While I won't disagree, she was particularly prescient in describing how society can degrade when the Organs push the masses towards "feel-good" soft sciences instead of those boring old hard sciences and objectivity.
It's one of her better points, although I'm not as down on 'soft sciences' as you are and I think we probably define them differently.
Human beings and groups of human beings are not reducible to numbers. Numbers are helpful, but they do not tell the whole story and they can't be the sole basis for decision-making. For example, none of us function particularly well in systems where we feel like we're "just another number," or where our value is determined by a few numbers.
And IMO Economics is the softest of soft sciences, a quasi-religious and contradictory dogma that exists to justify greed and waste. To reiterate your views on hard sciences, my view is that unless economic theory starts and ends with the Laws of Thermodynamics it's destructive, and utterly useless for organizing a durable civilization.
By "Soft Sciences" I mean curricula like "Gender Studies" and such, instead of what if often referred to as "STEM", (Science, Technology, Engineering and Math).
If the US' society keeps forcing the educational onus to be non-STEM for much longer, we'll reach that "AHAH!" moment that Dr. Robert Stadler eventually crossed in Rand's work, I fear too late in both cases.
I definitely share your anxiety on that point, but I define the problem a little differently. In brief, I think the problem is borne from cultural institutions acting to maximize profits and preserve power.
We've defined "high-status" jobs as requiring a degree/credential, and we've told generations of children they can be "whatever they want to be" when they grow up. Neither of these assumptions squares with how an economy works. An economy creates jobs based on market signals and public needs. But that doesn't matter. Young people were long convinced that the path to success is a college degree in __X__.
The university system, driven by profit, has become a credentialing factory. Prospective students are essentially seeking a piece of paper, the credential they need to access the high-status jobs. Universities are happy to deliver the desired product to "students" (customers) for a profit. The rich can buy their children the credentials they need for the high-status jobs they want. All the other students must enter into a scheme of indentured servitude, and everyone else must suffer earning less than they are worth because they don't have the phony credential.
Essentially, it's a system for entrenching hierarchy. On the other end of this whole process is an economy, and its needs don't match the outputs from the university system. We're seeing the results: millions of recent grads who find there aren't enough jobs for all the liberal arts BAs of the world, and extreme shortages of technical workers.
To meaningfully change this dynamic we need to redefine "high status" to be more aligned with productive contributions to society. Engineers, technicians, teachers, and other skilled workers all need to be paid much better. Paper pushers should be paid much less. Status follows salaries, so over time this changes the incentives, and people chasing new incentives changes the system.
You encapsulate the madness that is rapidly spreading here in the US in this one quote, Irina:
"“Many years ago someone told me something that I flatly refused to accept. And I still don't accept it now, despite all the times I've seen it proved right."
We are now being told that one can have "Their Own Truth", (See Transgenderism), and that history is merely a "telling", and that different author's/narrator's "Tellings" must be accepted as fact. (See "The 1619 Project").
Objective truth is an extinct species in my country, and I fear that in no more than 2 generations we won't have anyone left with the smarts to keep the lights on and the machines running.
Objective truth is on its way out in all progressive societies, sadly, but I have to give it to you and the Brits -- you're really outdoing yourselves. That said, I still believe in common sense and that it will eventually prevail. Perhaps after a few plane crashes and patient deaths caused by PC hiring practices.
Sadly, I agree, and yes, the Anglosphere's race to the bottom is particularly painful to behold. I still have some faith in common sense as you do, but it too has reached "Endangered" status in the US.
I have a 16 year-old son who is both smart and somewhat worldly for his age, but his generation believes that if they simply watch a "YouTube" video of a guy rebuilding a V8 engine, they would be able to do it on their own as just as well as the "Experts".
I hope age will show him and his cohorts the superiority of hands-on versus "eyes-on" experiences.
There's a quick way to find out this is not the case -- they should just try it. Reminds me of my daughter's enthusiastic attempts to emulate Bobby Duke and the consequent realisation woodworking only looks easy. Very educational.
In most cases their projects never get past the discussion stage, but when they do make the attempt(s) they indeed find out that it's much harder than it appears in a highly-edited video.
I had to talk them out of trying to cram a Honda 4 Cyl. car engine into a Jet Ski just yesterday, not sure if I was entirely successful or not.....
Prior to my current job, which leaves no time for it, I pursued fiction writing. Through a different medium than journalism, I wanted to explore themes about civilization, energy and prosperity -- and how a privileged life in a wealthy society creates an opportunity for a vain outrage at your own privilege, which is projected onto society.
