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[wyvernfriend]

Was just reading The Middle Mind:why americans don't think for themselves aka in UK/Ireland The Middle Mind: why consumer culture is turning us into the living dead - although amazon calls it the same thing on both sides of the pond

Comments

[resqdog51]

Well.

I dunno about the kowtowing to the US bit, but the rest of it I pretty much agree with and I have no clue what to do about it.

but its annoying as all get out.

I will say that perhaps you ought not say 'kowtow to the US' and perhaps ought to clarify that with a 'kowtow to the US government', because so far as I know, a large number of US citizens (like myself) find ourselves more than a bit annoyed/baffled/runover/confused/ignored by our government as it storms its way around the world like a bull in a china shop.

...I'd rather have steak, thanks.

But for the rest of it -- yeah. Was the book any good? Its one I had on my 'to look into' list.

[wyvernfriend]

it's quite a short read at a little over 200 pages and he does drag you along the rantage. It reads like a series of articles which apparently some of it was before becoming a book, which makes it pretty easy reading. He sometimes overintellectualises and looks down on popular culture a fair bit. There's even a sideswipe at D&D where he (p 5) talks about Colleges "Not an elite Ivory tower as in the past, but something more like a strange, perhaps perverse, cult. A sort of Dungeons and Dragons with Ph.D.'s {1}
{1} I may have the wrong metaphor here. Thought and creativity have been "institutionalized" in our academies. I'm not sure if it's a prison or a madhouse or both. In any event, the inmates show little desire to "bust the joint".
He offers no solutions just asks questions, an intellectualised Michael Moore

[resqdog51]

*headdesk*

I just typed out a great long answer and then I hit the wrong button and totally deleted it. Argh. I HATE when that happens.

What it came down to was -- would you recommend this book? Or do you think its too puffed up with itself and its biases to really bother with?

[wyvernfriend]

it's the kinda thing you read once and return to the library, I'd recommend it but it's a bit puffed up with itself. Kinda 50/50.