 | |
| The Sleep of Reason Produces Monsters: Plate 43 of The Caprices (Los Caprichos), 1799 Francisco de Goya y Lucientes (Spanish, 1746–1828) Etching, aquatint, drypoint, and burin |
From the Metropolitan Museum of Art. Goya is another of my favorite artists, and Los Caprichos (a series of etchings satirizing the corruption of Spanish society) is amazing.
And for some reason, this excellent, angry rant by Charles Simic in the New York Review of Books seems appropriate for today.
Widespread ignorance bordering on idiocy is our new national goal. It’s no use pretending otherwise and telling us, as Thomas Friedman did in the Times a few days ago, that educated people are the nation’s most valuable resources. Sure, they are, but do we still want them? It doesn’t look to me as if we do. The ideal citizen of a politically corrupt state, such as the one we now have, is a gullible dolt unable to tell truth from bullshit.and
What we have in this country is the rebellion of dull minds against the intellect. That’s why they love politicians who rail against teachers indoctrinating children against their parents’ values and resent the ones who show ability to think seriously and independently.
No comments:
Post a Comment