Book Review: Bad, Or The Dumbing of America by Paul Fussell

This book is the fifth of Fussell's writings that I have read. After The Great War and Modern Memory, Wartime, The Boys Crusade, and Doing Battle, this one does not measure up to those high standards. Maybe that is deliberate as the subject matter is more an observation of various American foibles from a cynical perspective than a serious historical inquiry. Fussell offers up a critique of American culture and habits from a professorial perch that comes off as elitist and snobbish although with its occasional humorous flare. From Fussell's perspective, the average American is a superficial bore, a gullible sap that succumbs to advertisers' blandishments hook, line and sinker and then uses this wide array of fake accouterments to create the aura of sophistication and a well-bred upbringing. But as with all of Fussell’s books, what is advertised via the government or business is pure poppycock. His books on WWI and II illustrate this point in a cruel hoax of a way. If irony is the spice of life, it is also the literary weapon that exposes government corruption and hypocrisy. Think of all the patriotic songs and movies that make war the equivalent of something akin to an LSU/Alabama football game and juxtapose that image next to men screaming for their mother as they get their limbs blown off in a battle whose advertised purpose borders on the macabre. This book, though, is more on the satirical side. Fussell divides each chapter into a specific area of American life and conduct that he labels BAD as opposed to merely bad. Thus, we get a sociological take on the absurdity of the restaurant menu that offers lousy food but served in an atmosphere of conceit and status. Ditto books, movies, people, magazines, higher education, newspapers, and the like. The only area Fussell overlooks is sports. However, Fussell veers off into an attitude of condescension towards the average American that is almost insulting. In his world, circa 1989, Americans are base people who are suckers for every cheap form of make believe status symbols and commercial come ons and rip-offs that satisfy their social insecurities. The truth is that the average American is just as amused as Fussell by the culture of ego feeding that permeates American life. Fussell's lighthearted approach reminds one of MAD Magazine, where every aspect of American life was satirically ripped apart. However, MAD's shtick was always with a wink and a nod at the ultimate wisdom of the "common man." Fussell sees the average American though the eyes of Mencken and Upton Sinclair's Babbitt, whose is actually quoted verbatim on one page. Fussell's political ideology interferes with the book's central point: the comical boorishness of American middle class culture. Thus, we are treated to Fussell's own base prejudices and assumptions that have always infected the American intellectual class: Republicans are stupid and so are voters for falling for their idiotic sloganeering. The unstated implication is that those left of center, especially college professors, are the Platonic betters in our society and should be allowed to dictate social mores to the rest of us. This view is pure nonsense. I was surprised by Fussell's political bias. His books on WWI and II evince an absolute hostility towards government and its habitual lies and cover-ups while hordes of incredulous young men were carted off to battle to be killed and mutilated like hogs in a meat processing plant. Fussell died in 2012. Maybe his political views changed. But if you are going to be a cynic and skeptic, at least spread that attitude across the board. Otherwise, you end up sounding like, well, a college professor.

Recommendation: Read but only after you have read Fussell’s other, more serious books.