Cheap Bad Or, the Dumbing of America (Book) (Paul Fussell) Price

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Customer Reviews of Bad Or, the Dumbing of America

Bad. is Good!
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>Author Fussell put together an excellent rundown of all things he considers "BAD" in the country. Importantly, he distinguishes between the "bad" and the "BAD." A horrendous joke might be a bad one, probably just an opinion and can be overlooked. It's not what he's getting at. However, a horrendous joke dressed up and hyped like it's the greatest joke ever, said to be designed to be funny enough to cure hangovers, is the BAD of this book. <
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>The overstated, the unfounded -like a restaurant that flaunts the vacant word "gourmet" all over the menu is Fussell's kind of BAD. -Not opinion, just check the observable facts and see if they measure up. -Like a newspaper that's technically all-show but definitely weak in the center is BAD. -Like a hyped collectable that's monetarily "valuable" only in the pockets of the seller is BAD. <
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>He covers BAD everywhere: hotels, airports, airlines, television, people, signs, movies, language, ideas, banks, behavior, and on...in a way that all seems quite acceptable...and interesting. I, for one, have never thought of "BAD" things this way before. We've all had negative reactions/ feelings to dopey public sculpture, incredulous advertising, and overly syrupy waiters and waitresses. Fussell tags them BAD and carefully explains why he thinks it's so. <
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>Unfortunately, the author's words sometimes fall all over themselves in many explanations that seem labored and overly cumbersome. -But when he loses the complexity, he gets his point across...seemingly saying a return to basics just might be in order. He offers some solutions to cure the Awful that abounds and claims BAD "won't flourish in the face of knowledge and courage." He suggests, specifically, making B (not C) the average again, teaching a generation to sneer at advertising, and speaking and writing English with some taste, among many other "solutions." --But, he concedes, we may be already too far gone. <
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>It's an enjoyable read -if the reader doesn't get all serious and offended about the premise. It's relevant today, even though the clever book was written years ago. To sum it all up in one, single positive word...as they used to say in the "hip" 70's and 80s, this book is "Bad"! <
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Elitist . . . not a bad word today
I've come to think that Fussell may well be right on all counts. Since when is elitist a bad thing? If you're ill, don't you want an elite physician? If you're trusting your money to someone, don't you want them to be elite; the very best at what they do? How about the people teaching your children? Do you care of they're elite at what they do? No? Stop reading. <
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>Listening to the crying children disguised as adults puling about how horribly elitist those who hold a differing opinion or insiste on a higher standard must be, I've got to believe we've now hit the bottom of what Neil Postman predicted in "Entertaining Ourselves to Death." That is, the end of public discourse based upon informed and skeptical thinking, It is now nothing more than opinion, bad information (although BAD information seems to be leaking in daily), and what seems to be as, Fussell mentions "complete ignorance of the laws of cause and effect." <
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>Teach your kids to think. Send them to an elite school. That way they need not be the fools led by the knaves. They can scare the knaves.

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The difference between bad and BAD
I think one of the other reviewers said it best: this book is for unapologetic elitists. It completely turned me off from the first chapter.