While I sympathize with Chomsky, the reality is that people don't always want to read high intellectual things. The reason for this, to me at least, is that many do not see an immediate gain by reading a book about the Spanish Civil War. They do see an immediate validation of some sort in facebook likes, or karma on reddit, or personal contact from celebrity via tweeting. However, I would like to hear Chomsky's thoughts on educational endeavors such as edX, coursea, or Khan Academy. Whose primary focus seems to be to bring undergraduate education to the masses. Autodidacts seem to flock to these services, and at this time they seem to be relatively successful insomuch that they are educating, and not simply generating a loop of content that is created simply as a way to gain likes or karma. On a personal note, I am guilty of doing the very thing that Chomsky points out here. I have asked myself a question but not done the research. It saddens me but there is such a threshold for learning for some questions that it can be just frustrating to even care to get to the answer. This year I read 3 (count them t-h-r-e-e) books about the expanded Star Trek universe. But I still have Georg Joos "Theoretical Physics" sitting here in front of me on the coffee table, that I muddle through every once in a while.
Someone on Hubski (I thought it was you?) mentioned A Short History of Nearly Everything and I remembered that I always meant to read it again. It's fantastic. It's like school but fun. And I forgot enough of it that it's like reading a book for the first time.I read 3 (count them t-h-r-e-e) books about the expanded Star Trek universe. But I still have Georg Joos "Theoretical Physics" sitting here in front of me on the coffee table
Look for the middle ground. After I finished SuperFreakonomics (entertaining, accessible, but not very serious) I picked up something by Kierkegaard and read it on the subway for two days, then carried it a few more days before giving up. I liked the writing, but it wasn't the right ratio of effort and reward for my occasional opportunities to read.
Thanks for the positive re-enforcement! You're right I haven't taken advantage of the middle path in this regard, so I've decided to just keep going through it as I feel the need to and read whatever else happens to come in my path (currently The Girl Who Played with Fire).