Where have all the intellectuals gone, by Frank Furedi, is a powerful and incisive critique of the dumbing down of culture and creativity. The author lays much of the blame for this on institutions, such as universities, who do not challenge our intellect enough but are preoccupied with producing a workforce to service the economy. Only fusty, old intellectuals engage in learning for learning’s sake.
I agree with much of the critique, but have a slightly different perspective. The dumbing down of culture and learning also serves another purpose, in addition to providing a workforce to serve the economy. Karl Marx spoke of religion as the opiate of the people. I think in our times dumbed down popular culture, imbued by consumerism, is the opiate of the people which keeps us occupied and satisfied while governments engage in all kinds of things in our name.
How else can one explain the success of the neo-conservatives in the US in creating a vague link between Saddam and Al Qaeda? How else can the lack of significant opposition, in the US, to the Iraq adventure be explained? Most of the world was highly sceptical of the embellished evidence that was used as a pretext for the war. Genuine democracy depends on alert, active and critical citizens.
In the UK, there was significant opposition to the war, but my fear is that, more generally, the “channel five-isation” of culture is moving apace.
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