The medium is the metaphor

In his article, Twilight of the Books, Caleb Crain makes the case that both the will and the ability to read are on the decline both in this nation, and in the world at large. He reassures us that reading and writing are not likely to become extinct, but that reading books may once again be reserved for an elite reading class. While I believe his assessment to be accurate, I do not share in his pessimism.

I agree, reading and writing are not likely to become extinct and for good reason. Oral, literate, and televisual cultures transmit information in different ways. Each medium is suitable only for a particular kind of knowledge. The tools responsible for rational inquiry are merely dulled by televised viewing, largely because television places far less significance on the quality of the information than it does on the demands of entertainment.

Rational argument, however, plays an important role in print typography. Reading requires intense involvement on an intellectual level. This involvement is interactive in the sense that truth is reached by means of exchanging viewpoints while applying reason. Conversely, due to the fact that ratings determine the substance of televised programming, the content is thus evaluated on terms of commercial feasibility rather than academic excellence.

Caleb Craig is correct about literacy being on the decline, and that is precisely because written language is more difficult for the aforementioned reasons. It involves exchange of ideas with the application of reason. However, I do not believe all people need this level of intellectual exercise. There is a reason that management positions are fewer than labor positions. There is a reason that leaders are fewer than followers. The reason is that different things are required of different people. The greatest lie ever told was that all men are created equal.

While I very much understand and appreciate the importance of various literature, I simply cannot make the case that all men would benefit from reading it. A man of forty is content to speak a language, while a man of twenty-five boasts of inventing one. A journalist, forced to work on a commercial fishing boat might not last an hour. Likewise, a fisherman who was built to survive, couldn’t tie words together at the newspaper company good enough to feed himself, let alone his family.

Man is of course free to dream, but no amount of will power could make a fifty year old man the youngest golfer to play in the Masters. We must honestly evaluate ourselves and determine what role rational inquiry should play in our lives. It is not immediately evident to me that television and the decline of literacy has been a negative thing. If anything, it may serve as a means of testing ourselves to determine exactly what kind of people we are.