Are we dumbed down or just more postmodern?

I loved the wit of this photograph – surely one of the best interpretive photographs of the year? – 

socrates-knuckles

The photograph interprets the gist of an essay to be found on the Economist ‘Intelligent Life’ website.  The essay challenges the idea that we have been ‘dumbed down’

Where you can make direct comparisons, the serious end of a market is holding up as well as or better than the popular one. Take television. There certainly is no shortage of chewing gum for the eyes. But a clever quiz show such as “QI”, which one might have expected to have lasted a season, is now in its sixth year on BBC2. The even more upmarket radio programme “In Our Time” was the BBC’s first podcast, in 2004, and it was an instant hit. Janice Hadlow, the new controller of BBC2, recently told the BBC staff magazine: “I want to see intelligence in popular programming. It’s good to see it cropping up in all sorts of different places–not just those programmes where you might expect it.” 

Is the bottom line simply that more and more are enjoying more and more forms and types of culture – a case of not dumbing down but of becoming even more post-modern, a case of 32 flavours transforming into 64?

Author: Roger - Dr Roger Prentice

Now I write, teach and coach mainly self-understanding. At advanced levels About 21stC 'interfaith as inter-spirituality' - and how we can grow closer to our True Self. In the past I : . 1) I ran courses and give talks at conferences and in universities and colleges in the UK, China, USA, Canada, Scandinavia etc. . 2) I provided materials, outlines and lessons for Schools. . 3) My range of interests include personal development, learning and teaching, photography and film, the arts generally, spirituality and educational practice and theory. . 4) At the same time I continue developing the human-centred studies SunWALK PDS (People Development System) - a whole-person, high-achievement model for individuals, and for use in, NGOs, schools and other organizations. . 5) The key question that continues to animate me and my work remains, "What is it to be fully and positively human?" . Contact me via onesummit AT gmail DOT com (replace At with@ etc.). . All good wishes Roger (Dr Roger Prentice) . For those interested; My first degree is in English and Education. My masters is in Adult and Community Education. My doctorate presented a new holistic meta-model of education called SunWALK.

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