I didn't want the story to be a platform to advance my own political ideas. It's about finding meaning and purpose in life when you've moved well beyond satisfying basic needs. (A lot of Maslow's Pyramid themes were woven into the narrative.) So, the protagonist is an environmentalist who is placed in a scenario where civilization collapses, and she falls back to the bottom on the pyramid. That challenged me as a writer to make a relatable character whose politics I disagreed with and do so with sympathy and understanding. It's a great writing exercise to imagine your political opponents as humans with qualities that others can relate to., and then weave them into a sympathetic narrative.
Of course, in the woke, progressive crowd, they never engage in that kind of exercise. They demonize those with whom they disagree and view them as possessing no redeeming qualities. That's why their movies, literature and comedy are just terrible.
I would very much like to read this story. Where can I find it?
I remember a quote by Stephen King that I strongly agree with, even though I disagree with the man's politics and more. He says that if you just tell a story, the themes will find their way into it, even if you don't try. Of course, a lot if brilliant writing purposely treat certain themes, as you say about your work, but even those that don't, have them. Me, I write silly supernatural stories with happy endings to get a break from reality and to see what happens to people who don't exist outside my head and yet, there's always the theme of human nature there. It's the ultimate theme I never tire of exploring.
I never finished it. I worked on it daily for a couple years, when I had a job that didn't require 60 hours per week. I engaged critique partners extensively, which required a lot of time reading their work and giving them feedback. I also paid some professionals to compare their feedback with those I got from my partners. I had a lot to learn, but I was getting better and better. Then, I saw an opportunity to be an energy reporter. When I move on to a less demanding job, I'll pick up the fiction writing again.
I have been a voracious reader since age 6 as well. As a child, the books I read grabbed me, took me with them and made me feel as if I was right there living the story along with the characters. A few of my favorites include The Black Stallion, Heidi, Anne of Green Gables, Little House on the Prarie, The Hobbit, The Chronicles of Narnia series. None of these books tried to indoctrinate me, instead they made me think critically, have an imagination, and mainly just get lost in a wonderful story. And they made me want to read more and more and there isn't a day that goes by that I don't read for pleasure for at least an hour.
So much youth and young adult fiction is simply leftist indoctrination, and none of it positive. While I agree many books are making people stupider, not quite as much as video games, snap chat and tik-tok. I believe this is the point, the powers that be don't want critical thinkers, the want us all to be prolls. Which is why we must keep reading books, and substack's (such as your's Irina) that will enlighten us and not just give us knowledge, but also inspiration to stop this madness and make real, positive change. For us and our children.
“One day, you will be old enough to start reading fairytales again.” ― C.S. Lewis, The Chronicles of Narnia
The dumbing down of the Gen Pop has been going on for decades now. Just wait for AI to kick into full gear! I believe some of the authors/books you refer to have already deployed AI in their undertakings.
I love fiction, mostly sci-fi. What draws me in are the characters, their flaws and the environment. What keeps me reading is the basic human pursuit of love, purpose, and redemption. Lately I have bought books, started them and discarded each one because of what you describe. Besides the classic Sci-fi/Fantasy that everyone loves, Cloud Atlas really sticks with me for the very reason great literature never gets old. A more recent version along a similar vein, (though it had a rushed ending), is Cloud Cuckoo Land. Otherwise the recent offerings in Fantasy have been Meh. As a mother of a 2 Millennials and a Generation Z daughter, I am learning about subjective truth from ones "lived experience". This explains why Tik Tok is considered a medium to learn new things by the younger generation, Everything is from an individuals point of view and how they perceive the experience as truth. Not sure I get it as an old fashion thinker who likes to think about objective truth. Go figure.
Perfect assessment of the current aims of "literacy". I'm a writer and lifetime reader of everything. What kids are reading today is worthless artistically and downright sinister in intent. Adults also consume trashy stories by the truckload, along with even larger deliveries of garbage TV. It's too late to stop it, IMO. We can only prepare for the outcomes.
On the slightly bright side, I suspect that smart kids will come to resent being lectured every time they open a book or watch a movie. They will be bored with having to wade through a character's "lived experience" in lieu of a colorful adventure or spooky mystery. Maybe tiresomeness will be crushed under its own weight.
I also consume literary trash and am not ashamed to admit it but at least I know it's trash. Kids could rebel against the lecturing if they're smart, as you say, and if they have some experience with non-lecturing. Enter the all-time classics -- old editions, before the censorship crusade began. I'm extremely happy I've got a copy of "Tom Sawyer" from the 80s and that's the copy my daughter read last year.
