Bad Or, the Dumbing of America

by Paul Fussell

Book Overview

The author of Class has created a satirical reference work that excoriates those things in modern life that are promoted as simply wonderful but are, in fact, BAD. Paul Fussell writes that we are... This description may be from another edition of this product.

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0671792288
• ISBN13: 9780671792282
• Release Date: January 1992
• Publisher: Touchstone Books
• Length: 201 Pages
• Weight: 0.60 lbs.
• Dimensions: 0.6" x 5.5" x 8.4"

Customer Reviews

Elitist . . . not a bad word today

I've come to think that Fussell may well be right on all counts. Since when is elitist a bad thing? If you're ill, don't you want an elite physician? If you're trusting your money management to someone, don't you want them to be elite; the very best at what they do? How about the people teaching your children? Do you care of they're elite at what they do? No? Stop reading. Listening to the crying children disguised as adults puling about how horribly elitist those who hold a differing opinion or insist on a higher standard must be, I've got to believe we've now hit the bottom of what Neil Postman predicted in "Entertaining Ourselves to Death." That is, the end of public discourse based upon informed and skeptical thinking. It is now nothing more than opinion, bad information (although BAD information seems to be leaking in daily), and what seems to be, as Fussell mentions "complete ignorance of the laws of cause and effect." Teach your kids to think. Send them to an elite school. That way they need not be the fools led by the knaves. They can scare the knaves.

Sometimes over-the-top yet valuable

Fussell's ability to gainsay any grove of academe that is less than Ivy-League comes from his teaching at one, no doubt. As in "Class," I think that he shows too little sympathy for children of the lower or middle classes who sincerely wish to "improve themselves" but whose curious eyes are bigger than their wallets; and to the schools that are open to them. Self-improvement projects are one characteristic of the American middle class, at least traditionally, that it is only cruel to ridicule in principle, and there just isn't room enough in Harvard et al. to accommodate everyone. Aside from this quibble, however, I'm all with the admiring commentators. Particularly telling is the chapter on BAD engineering, in that this output is eventually identifiable. While the BADness of a hat or a piece of music may be thought entirely a question of taste, some things need to WORK: a bridge that collapses into the water or an airplane that falls out of the air all by itself is an undoubted failure. Then comes an interesting QED, perhaps more implied than explicit: the uncanny resemblance between the producers and promoters of BAD engineering and those of BAD things-that-people-say-are-relative. Maybe they aren't so relative, after all.

Should be Required Reading in High School

For me, this book had one especially redeeming quality among its many - No longer could I consider myself the grouchiest grouch on the planet.By cutting through our phony pomposity and inability to recognize quality, Fussell exposes our us as a nation of shallow, self-congratulating losers who believe that it is alright to delude ourselves into believing we are something we are not. Specifically, deep thinking, conscientious citizens. To take something that is merely bad, and by promotion and hyperbole, convince the public that it is not bad, but good and even better than all the rest - we then achieve BAD. From movies to books to ideas to ostentatious restaurants and all the rest. Personally, I loved his skewering rant of the soapy Andrew Lloyd Webber, who, along with Mickey Mouse are my personal poster twins for the Dumbing of America. And if Fussell ridiculed the elections of Ronald Regan and George H. Bush, one can only wonder what the temperment of the book might be if it were being written today. Since this book was published, much more BAD has crept into our lives. From overbearing and attention needing cell phone abusers to major market quick read newspapers that make USA Today seem almost journalstic, our addiction to BAD behavior and kitsch make us considerably more transparent than we were when the book was published in 1991.I have enjoyed some of the reader comments in this section. Especially the comments from those who are offended by the fact that Fussell has challenged the ideas with which they have been branded. Their offense comes not at the fact that their institutions have been attacked, but that they have been duped into believing that these very institutions were necessary, important and relevent. On the downside, the book ended simply as a criticism, without relief. Unlike Steve Allen's "Dumbth," where dozens of suggestions for improvement are offered from one of the most thoughful minds of the century, B.A.D. sheds precious little light in the direction of redemption. The book could have used a few more chapters pointing the way. Nonetheless, I highly recommend this book to parents, teachers, students and to anyone in our society who believes that a college degree is a synonym for education, or that walking around the mall is the epitomy of cultural achievement.

I'd rather be a curmudgeon than a drooling moron drone

This book is for preaching to the converted, but Fussell's impeccable vehemence that Americans get their heads out of their asses and 1) foster some common sense and 2) get the Nike and Coca-Cola tattoos removed from their foreheads (my words) and 3) try to stop what little culture (pop culture doesn't count here) America has from spiraling down the drain of apathy, ignorance, and love of the asinine is all right by me. Just because Fussell isn't the first person to point out how stupid people are doesn't lessen his argument---there still are idiots out there, aren't there, Mr. Kendall? A gazetteer for the pissed

An intelligent, witty, often scathing commentary on society

This book is an insightful, tongue-in-cheek look at American society. Fussell argues that American culture elevates many tacky, tasteless or outright dumb phenomenon to the level of "BAD" by promoting them as elegant, luxurious, intelligent or otherwise desirable. The author examines many realms in which this occurs, including advertising, airlines, banks, hotels (the mint on the pillow phenomenon does not go unscrutinized), books, poetry, beliefs and ideas. BAD... or, the Dumbing of America is a delightful book, full of sardonic wit and astute observations