Mention the term “zombie” to any pseudo-contemporary and you will undoubtedly get a laundry list of film references – from the legendary George Romero’s Night of the Living Dead to Marc Forster’s more up-to-date take on a plague of undead, World War Z. In the company of brain-eaters, it could be argued that we Americans are just as wary of those capable of thinking for themselves. In a country dominated by commercialism and an unrelenting mass media, the life of the mind has not only been forgotten, but turned against. As noted in the words of Ralph Waldo Emerson: “The mind of this country, taught to aim at low objects, eats upon itself.”
For an entire young population raised on a steady diet of beyond-the-bleeding-edge, ever-changing technology and so-called social media outlets requiring little if any physical interaction skills, has the notion of intelligence-driven communication abilities gone the way of the dodo bird…the rotary telephone…the 78 RPM record? It could be argued that today’s younger generation are slaves to the wills of those glowing rectangles that seemingly remain attached to their hands – sure, the mobile device revolution has in fact changed the way we obtain our information, but we’ve suddenly gone from viewing motion pictures in classic theater settings to playing them back on the go via a handheld screen just a few inches in size. Our entertainment absorption agenda has dropped to such an all-time low, many observers of this social phenomenon feel, that it’s not even about the art any longer…but merely how quickly we can download it, stream it or cloud it.
Compounding matters is the way video games, mobile devices and phone apps have irrevocably impacted the relationship we have with our personal intellects, with even public schools displaying an increasingly – and alarming – disinterest in teaching critical thinking skills. And into this nightmarish scenario comes the inevitable dismissal of pursuing the arts and sciences, as well as the careers of filmmakers, painters, sculptors, writers and culinary artists. It’s been reported that only 8% of college students now enter with an intent to major in the humanities.
In studying this cultural and socioeconomic phenomenon, many experts believe it begins with the education factor: In a sweeping trend, K12-level education has been focusing on standardized testing rather than encouraging rational, free-will-inspired thought while lesson planning and coursework has taken on similar adaptations. Then, there is the media element that’s at play, with a consolidation of the major corporations into merely six brands, limiting our access to not only information but entertainment choices – why this is important has more to do with the way we are now experiencing news events, as many sociologists feel this has become a biased element in current American history as well. Case in point: Recent political events, relentlessly covered on three major cable networks over the past year, were twisted in the ways in which they were reported depending on the agenda of the network and the demographic being catered to.
If that wasn’t enough of an eye-opener, there has also been a shift in the rationale behind what it means to be a “bookish” or an “intellectual,” at least in America. In a 1963, Pulitzer prize winning historian Richard Hofstadter published Anti-Intellectualism in American Life – a book that proves the “dumbing down” of America has been a long time coming. The suspicion of new ideas, and When Hofstadler first identified the waves of anti-intellectual sentiment washing over American shores in the earlier half of the 20th century, one shudders to think of how he would find our current digital culture of 24/7 infotainment.
With the mention of YouTube and other video media outlets comes the inevitable analysis of visual communication, and the way in which it has absolutely transformed the youth demographic of today. While there are still libraries and a dwindling number of bookstores, traditional “serious” reading has given way to an over-stimulating, largely-visual and information-spewing method of digestion – similar to the way in which serious music listening, very popular when “hi-fi” hit its peak in the 1970s and ‘80s, has gone by the wayside in favor of listening to compressed digital downloads – where data is obtained almost instantly on the handheld device of choice. Classic print channels of yesteryear, including newspapers, magazines and digests, are quickly being eaten up by video-based reading and advertising because today’s population want their information fast, to-the-point and on-demand.
In the 1950’s, it was McCarthyism which first aroused the fear that the “life of the mind” was under attack in America. Crusaders against Communism, and Communist leaders themselves (who would have had much use for the intellectual community) found an utmost contempt for what intellectuals concern themselves with. Ironically, while proponents of anti-intellectualism are typically devoted to certain ideas themselves (often those of an intellectual long dead i.e. Karl Marx) they cast hate towards the thinkers amongst their living contemporaries. This problematic situation has yet to be remedied, and as a result, we now live in a “wisdom vacuum”; a black hole of rational thought. As in zombie films such as Night of the Living Dead – widely available for streaming (info here) and on YouTube – there is no way to beat the deadening conformity of the hivemind. Given that the American consciousness continues to identify with the “zombie” narrative, we will likely continue to see more media commentary vis-a-vis the precariousness of our current cultural situation.
And perhaps that is the hidden message behind all of this: With “dumbed down” approaches to learning, it is no surprise that people today don’t want to read an entire article to get to the point, or don’t have the patience to scan more than a few words of an ad to figure out what they’re buying. However, in the midst of this Tea Party and post-Recession era, would it be so dreadfully awful to beg the question:
What’s so scary about brains?
Beth Kotz is a contributing writer for Shift Frequency
American Zombies: What’s so Scary about Brains? by Beth Kotz is
licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License.
“People with brains take good care of them. People who don’t, don’t deserve them.”
I read this on a bicycle helmet box about twenty years ago.