Here's my suggestion. Since the books are in English and the translations are in Bulgarian, who's to know if the translation is an improvement rather than a faithful mapping. If it was me, and I thank God it isn't, I would just write my own YA novel loosely based on the characters in the book and relating somehow to the illustrations but having the cultural and philosophical messages that I felt in my own heart were most appropriate. Seriously, what could happen?
I couldn't agree with you more - great article. We have been dumbing down now for some time, watched it coming over the last 40 or so years (you can see so much when you get old!) - still wondering where the wonder really is for kids anymore - no imagination left! So sad. Without that where is the joy now? When you are spoon fed your visual, auditory and tactile stimuli everyday you really don't have to do much. So now we (people in general) have become extremely lazy! I also wonder how many kids read anymore unless it's required?
Oh, some do, voluntarily and from an early age. Others, like my kid, prefer anything to reading but even she does have a couple of favourites that have been re- and re-re-read, so there's hope. I've learned the hard way a personal example doesn't always work but gentle parental direction and "I'm not buying you this huge and expensive epic fantasy until you read the last one you begged for and then didn't even start" also has potential. :D
Excellent articulation of a phenomenon I had only noticed in passing (I don't read lowbrow literature). Thank you for being a historian of our age of insanity.
“A bad author would force the message down the readers’ throat.” This is happening in TV and movies too and is a real reason why it’s so hard to find something worth watching.
Ray Bradbury saw this coming.
So did Ayn Rand.
And Aldus Huxley.
And George Orwell.
And in some cases, CS Lewis.
Ayn Rand was also bad fiction, little more than ham-fisted dogma dressed up as a character drama.
While I won't disagree, she was particularly prescient in describing how society can degrade when the Organs push the masses towards "feel-good" soft sciences instead of those boring old hard sciences and objectivity.
It's one of her better points, although I'm not as down on 'soft sciences' as you are and I think we probably define them differently.
Human beings and groups of human beings are not reducible to numbers. Numbers are helpful, but they do not tell the whole story and they can't be the sole basis for decision-making. For example, none of us function particularly well in systems where we feel like we're "just another number," or where our value is determined by a few numbers.
And IMO Economics is the softest of soft sciences, a quasi-religious and contradictory dogma that exists to justify greed and waste. To reiterate your views on hard sciences, my view is that unless economic theory starts and ends with the Laws of Thermodynamics it's destructive, and utterly useless for organizing a durable civilization.
By "Soft Sciences" I mean curricula like "Gender Studies" and such, instead of what if often referred to as "STEM", (Science, Technology, Engineering and Math).
If the US' society keeps forcing the educational onus to be non-STEM for much longer, we'll reach that "AHAH!" moment that Dr. Robert Stadler eventually crossed in Rand's work, I fear too late in both cases.
I definitely share your anxiety on that point, but I define the problem a little differently. In brief, I think the problem is borne from cultural institutions acting to maximize profits and preserve power.
We've defined "high-status" jobs as requiring a degree/credential, and we've told generations of children they can be "whatever they want to be" when they grow up. Neither of these assumptions squares with how an economy works. An economy creates jobs based on market signals and public needs. But that doesn't matter. Young people were long convinced that the path to success is a college degree in __X__.
The university system, driven by profit, has become a credentialing factory. Prospective students are essentially seeking a piece of paper, the credential they need to access the high-status jobs. Universities are happy to deliver the desired product to "students" (customers) for a profit. The rich can buy their children the credentials they need for the high-status jobs they want. All the other students must enter into a scheme of indentured servitude, and everyone else must suffer earning less than they are worth because they don't have the phony credential.
Essentially, it's a system for entrenching hierarchy. On the other end of this whole process is an economy, and its needs don't match the outputs from the university system. We're seeing the results: millions of recent grads who find there aren't enough jobs for all the liberal arts BAs of the world, and extreme shortages of technical workers.
To meaningfully change this dynamic we need to redefine "high status" to be more aligned with productive contributions to society. Engineers, technicians, teachers, and other skilled workers all need to be paid much better. Paper pushers should be paid much less. Status follows salaries, so over time this changes the incentives, and people chasing new incentives changes the system.
The few true visionaries among us saw a lot of what is currently happening coming but of course no one listened. Human nature.
You encapsulate the madness that is rapidly spreading here in the US in this one quote, Irina:
"“Many years ago someone told me something that I flatly refused to accept. And I still don't accept it now, despite all the times I've seen it proved right."
We are now being told that one can have "Their Own Truth", (See Transgenderism), and that history is merely a "telling", and that different author's/narrator's "Tellings" must be accepted as fact. (See "The 1619 Project").
Objective truth is an extinct species in my country, and I fear that in no more than 2 generations we won't have anyone left with the smarts to keep the lights on and the machines running.
