Previous Photo:World Resources Institute Staff, Creative Commons, Flickr
A day after finishing Al Gore’s new book, "The Assault on Reason," an image flashed before me: Gore is like a bookend to William Jennings Bryan, another interesting American who never got to be president. I think Bryan may be best known to people with a Northeastern public school education, like my own, as the losing side in "Inherit the Wind." I think my education, perhaps, missed the point about Bryan completely. And the schism post-Bryan created the space for the modern Republican party, and everything Gore dislikes.
The Gore book is good, and I recommend it. Even better is to read the Wikipedia entry on Bryan as a chaser to "The Assault on Reason," and then take a deep breath. A pure and complete vision of America may unfold before you. A view which prompts the question: do the emotional benefits of the Enlightenment flow to everyone equally?
Gore is distressed by the irrational state of discourse in the US today; it’s safe to say Bryan would be the one in greater shock. In a twist worthy of Orwell’s "Animal Farm," Bryan’s old nemeses — the corporations and moneymen — ultimately joined interests with evangelical churches in an economic and cultural power lock that has defined American politics for thirty years, even as income disparities grow wider and the lot of the working class grows harsher.
I found "The Assault on Reason" inspiring and frustrating, but then, it is about an inspiring and frustrating subject. Our country includes, on its resume, the moon landing, the Internet, the human genome project, and a newly opened, slickly designed museum of creationism. America so dominates higher education that it is now home to eighteen of the top twenty universities in the world. Our largest embassy, with a staff of 1000, stands in an Arab country we’ve invaded, knew nothing about, botched the occupation of, and where our military now struggles desperately to stop a civil war. Among that enormous, embattled embassy staff, only six of them are fluent in Arabic (the other 994 must pass the days talking to each other).
America has more than 1000 billionaires, dwarfing the country next in rank, Germany (55), followed by Russia (53).
According to Harper’s, the percentage of Republicans in Congress who believe humans are causing climate change has dropped from 23% in April, 2006, to 16% in January, 2007 (perhaps because the last election removed many moderate Republicans, or Republicans looking for photo ops with Bono).
Despite China’s recent boom in manufacturing, America is still the most vital arena for capitalism, and the world’s greatest magnet for talent. And yet the seemingly wild imperial blunders/missions of liberation of post-WWII America have been damaging to both American citizens and to the image of the country abroad, as well as devastating to many hundreds of thousands of innocents (and a few less innocent) caught in the path of the world’s remaining superpower. How does this American democracy work? How does democracy work? How does reasoning work?
As with his earlier book "An Inconvenient Truth," Gore has chosen a terrific subject. And of the two books, the subject of "The Assault on Reason" is paramount. How democracies reach decisions is the urgent, overarching question of which climate change policy, and our future in Iraq, are just parts. As American citizens, we are stuck with each other: two-fisted CEO’s, middle managers, burger flippers, the employed and unemployed, the churched and the unchurched. If our nation makes good or bad decisions as a democratic society, we are responsible as a group.
I think, to be a useful American, and not just a freeloader on the system, perhaps one needs to begin to build one’s own mental picture of the country, a picture that somehow accounts for the contradictions pointed out above. To do that you’d have to be curious about yourself and the origins of your own views, and then be curious about others as well, especially those from parts of the country with differing opinions or outlooks.
Curiosity is the opposite of ideology (an exercise I occasionally do upon waking up is to try to figure out why I’m not a creationist, since half or more than half of my fellow citizens are — and they usually get to pick the president).
Gore’s book focuses more on the mechanics of our system of government and less on sociology. He concentrates on developments that he feels distort the voice of the people (chiefly money and television). He also recounts the history of the present administration and various damages to democracy that he sees as resulting from Bush policies. He avoids talking about the emotional chemistry of the US — and I’m not sure you can fully investigate American democracy and not address the cultural and regional differences; for instance, the role of status and personal narrative in how people view their own lives and whom to vote for — but for an introduction to modern problems in democratic theory, "The Assault on Reason" is a good place to start (just as "An Inconvenient Truth
The main thing is to begin thinking about America. "The Assault on Reason" can be your starter kit.
Full disclosure: Two years ago I wrote a proposal for a multimedia project on American democracy which wrestles with some of the problems Gore identifies.
For that project, I wrote an essay on democracy and television, which includes samples of commercials used for political and consumer marketing. This essay was in response to a talk by the sociologist Francesca Polletta on the nature of storytelling within deliberative groups. Polletta has been studying the public, democratic deliberation groups set up to help determine the design and rebuilding of the World Trade Center site.
Footnote: Books that might fit into this American symphony with Bryan and Gore about work and identity, include Louis Uchitelle’s "The Disposable American" and Jack Welch’s "Winning." For a book founded on the premise that people like to be irrational if and when irrational behavior raises their status, see Eric Hoffer’s indispensable "The True Believer."