Time has the ability to change many things. Susan Jacoby’s book, An Age of American Unreason, highlights the numerous changes that have occurred throughout the history of the United States. Specifically, Jacoby focuses on the changes from the sixties on. Therefore, nostalgia plays a large part in the arguments Jacoby articulates against the world today. For this reason, her reliance on nostalgia makes her arguments weak as they rely heavily on an emotional appeal while simultaneously advocating for the use of more intellectual thought through evidence and reasoning. However, Jacoby presents strong arguments for limiting screen time and a thorough analysis of the impacts of America’s heavily religious population, but lacks a strong argument …show more content…
While most of the developed world evolves to rely less and less on the promotion of religious ideology, America has made religion a focal point of policy. At first, Jacoby relies heavily on her interpretation of her childhood in Michigan as an example of a place where religion was not an issue in schools because it had no place in her school (2009). Despite the importance of personal narratives, when talking about an entire nation it is important to focus on statistics. At this point, Jacoby starts to let her nostalgia creep into her argument. While, yes, at the time Jacoby’s school was the norm, and she eventually goes on to back up her claim with research and statistics (2009). The problem that Jacoby is truly trying to get at is the rise of fundamentalist Christian believers and their impact on American politics since the sixties. A rise in fundamentalist Christian faiths has led to a large dilemma when it relates to the use of factual evidence in arguments about topics like evolution. When religion becomes a leading factor in how policies are made, America has let itself become a non-secular nation. It devalues not only politicians’ ability to make sound rational and scientific decisions but also deters their ability to remain …show more content…
Throughout the piece, Jacoby writes valuable critiques of many of the anti-intellectual occurrences in American culture and politics. However, the analysis, or more accurately, rant, about classical music is unsupported and greatly over exaggerated. While many can agree that classical music has a certain air of sophistication as the skill required to play it is great, on the other hand, this alone does not allow other forms of music to be immediately discredited. For many, especially in this age of technology where a majority of people have a device from which they can play music from in their pocket, music is something most people listen to at least once a day. It can be extremely relaxing to listen to the types of music that you enjoy. Jacoby can argue that classical music is her favorite and it should be played more often. However, she does not support her claims with any sort of criteria to defend this claim. Without some defined criteria, there can be no standard to judge excellent and poor music on. All the discussion becomes entirely subjective, achieving nothing. When criteria are left out it can lead to people being able to claim anything they want. This is detrimental to America’s political system because citizens are no longer required to back-up their claims. Representatives can promote policy that does not have any scientific or logical backing by claiming it is how they