(2002-04-23) Middle Mind

Curtis White on the Middle Mind. It's (Terry Gross's FreshAir) like Dr. Laura for people with bachelor degrees. Car Talk has more intellectual content. From the perspective of a person really interested in art and culture, one can only say, "Well, I think she's on my side, but, God, she's so stupidly on my side that I hardly recognize my side as my side." Thus the Middle Mind... My contention is simply that a mediocre book--facilitated by a culture of mediocrity that forbids real intelligence--hurts us all... One of the most common gambits of the Middle Mind is to claim to provide high culture while really providing something a good deal less. Thus, one of the operating assumptions of Fresh Air is "some of our best writers work for TV." Joe Queenan (in Balsamic Dreams) and Dinty Moore (in Accidental Buddhist) provide a sociology and theology perfectly appropriate to the expectations and conceptual capacities of the readers of Time magazine. The Middle Mind's motto could be "Promise him Culture but give him TV." Oh, boy, do I feel this way about NPR...