Marc Schultz

Al Gore Did Not Invent Reason
May 23, 2007

With yesterday's release of Al Gore's The Assault on Reason, Mr. Tennessee's carefully-honed method of netting popular and political support by popularizing small-but-growing cultural movements--witness the cultural/industrial zeitgeists that are the internet and the green movement--meets its greatest challenge: making reason cool again (by taking on, of course, the "unprecedented and sustained campaign of mass deception" propagated by the usual suspects). And hey, more power to him--I'm no fan of irrationality, pollution or writing longhand.

Still, I've got to wonder--and, mind you, I haven't read it yet--what Gore makes of the conditions by which the "campaign of mass deception" worked. That is, how does a society get to the point where it will buy, without much questioning, the blatant lies handed them by a corrupt system of authority?

A professor named Eric Larsen (not Devil in the White City Larsen, he's Erik with a K) released a book last year called A Nation Gone Blind: America in an Age of Simplification and Deceit, a title (which we starred) that addresses the real assault on reason--that is, the 50-60 year roots of the current cultural boondoggle. It's a fantastic book of keen cultural reporting, closely-observed lit-crit and a brutal state-of-literature-studies analysis that's probably inspired more that one English department to string up an effigy.

And believe it or not, it's a page-turner: rich, funny, brilliant and revelatory throughout. I'm sure Gore's newest will make a fine introduction to Gone Blind--and, if there's any justice, he'll drag Larsen into the bestseller charts with him.

Posted by Marc Schultz on May 23, 2007 | Comments (0)