Idiot America by Charles Pierce (January 2021)
I first read this book in 2012, when I assume I regarded it as something along the lines of a clever tirade, like maybe a book-length version of Jimmy Kimmel's opening monologue. This reread felt a little different, more like that moment after the laughter when respite cedes the stage to reality; it was the same thing, but it was a different reading.
The premise of Idiot America should resonate with the average TOA reader - in this country, there is a stigma associated with intelligence. Pierce explores this idea throughout the book, bringing together American history, current events, and various anecdotes into a wide-ranging overview of the war against expertise. The fact of the book's publication in 2008 tempts me to suggest that it was something of a prophecy for the present, which has achieved at least one aspect of Pierce's vision - everyone and anyone is an expert, meaning no one is - but those with a fuller perspective will understand that this was always inevitable. I enjoyed this book, but as I alluded to above I would not go so far as to suggest it is enjoyable.
There is much more from my book notes that I would have once pointed out, but the good old days of extended reading reviews are long behind us. So, to the trivia question, which is perhaps appropriate to a theme in the book - America is a country that, as Pierce notes, is often entertained but rarely engaged, preferring information to knowledge, demonstrating the ethos of trivia. So, 25 million climate refugees. Did you guess a date in the future? I never had the pleasure of testing my knowledge, but I certainly wouldn't have said 1995. I did a little additional searching just now to see if I could cross-reference the fact. It seems to have come from British environmentalist Norman Meyers, whose methods have come under attack since he shared the figure. It's possible that the number is a little high, but I also know that Exxon-Mobil funded climate think tanks. The problem, I suppose, comes back to expertise, and the challenge of knowing whom to believe in a country whose greatest existential threat is its glorification of ignorance.
TOA Rating: Three conspiracy theories out of four.
