dumb.public.articles


 * Citizenship crisis #1: an unreasonable age/are we getting dumber/less interested in public affairs **

much of the public fails basic citizenship tests

http://www.thedailybeast.com/newsweek/2011/03/20/how-dumb-are-we.html

- Susan Jacoby, //Age of American Unreason// - Jacoby interview - [] - Al Gore, //The Assault on Reason// - Charles Pierce, //Idiot America// - Richard Hofstadter, //Anti-Intellectualism in American Life// - //The Dumbest Generation// or //Just How Stupid Are We// or //Empire of Illusion// - //The Shallows// (article = “Is Google Making Us Stupid”) - The author on NPR - [] [|//The Googlization of Everything (and Why We Should Worry)//] = new book voter stupidity [] how much do voters know? [] <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman','serif'; font-size: 16px;">How dumb are we? <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman','serif'; font-size: 16px;">[] <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman','serif'; font-size: 16px;">- See also political speeches by George Wallace or George Bush for examples of anti-intellectualism as a political strategy. <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman','serif'; font-size: 16px;">- Colbert on truthiness <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman','serif'; font-size: 16px;">we used to revere scientists/inventors. now kardashians. what happened? <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman','serif'; font-size: 16px;">[] <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman','serif'; font-size: 16px;">on political dumbing down: congressional speeches have gone down a grade level <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman','serif'; font-size: 16px;">[] <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman','serif'; font-size: 16px;">on the grade levels of different sections of newspaper writing <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman','serif'; font-size: 16px;">[]

<span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman','serif'; font-size: 16px;">is twitter a distraction or a tool for democracy during pres debates? a video debate
 * <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman','serif'; font-size: 16px;">Resources on the decline of public participation/withdrawing from public life. **

http://billmoyers.com/content/is-twitter-a-tool-for-democracy-or-distraction/

<span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman','serif'; font-size: 16px;">- Robert Putnam, //Bowling Alone// = foundational reading <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman','serif'; font-size: 16px;">- “Social capital” books as follow ups <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman','serif'; font-size: 16px;">- Daniel Rodgers argument – used to see more mentions of the collective in prez speech, among women, among black people - //the great fracture – we talk less about citizenship and sacrifice. Now we talk about jobs, personal growth, a better you, myspace, ipads, itouch, if the 80s was the me decade, then what is happening now is positively narcisscitic, self-love// <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman','serif'; font-size: 16px;">- World becoming more privatized, more individualized, more gated, more niched, more segmented, people not seek out conflicting opinion (the web is dead [] ) <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman','serif'; font-size: 16px;">- Furedi - On tolerance - book – the reluctance to challenge others’ opinions <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman','serif'; font-size: 16px;">- new book for lecture content - “Going Solo: The Extraordinary Rise and Surprising Appeal of Living Alone” <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman','serif'; font-size: 16px;">[] <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman','serif'; font-size: 16px;">- book for lecture content - Saving Persuasion: A defense of rhetoric and judgment <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman','serif'; font-size: 16px;">is facebook making us lonely? <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman','serif'; font-size: 16px;">[|http://www.theatlantic.com/magazine/archive/2012/05/is-facebook-making-us-lonely/8930/\] <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman','serif'; font-size: 16px;">refuting atlantic cover story - facebook not making us lonely <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman','serif'; font-size: 16px;">[] <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman','serif'; font-size: 16px;">in nothing we trust: the decline of faith in all public institutions. a case study in muncie, indiana <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman','serif'; font-size: 16px;">[] <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman','serif'; font-size: 16px;">modern fascination with freedom is a fascination with being separate <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman','serif'; font-size: 16px;">[] <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman','serif'; font-size: 16px;">we use to call ourselves citizens, now consumers <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman','serif'; font-size: 16px;">[] <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman','serif'; font-size: 16px;">thoughts about civil society (including ideas about putnam) <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman','serif'; font-size: 16px;">[] <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman','serif'; font-size: 16px;">the internet is shrinking public thought, creating more insularity <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman','serif'; font-size: 16px;">[] <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman','serif'; font-size: 16px;">on media, distraction, and attention spans - nicolas carr <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman','serif'; font-size: 16px;">[]

<span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman','serif'; font-size: 16px;">american education has NOT declined

http://www.slate.com/articles/technology/future_tense/2012/06/science_education_myths_that_keep_us_from_fixing_the_system_.html

test scores for homes with a bunch of TVs and those without Tvs http://bleedingheartlibertarians.com/2012/09/case-study-socratic-practice/

the rise of the public? first there were TOMS shoes, and now philanthropy through beer. "compassionate consumption" vs. "conspicuous consumption" http://philanthropy.com/blogs/philanthropytoday/beer-a-new-giving-frontier-as-cities-sprout-charity-pubs/61327?cid=pt&utm_source=pt&utm_medium=en