Hello, all you idiots and dummies! Bless you all! For me, it all started with the MADE SIMPLE books. My first reaction to such books was that they were written for simpletons. How can you take a complex subject like philosophy and just make it “simple”, I wondered. I then discovered, to my surprise, that the philosophy course I was taking at the University of British Columbia was being taught by Avrum Stroll, a brilliant man who knew a lot about jazz, who had a great sense of humor, and who turned out to be one of the co-authors of PHILOSOPHY MADE SIMPLE. I distinguished myself, innocently, I might add, in one of Avrum Stroll’s classes, by pronouncing the name of Immanuel Kant the way it should be pronounced. You can’t — and I emphasize “can’t” — really do that without causing a bit of a commotion, but in a philosophy class the reaction is quite muted, especially when compared to the scene in PORKY’S, where a waitress is asked to page Mike Hunt and who then keeps repeating “Is Mike Hunt here?” until it eventually dawns on her what she is saying. Moving on to a better class of jokes, here is one of Avrum Stroll’s favourites: “The trouble with being an atheist is that you don’t get Sundays off. The trouble with being an agnostic is that you don’t know if you get Sundays off or not.” This joke, incidentally, can become the basis of a serious discussion, because agnostics, like Somerset Maugham, who refuse to make up their minds about the existence of God, generally behave as though there is no God. If it turns out that they are wrong, they will be in what is known as Big Trouble. But that is beside the point I wish to make. The point I wish to make is that the MADE SIMPLE books are very good. And so is the current crop of books written for Idiots and Dummies. Those books made an appearance when people realized that they really did not understand or even like computers. As most of his fans know, Peter Gzowski is an example of a writer who never stopped using his trusty old typewriter. He would rather “fight” than “switch” — to a word processor. Is it bad taste to suggest that we should not feel too sorry for people who die of emphysema because they smoke three packs of cigarettes a day? Maybe it is. But, let’s face it, good taste is not what it used to be. In North America, family newspapers still believe that some words are not fit to print. In the movies, things have changed. In the fifties, when Marlon Brando, a dock worker in ON THE WATERFRONT, quietly said to Karl Malden, a priest, “Go to hell”, a lot of people got upset. Now, as Cole Porter would say, anything goes. The interesting thing is that many of the newspapers published in Estonia do not hesitate to use the kind of language that North American journalists still avoid. Does this mean that North America, as compared to Estonia, has become a backwater? The beat goes on, as Sonny Bono and Cher used to sing. The beat goes on. And here is the basic rule. You establish a set of rules. Then you reverse them. The important thing to remember is that change can be good and change can be bad. Not too long ago, calling people “idiots” and “dummies” was not the right thing to do. Now people are calling themselves “idiots” and “dummies” and that is a good thing. It really is, because people who are not too proud to admit that there are things they do not know, that they are “idiots” and “dummies”, as far as some things are concerned, are breaking down an important barrier that prevents them from learning things they know little or nothing about. There are, of course, other barriers to learning. What people want to learn is greatly influenced by the things that surround them. The other day I was in a bookstore on 2284 Bloor Street West, where a lot of books for IDIOTS are sold at discount prices. There are IDIOT’S GUIDES to Elvis, the Beatles, Vampires, Playing the Drums, Playing the Guitar, Movies, Mythology, Karate, Boxing, Wrestling, American Literature, Classical Music, Shakespeare, Jazz and, yes, Philosophy. Will they all sell in equal numbers? I don’t think so. The computer books, such as MICROSOFT OFFICE FOR DUMMIES, will sell very well because computers and the Internet are seen as windows through which people can learn more about the world. And the world that North Americans know and want to know more about is a world made up of sports, movies, music, television and other powerfully promoted pastimes that can be enjoyed without much mental effort. Because of that, the guides for IDIOTS that will sell best in North America will be the books about Elvis, Vampires, Mythology, Playing the Drums, Playing the Guitar, Movies, Mythology, Karate, Boxing, Wrestling, and so on. This is not to say that the books about arts and sciences, books on chemistry, physics, math, literature, serious music, philosophy, politics and theatre will not sell at all. But my guess is that they will sell better in places like Europe, where the educational systems equip the Unsuspecting Young with skills that enable them to enjoy all kinds of intensely intellectual activities. Of course there is always the possibility that young people in Europe will learn to rebel against the repressive educational systems that force them to think and to learn a lot of things about a wide variety of subjects. The beat goes on. Ain Söödor
Idiots and dummies
Archived Articles | 06 Feb 2002 | EWR
Archived Articles
TRENDING
