The Numbing of the American Mind: Culture as Anesthetic Essay -- Thoma

ENLIGHTENED SURRENDERHow some essays obtain been written about Ameri stinker culture? Howmany books dedicated to the penetrative scrutiny of every aspect of ourmodern society? Countless thoughts, non-finite theoriesmany of themlost in the very chaos that the authors spent three hundred pages explaining. Thereare al tracks solutions, which their creators seem entirely convinced give solvethis mess, just now the truth is that these ideas are often impractical and unrealistic. alone no one writes an entire book complaining without offering ussomething at the conclusion. Sociologists parade around with their ownsuperfluous speculations, conflicting and contradictory, but this must bebetter than unresolved pessimism, right?Thomas de Zengotita doesnt seem to think so. In his essay, Thenumb of the American Mind stopping point as Anesthetic, he discusses theperceptual overload of Americans and the differing and indistinguishablelevels of reality in which we exist. He claims that mos t people dont knowand cant recognize what is real what is not. There are so many differentkinds of realityhe lists sixteen out of manyand they cook all in all stimulateso intertwined into our lives that they bleed together. As a moderate of thesediscrepancies, we can no longer appreciate the differences between what isimportant and what isnt. victimisation modern examples like the events ofSeptember 11th and the medias response to them, de Zengotita explainshow weve become numb to things so enormous, so horrific, so stark, thatwe believe the great blob of virtuality that is our mankind culture wouldbe unable to absorb it (342). It is a typical retread of American societypessimistic and dauntingthough his sarcastic fancy and nonchalantattitude are... ...ous diagnosis of a seriouscondition. Would we rather not know about it because it happens to beincurable? This goes much deeper than subject matter, or political bias,the usual folder. It determines the way we frame everythin g . . . the attitudewe bring to supporting in this world of surfaces. (de Zengotita 350)No amount of truth can ever bring about change on the grand scale, butthe way you chose to function within it will define the difference betweenprisoner and progressive. In expressing a helplessness to do nothing, deZengotita has accomplished more than all the theories in the world.It was to have been the end of irony, remember? (de Zengotita 340)Works CitedZengotita, Thomas de. The Numbing of American Minds Culture as Anesthetic. 2002.The Text Wrestling Book. Eds. Donna LeCourt, et al. Dubuque, Iowa Kendall Hunt,2005. 340-351.