Virtuous Reality: How America Surrendered Discussion of Moral Values to Opportunists: Nitwits, and Blockheads Like William Bennett

by Jon Katz

New electronic technologies are "dumbing down" America. Pop culture creates violent kids with short attention spans. The decline of the print media has made adults politically apathetic. Communicating by computer isolates us and erodes our civic life. The internet, MTV, live cable talk shows, and other multimedia are corroding our society. . . right?

Wrong!! retorts Jon Katz. In his brilliant "take no prisoners" polemic, he explains that if you believe any of the above, you've been swallowing the propaganda expounded by the powers that be, including the likes of William Bennett, Bob Dole, Tipper Gore, and Bill Clinton -- all of whom are keeping us ignorant of the real problems.

This cutting-edge book -- as useful to media-phobes as it is to Webheads -- brings a much needed voice of reason and clarity to the debate over technology's impact on society. It will make its readers rethink everything they've ever been told or read about the interaction between technology, media, and culture.

Genres: History, Nonfiction, Cultural

212 pages, Hardcover

First published January 21, 1997

About the author

Jon Katz is an author, photographer, and children's book writer. He lives on Bedlam Farm with his wife, the artist Maria Wulf, his four dogs, Rose, Izzy, Lenore and Frieda, two donkeys, Lulu and Fanny, and two barn cats. His next book, "Rose In A Storm" will be published by Random House on October 5.
He is working on a collection of short stories and a book on animal grieving.

Reviews

[Eric_W · Rating 5 out of 5]

William Bennett, self-proclaimed czar of American morals and failed head of the drug and education wars, is lampooned quite effectively by Jon Katz in this refutation of the mediaphobes," i.e., those fearful of the effects of the media revolution and the online world. Katz takes the position that the Internet will provide a useful supplement to traditional media by providing a democratic outlet for the voices of individuals. Historically, he argues, local newspapers reflected the views of individuals and local citizens. As large corporations bought up newspapers, they became more concerned with the "bottom line" and profit for the stockholders, making the papers bland pabulum, more given to selling widgets than ideas.

Today's mediaphobes, the "boomer' parents, suffer from the same 'reactionary parental impulse to condemn whatever is new or different as tasteless and inferior.' This concern is expressed as fear for the values of our youth. The traditional media exploit this boomer-generation panic by promoting irrational fear of the Internet. Katz reserves his harshest criticism for moral ideologues like William Bennett, who served first as head of George Bush's war on drugs and then as Secretary of Education under Ronald Reagan. He failed miserably at both jobs. The day Bennett left the Department of Education, the College Board revealed that SAT scores had dropped for the first time in eight years. Bennett blamed the schools. Moral: Take the money and run. Never accept responsibility if you can blame someone else. "But in shamefree America, extreme failure in the pursuit of self-righteousness is no vice. In fact, it's a marketing opportunity. Far from brooding quietly over the untamed drug epidemic or failing schools, Bennett taught us a thing or two about gall and redemption, inspiring everyone who blunders spectacularly and wonders if there's life beyond."

Bennett's Book of Virtues, a singularly unoriginal book that consists mostly of silly little poems, earned him over five million dollars. "Not bad for a book he didn't write. Except for the introduction and some moral asides, all the poems, fables, and folktales within are other authors' work, many of them altered to be less provocative or controversial. Want him to come talk to your Sunday school class? He charges forty thousand dollars per lecture."

Those wishing to truly explore the world of morality might wish to spend some time with Thomas Merton, the Trappist monk who took morality truly seriously. He reflected, "it sometimes happens that men who preach most vehemently about evil and the punishment of evil, so that they seem to have practically nothing else on their minds except sin, are really unconscious haters of other men. They think the world does not appreciate them, and this is their way of getting even." (Seeds of Reflection)

[Lee Barry · Rating 3 out of 5]

Katz is a critic and novelist that writes for Wired and Rolling Stone. I think his outlook on the media is largely biased by his involvement in it. I don't agree that the media is simply a reflection of values. They really are repositories of values. The culture mimics both the media and the content.

[Benjamin Revier · Rating 3 out of 5]

Although dated (published 1997), this is a fair analysis of how the media is portrayed and misconstrued by many. Blaming sex, violence, and indecent behavior as a whole with only television, internet, etc. as the only target proves as a weak argument, and Katz most certainly exemplifies on this point. As one criticism, the fact that numerous points are centered around the O.J. Simpson (most likely to ensue interest in the contemporary), much of the text is labored and loses interest from a timeless standpoint. However, the references and comparisons of historical figures Thomas Paine & John Locke bring the overall text back to state that spans the issue(s) even to today's trends. All in all, a very well thought out analysis and some sound advice strewn throughout.