The Ripple Effect of Illiteracy

           In his article, “America the Illiterate,” Chris Hedges describes the daunting effects illiteracy is having on our nation. To Hedges, literacy is not the simply ability of reading words on a page but the ability to comprehend and critically think about what one is reading. The whole article was troubling for me because I was unaware how high illiteracy rates were in our nation. My mouth literally dropped when I read the paragraph about the statistics of illiteracy that revealed that nearly a third of the nation is “illiterate or barely literate.” These numbers become extremely concerning when Hedges illustrates the ripple effect it is having on our country. Every aspect of our culture is being dumbed down so the one-third can understand. Complex issues are replaced by simple dichotomies. Politics, books, films, and every aspect of our culture glorifies entertainment over substance. “Cultural products that force us to examine ourselves and our society are condemned as elitist and impenetrable.” We cannot address the complex, deep-seeded issues that plague our country simply because most people cannot understand. These people “lack the capacity to search for truth and cope rationally with our mounting social and economic ills. They seek clarity, entertainment and order.” One excerpt that I found especially disturbing was the opening of the last paragraph: "The core values of our open society, the ability to think for oneself, to draw independent conclusions, to express dissent when judgment and common sense indicate something is wrong, to be self-critical, to challenge authority, to understand historical facts, to separate truth from lies, to advocate for change and to acknowledge that there are other views, different ways of being, that are morally and socially acceptable, are dying.” We seem to be doomed to a nation of mindlessness where pictures replace words and entertainment replaces value.

            Many connections are made between Nichols Carr and Chris Hedges’ articles. Both authors focus on the dwindling mental capacity and intelligence of America due to a culture that has facilitated us becoming this way. The culture we live in wants everything to be quick and easy to understand. Nobody values anything complex or difficult to understand. People are losing the ability to be intelligent, critically thinking individuals and instead cling to easy to understand ideas and images. Hedges and Carr are both worried about the direction are nation is headed.