Education

The State of the American Mind

16 Leading Critics on the New Anti-Intellectualism

by Adam Bellow, Mark Bauerlein Review by David Lorimer, August 2015

Published: 2015
Publisher: Templeton Press
Format: Hardback
Pages: 260 pp
ISBN: 9781599474588

Publisher’s description

In 1987, Allan Bloom’s The Closing of the American Mind was published; a wildly popular book that drew attention to the shift in American culture away from the tenants that made America—and Americans—unique. Bloom focused on a breakdown in the American curriculum, but many sensed that the issue affected more than education. The very essence of what it meant to be an American was disappearing. That was over twenty years ago. Since then, the United States has experienced unprecedented wealth, more youth enrolling in higher education than ever before, and technology advancements far beyond what many in the 1980s dreamed possible. And yet, the state of the American mind seems to have deteriorated further. Benjamin Franklin’s “self-made man” has become a man dependent on the state. Independence has turned into self-absorption. Liberty has been curtailed in the defense of multiculturalism. In order to fully grasp the underpinnings of this shift away from the self-reliant, well-informed American, editors Mark Bauerlein and Adam Bellow have brought together a group of cultural and educational experts to discuss the root causes of the decline of the American mind. The writers of these fifteen original essays include E. D. Hirsch, Nicholas Eberstadt, and Dennis Prager, as well as Daniel Dreisbach, Gerald Graff, Richard Arum, Robert Whitaker, David T. Z. Mindich, Maggie Jackson, Jean Twenge, Jonathan Kay, Ilya Somin, Steve Wasserman, Greg Lukianoff, and R. R. Reno. Their essays are compiled into three main categories: States of Mind: Indicators of Intellectual and Cognitive Decline These essays broach specific mental deficiencies among the population, including lagging cultural IQ, low Biblical literacy, poor writing skills, and over-medication. Personal and Cognitive Habits/Interests These essays turn to specific mental behaviors and interests, including avoidance of the news, short attention spans, narcissism, and conspiracy obsessions. National Consequences These essays examine broader trends affecting populations and institutions, including rates of entitlement claims, voting habits, and a low-performing higher education system. The State of the American Mind is both an assessment of our current state as well as a warning, foretelling what we may yet become. For anyone interested in the intellectual fate of America, The State of the American Mind offers an accessible and critical look at life in America and how our collective mind is faring.

Some readers may recall the famous book by Allan Bloom - The Closing of the American Mind, published in the late 1980s. This new volume of 16 essays takes the general view that the American mind, 'which used to be governed by religious liberty, entrepreneurship, limited government defined by the constitution, and individualism tempered by a civic virtue' - the self-reliant and well-informed citizen - has now lapsed into habits of 'ignorance, narcissism, entitlement, sensitivity, inexpressiveness and distraction.' This amounts to a new anti-intellectualism that also pervades even the culture of colleges where students spend minimal time actually studying with very little input of reading and output of writing.

In the introductory essay, ED Hirsch restates his argument for cultural literacy, which is elaborated in the first part with contributions on low biblical literacy, poor writing skills, a low performing higher education system and the prevalence of overmedication based on the pharmaceutical revision of psychiatry after DSM-III - many more Americans are now on psychotropic drugs that alter the way they think. The second part looks at specific mental behaviours and interests, including not keeping up with the news, scattershot attention, the overvaluing of self-belief in relation to actual performance, and a very tendentious and rather dismissive essay on conspiracy theories that fails to sort the wheat from the chaff. It is revealing to read about the increase in dependency entitlements and the extent of political ignorance. There is also a very interesting essay on the age of feelings where emotional relativism is applied to moral questions. Overall, the book paints a depressing picture of the state of the American mind but it also provides suggestions for recapturing the qualities that defined the American character, albeit from a basically conservative stance.

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