Objective truth is on its way out in all progressive societies, sadly, but I have to give it to you and the Brits -- you're really outdoing yourselves. That said, I still believe in common sense and that it will eventually prevail. Perhaps after a few plane crashes and patient deaths caused by PC hiring practices.
Sadly, I agree, and yes, the Anglosphere's race to the bottom is particularly painful to behold. I still have some faith in common sense as you do, but it too has reached "Endangered" status in the US.
I have a 16 year-old son who is both smart and somewhat worldly for his age, but his generation believes that if they simply watch a "YouTube" video of a guy rebuilding a V8 engine, they would be able to do it on their own as just as well as the "Experts".
I hope age will show him and his cohorts the superiority of hands-on versus "eyes-on" experiences.
There's a quick way to find out this is not the case -- they should just try it. Reminds me of my daughter's enthusiastic attempts to emulate Bobby Duke and the consequent realisation woodworking only looks easy. Very educational.
In most cases their projects never get past the discussion stage, but when they do make the attempt(s) they indeed find out that it's much harder than it appears in a highly-edited video.
I had to talk them out of trying to cram a Honda 4 Cyl. car engine into a Jet Ski just yesterday, not sure if I was entirely successful or not.....
ha, natural inquisitiveness. Both a blessing and a curse...
Indeed! However, still better than more unsavory lifestyle choices I guess.
I was able to deflect that particular situation, though, as I sold the Jet Ski Friday afternoon!
Prior to my current job, which leaves no time for it, I pursued fiction writing. Through a different medium than journalism, I wanted to explore themes about civilization, energy and prosperity -- and how a privileged life in a wealthy society creates an opportunity for a vain outrage at your own privilege, which is projected onto society.
I didn't want the story to be a platform to advance my own political ideas. It's about finding meaning and purpose in life when you've moved well beyond satisfying basic needs. (A lot of Maslow's Pyramid themes were woven into the narrative.) So, the protagonist is an environmentalist who is placed in a scenario where civilization collapses, and she falls back to the bottom on the pyramid. That challenged me as a writer to make a relatable character whose politics I disagreed with and do so with sympathy and understanding. It's a great writing exercise to imagine your political opponents as humans with qualities that others can relate to., and then weave them into a sympathetic narrative.
Of course, in the woke, progressive crowd, they never engage in that kind of exercise. They demonize those with whom they disagree and view them as possessing no redeeming qualities. That's why their movies, literature and comedy are just terrible.
I would very much like to read this story. Where can I find it?
I remember a quote by Stephen King that I strongly agree with, even though I disagree with the man's politics and more. He says that if you just tell a story, the themes will find their way into it, even if you don't try. Of course, a lot if brilliant writing purposely treat certain themes, as you say about your work, but even those that don't, have them. Me, I write silly supernatural stories with happy endings to get a break from reality and to see what happens to people who don't exist outside my head and yet, there's always the theme of human nature there. It's the ultimate theme I never tire of exploring.
I never finished it. I worked on it daily for a couple years, when I had a job that didn't require 60 hours per week. I engaged critique partners extensively, which required a lot of time reading their work and giving them feedback. I also paid some professionals to compare their feedback with those I got from my partners. I had a lot to learn, but I was getting better and better. Then, I saw an opportunity to be an energy reporter. When I move on to a less demanding job, I'll pick up the fiction writing again.
I have been a voracious reader since age 6 as well. As a child, the books I read grabbed me, took me with them and made me feel as if I was right there living the story along with the characters. A few of my favorites include The Black Stallion, Heidi, Anne of Green Gables, Little House on the Prarie, The Hobbit, The Chronicles of Narnia series. None of these books tried to indoctrinate me, instead they made me think critically, have an imagination, and mainly just get lost in a wonderful story. And they made me want to read more and more and there isn't a day that goes by that I don't read for pleasure for at least an hour.
So much youth and young adult fiction is simply leftist indoctrination, and none of it positive. While I agree many books are making people stupider, not quite as much as video games, snap chat and tik-tok. I believe this is the point, the powers that be don't want critical thinkers, the want us all to be prolls. Which is why we must keep reading books, and substack's (such as your's Irina) that will enlighten us and not just give us knowledge, but also inspiration to stop this madness and make real, positive change. For us and our children.
“One day, you will be old enough to start reading fairytales again.” ― C.S. Lewis, The Chronicles of Narnia
Yes, yes, and yes!
YouTube and TikTok are bad, too, and don't get me started on all those superhero "universes" and the black-and-white view of the world.
The dumbing down of the Gen Pop has been going on for decades now. Just wait for AI to kick into full gear! I believe some of the authors/books you refer to have already deployed AI in their undertakings.
