Dumbing Down?

A great article in last week's Indy - These temples of learning transformed Britain by Philip Hensher about the importance of libraries to our culture. I couldn't agree more as I'm sitting in a library now using their free internet access to write this (the Council put up proposals to charge for this facility - thankfully they saw sense and backed down).


Hensher cites Jonathan Rose's The Intellectual Life of the British Working Classes which I have requested from the library (see how useful they are?) which highlights the types of books being lent over a 100 years ago; Welsh miners reading Nietzsche and women from London's East End reading Balzac. For the record my library (the largest in the County) has one Balzac and no Nietzsche. As to the availability of other classics - they are few and far between. You can't even get any Rimbaud or Verlaine from any library in the County! Hensher's critique that libraries are moving away from books to other areas is accurate and is a dangerous move - the library I use daily, an old Victorian pile built during the great age of philanthrophy, is to be closed in the next few years and merged with a brand new University library - no doubt there will be a coffee shop etc.


With the likes of brainless TV such as X Factor, Stricly Come Dancing, Pop Idol etc and the popularity of tabloids (and I include the Daily Mail and Daily Express in that) and falling sales of the broadsheets it is a valid question to ask whether, as a population, we are dumbing down and if so, who benefits from this. I'll go away and have a think.