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Much Ado About Publishing

No Mooseheads

by Nina L. Diamond

I was going to write an entire column about the reported $7 million advance that Sarah Palin got for her memoir, Going Rogue, which hits stores this month, and how that ridiculous sum (that she’s not likely to earn out) could’ve been better spent on any number of things, including some decent P.R. for 100 of the publisher’s mid-list books, or $50,000 advances for 140 more deserving authors.

And then I thought, I’ve made my point about how those millions could’ve been better spent, so do I really want to give this woman any more ink than she’s already gotten (and will get) from the press? This “intellectually incurious” (as she’s been so accurately described) former Alaska governor and 2008 vice-presidential candidate who isn’t even qualified to teach third grade social studies?

No.

No more ink for you.

We’ve all been witness to the dumbing down of our society and our culture during the latter part of the 20th century and the first decade of the 21st. And it’s been during the past 10 years that the “dumbification” and “stupidization,” and the massive amount of denial that they require have taken their largest toll.

Just one of the many examples comes from book publishing, where the major houses’ motto has become: “We don’t want good books, we want books we can sell.”

And what about our news media? The vast lens through which the world is presented to us, whether in print, broadcast or internet? It’s been leading the way in our culture’s move toward an idiocracy.

In his IPPY Award-winning 2008 book of essays, An Enemy of the People: The Unending Battle Against Conventional Wisdom, author and Dean of the Massachusetts School of Law, Lawrence R. Velvel, wrote:

“The media’s news judgment is awful, with its focus on frippery and horse race questions instead of on central substantive questions vital to our country. The media itself, however (and, one must therefore assume, the journalism schools that teach our news people their craft), does not recognize that it uses terrible news judgment, evades or ignores the central questions(s), and conceivably may even be too ignorant or even too stupid to even understand what the central questions are.”

Two friends recently spent two weeks on a professional trip to Europe. When they returned, I asked one of them how it went.

“The business part was fine,” he said. “But they don’t like Americans.”

“Well,” I told him, “people all over the world often make the mistake of holding a government’s decisions against a country’s citizens, and we know that during Bush 43’s presidency, plenty of Europeans were angry with Americans because of the president’s policies. But it’s been almost a year since Obama replaced Bush, and Europeans cheered when Obama won, so I don’t think their dislike is really political anymore.”

He looked at me and nodded.

“Europeans don’t like Americans because we’ve become the laughing stock of the planet,” I said. “We’ve dumbed down this country so much, and they know it, and have completely lost respect for us.”

He smiled and nodded again.

“Next time you go to Europe,” I advised, “pretend you’re Canadian.”

No self-respecting Canadian would even want to go moose hunting with Sarah Palin.

* * * * *

Nina L. Diamond is a journalist, essayist, and the author of Voices of Truth: Conversations with Scientists, Thinkers & Healers. Her work has appeared in numerous publications, including Omni, The Los Angeles Times Magazine, The Chicago Tribune, and The Miami Herald.

Ms. Diamond was a writer and performer on Pandemonium, the National Public Radio (NPR) satirical humor program, for its entire run in Miami and select markets nationwide from 1984-1998. As an editor, she works frequently with other authors and journalists on both fiction and non-fiction.

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