Ta-Nehisi Coates, a writer and author, visited Dickinson last week to discuss the 150th Anniversary of the Emancipation Proclamation. His talk was insightful enough, but he dazzled in the Q&A, where he responded to every question in a complex and thoughtful way. A friend and I talked afterwards and agreed that in another age this man would be accorded far more attention than he is now. This doesn’t mean he’s unknown—his stuff is read by tens of thousands of people every day—but in a different time, I am told, public intellectuals were much closer to the main stage of attention than now, when they have been pushed to the margins of discourse.
Take William Buckley as an example. As loathsome as he was and as despicable as his ideas were, he had his own television show where he interviewed writers and intellectuals. Now, I won’t idolize that show, for it often devolved into plain bickering, but nevertheless this was a television show where books and politics were often discussed on a higher level. Books! Trying to find an in-depth discussion of a book on any mainstream show today is near impossible (C-Span Book TV, anyone?). While pundits (who represent all that is wrong with public discourse) spew their empty nonsense for hour after hour on all major television networks, public intellectuals, if they’re lucky, get to appear on early-morning shows on Sundays where only insomniacs can see them.
To some point ‘public intellectual’ is a misnomer; the public at large doesn’t know Chris Hedges or Coates. They know bloviating buffoons like Hannity or O’Reilly. It’s a great loss to our discourse. We have highly intelligent men and women out there (Cornel West, Martha Nussbaum, Noam Chomsky…need I go on?), but when we discuss the issues that will shape the future of this nation we turn to a bunch of unintelligent and uneducated loudmouths who distinguish themselves by their concerted efforts to steer the discussion away from substance and towards sound-bites, clichés, and platitudes. This more telegenic style of discussion allows them to be in the center of attention rather than “thoughts,” “ideas,” or, God forbid, “ideals.”
But the presence of public intellectuals on our airwaves won’t fix anything. Changing every prime-time show into a book club would help little. The level of discourse is rather a reflection of a culture that would rather skirt the tough questions it is confronted with. We kick the can down the road on virtually every important issue while we obsess over petty politicking in Washington and the lives of reality TV starlets. We focus on the little things because we’re scared of the big ones. In his talk, Coates said that we need to “think tough.” We must grapple with questions and issues that make us uncomfortable, be it systematic racial inequality throughout this nation’s history, the threat of global warming, or any of the myriad issues that will affect us. If in schools and at memorials we pretend that The Civil War was a battle over “States’ rights,” rather than having a frank discussion about the history of slavery, we’re not exactly laying a groundwork for citizens that want to deal with complex issues.
There is no patriotism in pretending one’s country is perfect. Let’s think tough, let’s elevate the discourse, and let’s actually deal with the very real issues we will have to face. The consequences of our actions will await us.
