It is, in the best way, a lifestyle for dilettantes. Journalism allows a curious person to get paid for exploring a menagerie of subjects and topics. I started this missive with a recall to my journalism career.

I think it’s because we mostly don’t understand ideas that we think we have long-ago mastered. I don’t think it’s because children are dumb. Well, it’s actually difficult to write for a middle school audience. People very often say, when commanding you to simplify a topic, that you should write for a “middle school” audience (at least in the U.S.). Every single time, the issue is that The Middlebrow lacks sufficient understanding and command of what he is trying to explain. Recently, The Middlebrow has encountered difficulties explaining things, across an array of subjects from math to society, to The Renaissance Son. If you can’t communicate to them, it’s likely on you. Everybody you encounter has a biochemically similar brain to yours.

There are not concepts or ideas beyond the comprehension of any other human you meet. Jargon, for lack of a better word, is how people within an exclusive group maintain their positions. Everybody also has the right to be an artist, philosopher, economist, writer, composer or performer, even if they are not credentialed or celebrated. Everybody has the right (Sondheim reference there, if you care) to art, philosophy, economics, literature, music and all the rest.

Also, the complaint speaks to the essence of The Middlebrow project. True to form, I am not convinced that the words “dumbing down” are disrespectful or insulting and if anyone takes offense to it, I’d tell them to lighten up.īut, the phrase is a cliche and like most overused terms, is probably not as useful as it was when coined. My typical reaction to being told to stop using this or that phrase is to double down on the phrase, unless it is proven harmful.

Is linkedin down right now