hopes up."

Pierce is a journalist and appears regularly on NPR; he can write and his prose is reasonably entertaining. But I'll admit I never got past the first chapter, in which his chief evidence that idiots are taking over is a line from a New York Times article about intelligent design, in which the reporter wrote that the ID movement "have mounted a politically savvy challenge to evolution as the bedrock of modern biology, propelling a fringe academic movement onto the front pages and putting Darwin's defenders firmly on the defensive."*

Really. That's the sentence he holds up as the shining example of the ridiculousness of the idiocy in our society.

Nothing against Pierce, but if that's the best he can do, I'm not impressed. I might suggest that a greater break with reality is evident in the phrase "keep government out of my Medicare," which I actually saw people say on the news last week. I think a bigger problem is that very few people could probably tell you what the theory of evolution actually is, or how it differs from intelligent design; and that another large chunk of the population simply hates the New York Times on principle because they think it is elitist or too smart. But that's just me.

In all, don't bother with this book. Pick up Joe Bageant's Deer Hunting with Jesus: Dispatches from America's Class War instead--it's a million times more interesting and provides a nice mix of empathy and frustration, which Pierce's book totally misses.

*Authors always lose me when they start pointing out that only idiots would ever have any questions about evolution. I find the entire debate deeply uninteresting (I've never really understood why it's even a debate, frankly, since one of the major religious tenets seems to be that if you believe in God, you believe God can do anything, so why couldn't God set evolution in motion?), but I always think it's hilarious when anybody holds up a belief in evolution as the gold standard of intelligence. Richard Dawkins falls firmly into that camp too, and you know what? He's boring too. Maybe boringness and the tendency to sound like an asshole evolved along with the need to make everyone accept evolution as gospel** truth in writers of this sort.

**Pun intended.

Comments

[Tripp]

I hear you on the tone of these books. A lot of them have a Cartman-esque take your marbles and go home attitude. Rather than engage they would like to sit in their Upper West Side coffee shops and roll their eyes at the rubes.

Deer Hunting with Jesus, though, is awesome and it is that mix of empathy and frustration that makes it sing.

[Rachael]

This looks like one of those books whose best feature is it's cover art. Also, the evolution/Dawkins comments made me laugh so hard my whole office is staring. Thanks for that.

[Jessica]

I agree. I read it and laughed quite a bit a few times, but I couldn't help feeling that there were more and better examples of idiocy in our culture. Sometimes I got a bit bored, too, which is sad because I sped through it in one sitting.

I'd like to see a version of "Talk to The Hand" dealing with willful ignorance. Maybe Lynn Truss could write something called "Don't Confuse Me With the Facts."

[Brandon]

Have you stepped outside recently? Watched the news? Actually spoken with anyone? You don't need to prove it with articles. People *are* stupid, and Americans in particular think it's cute. I've long believed that we're a nation of idiots, and your sentence--"I think a bigger problem is that very few people could probably tell you what the theory of evolution actually is"--proves why: because Americans are lazy. We're too lazy to read, too lazy to find out what evolution is. American idiocy is willful.

Fucking idiots, all of you.

[Citizen Reader]

Tripp,
I don't mind if they want to sit and roll their eyes, I just expect them to be more witty while they do so. This book definitely did not live up to its dust jacket promises of being "funny." I can't blame him; it's hard to do--that line between angry and funny is a tricky little bastard. The only person I've really seen who can nail both is Matt Taibbi, frankly, and perhaps he just does it through the use of lots and lots of profanity.

Glad you liked "Deer Hunting..." I actually feel like re-reading that one, if I can stand it.

Rachael,
Glad you enjoyed it. I hope the Dawkins comments weren't unduly offensive; I really don't like him so I have a hard time not taking the cheap shots where I can get them. :)

Jessica,
Yup, I could even have forgiven the evolution stuff, but I do not forgive boringness in humor books. Oh, Lynne Truss! Where is she these days? Now she knows how to do cranky.

[Citizen Reader]

Brandon,
Actually, you're getting pretty close to the magic combination of angry and funny. (See? It must be the profanity.) Taibbi, watch your back.
p.s. And no, a large part of my mental health regime is NOT watching the news. If it's any consolation, I don't think people worldwide are doing a whole lot of reading or figuring things out--they all have new electronic gadgets to shop for, figure out, play with, and then replace (all in the space of just a few months, I would guess).

[Donna]

Once a door-to-door religious zealot my bell and asked me if I believed in evolution or "God's creation". I said, "I believe in both...that God created evolution." The person was speechless; I quietly closed the door.

[Citizen Reader]

Donna,
Priceless. I was very young when I heard my Dad wonder aloud about the creation in seven days scenario in the Bible--"how do we know how long God's days are?"--and I have never forgotten that.

Sometimes it's just nice to have an answer that you can live with, isn't it?