inkbluesky

Call Me a Snob, but Really, We’re a Nation of Dunces

“The mind of this country, taught to aim at low objects, eats upon itself.” Ralph Waldo Emerson offered that observation in 1837, but his words echo with painful prescience in today’s very different United States. Americans are in serious intellectual trouble — in danger of losing our hard-won cultural capital to a virulent mixture of anti-intellectualism, anti-rationalism and low expectations.

[ ]…First and foremost among the vectors of the new anti-intellectualism is video. The decline of book, newspaper and magazine reading is by now an old story. The drop-off is most pronounced among the young, but it continues to accelerate and afflict Americans of all ages and education levels.

Reading has declined not only among the poorly educated, according to a report last year by the National Endowment for the Arts. In 1982, 82 percent of college graduates read novels or poems for pleasure; two decades later, only 67 percent did. And more than 40 percent of Americans under 44 did not read a single book — fiction or nonfiction — over the course of a year. The proportion of 17-year-olds who read nothing (unless required to do so for school) more than doubled between 1984 and 2004. This time period, of course, encompasses the rise of personal computers, Web surfing and video games.

I’ve only read part of Susan Jacoby’s book “The Age of American Unreason” and while I think she has some very worth while thoughts on the dumping down of the national intelligence her case would be stronger if she had sited more academic studies. The title to her article gets to part of the problem. To start the discussion one has to get past the howls of elitism and accusations of snobbery. What’s wrong with being simple folk that don’t always have their nose stuck in a book. It is possible to be both down to earth and have a lifelong intellectual engagement with the world and ideas. Humility and and the desire to better one’s understanding of the world are not mutually exclusive. The other side of this philosophical coin is the near exaltation of ignorance, to use the polite term, the mistrust and near contempt for  knowledge and the knowledgeable. Why is that not its own form  of snobbery, a circle of like minded worshipers of a life left unexamined.

pier at twilight 

 Abbey body identified as gay lover of Edward II 

 A mutilated body found in an abbey graveyard has been identified as that of a notorious medieval villain rumoured to have been the gay lover of Edward II.

The remains, which bear the hallmarks of having been hanged, drawn and quartered, are thought to be those of Sir Hugh Despenser the Younger, who was executed as a traitor in 1326.

Sir Hugh had been favourite of Edward II – who was widely believed to have been homosexual – but was brutally executed before a mob after the king was ousted from the throne.

The decapitated remains, buried at Hulton Abbey, Staffs, have intrigued experts since they were uncovered during the 1970s and now Mary Lewis, an anthropologist, says she has uncovered compelling evidence of their true identity.

The manner of execution, carbon-dating of the bones, and the absence of several parts of the body all point towards Sir Hugh being the victim, she said.

“If the remains are those of Sir Hugh Despenser the Younger, then this is the first time such an execution victim has been identified,” she added.

Sir Hugh insinuated himself into the king’s favour by backing him in his battles with the barons. Through a series of ruthless deals, he consolidated a huge fortune, winning himself a legion of enemies in the process, including Edward’s wife, Queen Isabella.

His downfall came when the queen and her ally, Roger Mortimer, deposed the king in 1326.

Sir Hugh was judged a traitor and a thief. He was hanged and, still conscious, castrated, disembowelled and then quartered before his head was displayed on London Bridge.

Quartered in this context means to be beheaded. At that time in England treason was considered a worse crime then murder and this series of things done to the accused, a kind of multiple death that included being dragged to the place of execution, hanged until death or near death, then disemboweled and finally quartered was standard punishment for male perpetrators. Females convicted of treason were burned at the stake which was considered a more merciful death.

- Just a note about the wallpapers people are downloading. I host them on blogger which as most of us know acts up on occasion. If the picture doesn’t download, wait a few hours and try again.