“The American intelligentsia is anxious these days… Anyone who watches television for more than five minutes can be forgiven for worrying about dumbing down, but the past year has seen a lively renewal of debate on this perennial topic.” From Terry Teachout’s blog post (here on ArtsJournal) calling for a re-embrace of 1950s-style “middlebrow” culture, to Curtis White’s disgust with a new breed of self-important intellectual wannabes which “wants to protect the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge, and has bought an SUV with the intent of visiting it,” America’s thinkers are unanimous that we need more old-fashioned thinking in our lives, but Canadian Kate Taylor feels they may be missing the point.