| Most Americans are enthusiastic supporters of their | | | | same: the vast quantity of television Americans |
| own civic rights, but few bother to meet any | | | | watch leaves virtually no time (at least during the |
| would-be democrat's (or any would-be republican's, if | | | | workweek) for anything else -- no time to read, |
| you prefer) number-one responsibility: that of keeping | | | | write, or cipher anything unrelated to our jobs or |
| oneself sufficiently literate and well informed to be | | | | maybe a favorite hobby or two. And so we become |
| able to vote rationally and knowledgeably. Mountains | | | | a nitwit nation, with most of its citizens comfortable |
| of too-long ignored evidence show that the vast | | | | operating within their own little worlds of work, |
| majority of our nation's citizens cannot possibly meet | | | | family, TV, familiar social activities, and errands, but |
| that responsibility -- that their functional literacies are | | | | self-deprived of the time necessary to practice the |
| so limited that our form of government can't | | | | art of thinking and acting like a citizen. |
| accurately be called a "democracy." The word, rather, | | | | One wonders what our republic might be like if its |
| is "ochlocracy": government based on the uninformed | | | | constituents suddenly saw fit to struggle by on only, |
| passions and whims of the mob. | | | | say, three hours of TV time per day, and gave the |
| In 1988, the United States Congress mandated a | | | | remaining hour to something more enlightening. If the |
| massive study on adult literacy in America. Some of | | | | unthinkable were to happen and we were to |
| the nation's most highly esteemed testing and | | | | disengage from our tubes once in awhile, how might |
| evaluation specialists fanned out across the country, | | | | we best hone and exercise the essential skills we |
| interviewing and testing literally thousands of citizens, | | | | need to cast responsible ballots? |
| young and old, rich and poor, educated and not. The | | | | How about reading some mind-stretching books? |
| result, published in 1993 as "Adult Literacy in | | | | Those who like to sentimentalize books in general |
| America," showed that at least 96 percent of | | | | tend to gush naive nonsense, and the old saying that |
| America's adults were unlikely to be able to perform | | | | it doesn't matter what you read as long as you read |
| tasks that one might think preposterously simple. | | | | something is the purest idiocy. It couldn't possibly |
| Specifically, the study showed that only tiny | | | | matter more. Americans are tremendous buyers and |
| percentages of us can dependably do such things as | | | | readers of books (on weekends, perhaps) but the |
| (1) read and demonstrate basic comprehension of a | | | | dominant varieties are genre fiction and self-help |
| 1-page juror information sheet; (2) peruse and explain | | | | books. Those may be fine for what they are, but |
| essential elements presented on a 1-page printed | | | | how they'll strengthen the Union -- or their readers' |
| table such as one might receive at a school board | | | | basic literacies -- is beyond me. |
| meeting; or (3) explain how to solve a simple | | | | So what "should" a citizen of the republic be reading? |
| consumer arithmetic problem. | | | | A little bit of everything -- because in a democracy, |
| Subsequent studies (such as the Organisation for | | | | one needs to know at least a little bit about pretty |
| Economic Co-operation and Development 's "Literacy | | | | much everything. We need to read that which might |
| in the Information Age," published in 2000), tend to | | | | make us more mentally agile and better informed |
| confirm the general impression one is left with after a | | | | about our world, be it works of science, history, |
| close reading of "Adult Literacy in America": that we | | | | economics, quality literature ... the choices are endless, |
| as a people simply don't have the kinds of tool | | | | and we need to say yes to as many of them as |
| knowledge and basic skills necessary to sustain any | | | | possible, as often as we possibly can. In a |
| democracy worthy of the name. In other words, as | | | | democracy, functional literacy demands promiscuous |
| citizens, the vast majority of Americans are | | | | reading, including but certainly not limited to books. |
| functionally illiterate. | | | | Apart from the fact that books can disseminate |
| "If you don't use it, you lose it," the saying goes, and | | | | essential information (which TV or the Net can, |
| that's a major reason we've come to this sorry pass: | | | | arguably, do more efficiently), there's another aspect |
| we're too busy doing other things to keep our minds | | | | of reading them that makes our doing so essential to |
| from atrophying -- and one of those "other things" | | | | the health of the republic. Reading well-written books, |
| overshadows all the rest as our most villainous time | | | | unlike watching most TV shows or cruising through a |
| thief. Let's do a little arithmetic. From the 24-hour day | | | | succession of websites, demands sustained and |
| we all start with, we'll subtract seven hours for the | | | | nuanced thought. It's easy to spend countless hours |
| abbreviated night's sleep that most of us get. Our | | | | in front of the television or on the Internet without |
| workdays may be eight hours in theory, but they | | | | ever having to examine an idea of any consequence |
| often go longer, and then there's the commute, | | | | for more than a few seconds, if at all. When |
| work-related errands, etc., so subtract another nine | | | | democracy's working its hardest and best, it's a |
| hours. A day's meals, personal hygiene, and household | | | | deeply involved and profoundly complicated |
| chores will consume about two more hours -- more if | | | | enterprise. It requires that its practitioners focus on |
| meals (including preparation, consumption, and | | | | vexing problems, see many sides and shadings of a |
| cleanup) are permitted to last longer than 30 minutes | | | | given question, and a find creative and satisfying |
| each. A million other unpredictables (answering emails | | | | solutions: precisely the kinds of mental processes one |
| or phone calls from friends or family, soccer practice, | | | | is led through over the course of most well-crafted, |
| car problems, surfing the Net, card club, a talkative | | | | demanding books. Reading worthwhile books is a |
| neighbor -- whatever) will inevitably conspire to | | | | form of democratic calisthenics for the mind. |
| relieve us of a couple more. That leaves about four | | | | Simply turning off our TVs and reading the best |
| available hours, give or take, per weekday. | | | | books we can find won't necessarily strengthen the |
| Care to guess how much TV Americans watch, on | | | | republic or heal the world. But it couldn't hurt, and our |
| average, every day? Could it be ... four hours? Yep. | | | | continued failure to do so is causing incalculable harm. |
| In 1961, FCC Chairman Newton Minnow famously | | | | Democracy may be what we want, but until we as a |
| called TV a "vast wasteland." Maybe it was, maybe it | | | | people acquire the habit of stretching our minds a |
| is, maybe not. But let's leave questions of quality | | | | whole lot further than we presently do, ochlocracy is |
| aside for the moment. Whether one's TV viewing | | | | most assuredly what we shall have. |
| choices are ridiculous or sublime, the arithmetic is the | | | | |