The Dumbest Generation Summary

It appears that in today’s society, intellectual beings, or “geeks” and “nerds” as they’re often referred to, are being pressured in everyday life events because they don’t quite seem to “fit in” even though they are the backbone of America’s economical and technological advances. Although these “nerds” play an important role in keeping America ahead in the scholarly and technological world, they’re rarely ever praised, for instead, they are bashed and labeled with derogatory terms for being too much of a “geek.” As for Leonid Fridman, he addresses America’s behavior towards “nerds” in his essay, “American Needs Its Nerds,” by using irony and antitheses to draw attention to anti-intellectualism values in America and uncover how society is stepping down on its “geeks” and “nerds.”

Many intelligent kids are being overlooked because of the stigma of being a “nerd,” as well as the fact that anti-intellectualism is becoming more popular. A man, author Grant Penrod, wrote “Anti-Intellectualism: Why We

Jacoby seeks to answer how and why these barriers negatively affect this “Age of American Unreason”. In Jacoby’s book she explain how American’s have become less and less intellectual over the year due to our culture our distraction. In order to understand what constitutes such anti-intellectualism in our culture, we must first understand what it means to be an intellectual. By doing this, it will help us understand why many American’s today lack such intellectualism.

In chapter one of The Dumbest Generation, Mike Bauerlein makes several statements about our generation and comes to a conclusion that helps set the groundwork for the entire book. His analysis of today’s youth states that the current generation is lacking when it comes to intellectual knowledge. He provides evidence that states that today’s under-thirty population in the United States does not have adequate knowledge, and their lack of knowledge with affect them greatly in their adulthood years.

Society has created labels to where being intellectually well-formed is an inadequate trait. Through examples and flaws in society, Fridman establishes his argument for “America Needs Its Nerds.” He states that at a school as esteemed as Harvard, “anti-intellectualism is rampant” (9). When the name Harvard is heard, one tends to think of adjectives such as, respected, intelligent, and prestigious. Thus, the impulse to think that people at Harvard are embarrassed to admit how much they study is slim. Even so, Fridman expresses that if people at Harvard are ashamed to admit their intelligence then there is definitely something wrong with society’s perspective. He shares this opinion when he states that “a society that has only derogatory terms”

Richard Hofstadter, Pulitzer Prize winner in 1964 for his book, "Anti-Intellectualism In American Life", describes how anti-elite and anti-science like ways of thinking have been instilled into America’s political and social

Mark Bauerlein seems to believe that is the dumbest generation because research has shown that knowledge skills and intellectual habits have gone down, and although some people agree with him, others don’t. I believe this generation isn’t the dumbest because there are other things that need to be considered when calling someone, a group of people, or even an entire generation stupid or dumb, rather than just knowledge skills and intellectual habits.

Jaded from seeing humanities uprisings first hand, he knows that they are nothing more than symptoms of an underlying disease. Because of his experience, he is able to see more deeply into the truth of American ideology, but he is unable to do much about it. As he says, “Once you figure out what a joke everything is, being the Comedian's the only thing that makes sense” (Moore and Gibson, Part 2, Pg. 13).

In the Journal of Protective Coatings & Linings, the article, “Generation Matters”, outlines the differences in human characteristics based on which generation they are from. Although, the article is using a non-traditional broadcast, JCPL (2015) states, “while using stereotypes and generalization can be very dangerous”, the idea is to help leaders in corporate America know and understand how to communicate and adapt to their generational employee traits. The article explores four separate generations, which are Traditionalists, Baby Boomers, Generation X, and the Millennials focusing on their strengths and weaknesses. The article shares the ideal lifestyle of each generation, with some being more dedicated to climing the corperate ladder

The education geared to numb and dumb equates Generation Zero. Bradley, no amount of money would entice yours truly to marijuana, alcohol, and tobacco. Carolyn stated correctly, "A challenge to resist the above contributes to an overall quality of life. And adding to my list fast foods, casino, meat, and senseless entertainment. All the above make the organism numb, dumb, obese, and

If it wasn’t for people acting against conformity and developing their interests in academics America wouldn’t be where it is in technical advancements. Fridman argues that for America’s success it’s necessary that, “the anti-intellectual values that pervade our society must be fought” to raise more citizens to be intellectual (Fridman 20-21). He urges for society’s values to be challenged in order for individuals to get more involved with educating themselves. Fridman points out, “There are very few countries in the world where anti-intellectualism runs as high in popular culture as it does in the U.S.”

“The cult of ignorance in the United States: Anti-intellectualism and the "dumbing down" of America” is a editorial about the decrease importance in intellectuals. Anti-intellectualism is defined as a person who believes that intellect and reason are less important. This editorial was written by Ray Williams.

This generation influence the students negatively and has allowed them to act in an inappropriate matter. Internet is a part of their daily life and is used to “short-cut” the assignments from school. Students aren’t able to reflect for themselves but only to rely on the internet. This makes them complacent about being dishonest to get a decent grade. They will think that it is okay to cheat as long as they aren’t caught

1. Moore provides evidence to support his contention that America is a nation of idiots by stating, “There are forty-four million Americans who cannot read and write above a fourth grade level –in other words, who are functional illiterates” (Colombo 122) and also explains how he feels as if America wants to keep individuals “stupid” and “ignorant” (Colombo 123). I do agree with his statement that there are many people who cannot read higher than a fourth grade level, but I do not believe that America wants to keep the public as being “idiots.” Many individuals are college dropouts and even high school dropouts in my opinion, but that does not

Anti-Intellectualism is defined as a person opposed to or hostile toward intellectuals and the modern academic, artistic, social, religious, and other theories associated with them. Anti-intellectualism defines a person who believes that intellect and reason are less important than actions and emotions in solving practical problems and understanding reality. Anti-Intellectualism is an epidemic worth acknowledging; its prevalence in America is one of the nations most major hindrances to solving the problems it faces collectively. Anti-intellectual sentiment has its basis mostly in misunderstanding, but a persistent stream of misinformation spewed by the impassioned yet hollow rhetoric of shallow politicians and self-proclaimed orators has only served to maintain ignorance. Here I hope to explain the history and causes of anti-intellectual belief as it has manifested and grown in the United States of America and to demonstrate the detrimental effect it has had and will have on our nation, continuing on to encourage whoever might view this essay to reverse this trend by embracing objective problem-solving and developing an interest in critical thinking and the sciences.