That would be... disappointing. I wonder if they have so little self-respect to let AI do their job.
I love fiction, mostly sci-fi. What draws me in are the characters, their flaws and the environment. What keeps me reading is the basic human pursuit of love, purpose, and redemption. Lately I have bought books, started them and discarded each one because of what you describe. Besides the classic Sci-fi/Fantasy that everyone loves, Cloud Atlas really sticks with me for the very reason great literature never gets old. A more recent version along a similar vein, (though it had a rushed ending), is Cloud Cuckoo Land. Otherwise the recent offerings in Fantasy have been Meh. As a mother of a 2 Millennials and a Generation Z daughter, I am learning about subjective truth from ones "lived experience". This explains why Tik Tok is considered a medium to learn new things by the younger generation, Everything is from an individuals point of view and how they perceive the experience as truth. Not sure I get it as an old fashion thinker who likes to think about objective truth. Go figure.
The notion of "lived experiences" confuses me. Everyone's experiences are "lived".
Perfect assessment of the current aims of "literacy". I'm a writer and lifetime reader of everything. What kids are reading today is worthless artistically and downright sinister in intent. Adults also consume trashy stories by the truckload, along with even larger deliveries of garbage TV. It's too late to stop it, IMO. We can only prepare for the outcomes.
On the slightly bright side, I suspect that smart kids will come to resent being lectured every time they open a book or watch a movie. They will be bored with having to wade through a character's "lived experience" in lieu of a colorful adventure or spooky mystery. Maybe tiresomeness will be crushed under its own weight.
I also consume literary trash and am not ashamed to admit it but at least I know it's trash. Kids could rebel against the lecturing if they're smart, as you say, and if they have some experience with non-lecturing. Enter the all-time classics -- old editions, before the censorship crusade began. I'm extremely happy I've got a copy of "Tom Sawyer" from the 80s and that's the copy my daughter read last year.
Here's my suggestion. Since the books are in English and the translations are in Bulgarian, who's to know if the translation is an improvement rather than a faithful mapping. If it was me, and I thank God it isn't, I would just write my own YA novel loosely based on the characters in the book and relating somehow to the illustrations but having the cultural and philosophical messages that I felt in my own heart were most appropriate. Seriously, what could happen?
It's for the children.
LOL. They don't pay me enough for that and there are editors, too.
I couldn't agree with you more - great article. We have been dumbing down now for some time, watched it coming over the last 40 or so years (you can see so much when you get old!) - still wondering where the wonder really is for kids anymore - no imagination left! So sad. Without that where is the joy now? When you are spoon fed your visual, auditory and tactile stimuli everyday you really don't have to do much. So now we (people in general) have become extremely lazy! I also wonder how many kids read anymore unless it's required?
Oh, some do, voluntarily and from an early age. Others, like my kid, prefer anything to reading but even she does have a couple of favourites that have been re- and re-re-read, so there's hope. I've learned the hard way a personal example doesn't always work but gentle parental direction and "I'm not buying you this huge and expensive epic fantasy until you read the last one you begged for and then didn't even start" also has potential. :D
Thank you. Brilliant and spot-on.
Just as the Bible does (especially the Complete Jewish Bible), your article made me think.
Very happy to hear it! Thank you.
“I’ve always read voraciously, insatiably, and greedily, even before I was taught how to read critically (and that adverbs should be used sparingly).”
I hope everyone caught your very subtle play on words there!! Nice!
Critical thinking was not allowed in 1984 and os not allowed in 2023. Groupthink is all that can safely be allowed by the ones in control.
Oh, well, the fringe it is for you and me. :)
Naw, YA will find better writing. There's an endless market.
BTW, here's great writing that works with our energy fantasies: "Tell me everything I wanna hear
Anything but the truth" Samantha Fish "Money To Burn"
Great quote, thanks!
Her song is even better.
Listening to it right now. Great song, great voice.
Excellent articulation of a phenomenon I had only noticed in passing (I don't read lowbrow literature). Thank you for being a historian of our age of insanity.
It is my dubious pleasure. :)
It's becoming more insidious every day. Thank you for peeling another layer of another rotten onion.
“A bad author would force the message down the readers’ throat.” This is happening in TV and movies too and is a real reason why it’s so hard to find something worth watching.
https://open.substack.com/pub/hoisttheblackflag/p/tell-me-a-story?r=26wsm2&utm_medium=ios&utm_campaign=post
All excellent points, thanks for sharing. And to be fair, Carl did die in the end, wandering off and doing a stupid thing! :D
LOL. Ya, but that was long after I stopped watching.