The Death of Why?: The Decline of Questioning and the Future of Democracy

ISBN: 1576755851

Author: Schlesinger, Andrea Batista

Condition: New

Obsessed with answers, we have lost sight of the power and value of questions. Debates over globalization, climate change, health care, and poverty will not be solved with simple answers, but thats what Americans are being trained to expect. Andrea Batista Schlesinger argues that were besieged by cultural forces that urge us to avoid critical thinking and independent analysis. The media reduces politics to a spectator sport, standardized tests teach students to fill in the dots instead of opening their minds, and even the Internet promotes habits that discourage looking deeper.But the situation isnt hopeless. Schlesinger profiles individuals and institutions renewing the practice of inquiry-particularly in Americas youth-at a time when our society demands such activity from us all. Our resilience will depend on our ability to struggle with what we dont know, to live and think outside comfortable bubbles of sameness, and, ultimately, to ask questions.