Shakespeare in Rehab

It is because something has gone wrong in Western tradition from education to artistic expression. An example that stands out is the declining study of the humanities at top national colleges. But the worse is the shocking failure of the U.S. public education system to teach adequately the masterpieces of Western culture. But just when you thought that the concerned parties in this issue would begin to offer solutions, they've only given collective incompetence and indifference.

In fact, a point made in this book is to show how various issues interconnect. Former child prodigy Akiva Israel explores, and by doing so reveals, the crushing mediocrity plaguing both the publishing industry and the U.S. public education system. Why the publishing industry? It isn't an abstract choice. They are responsible for publishing the fundamental key to true education: great books which continue the Western tradition. But now they're just as bad as the recording studios. The only difference is that instead of pumping out albums celebrating prisons and ghettos, big businesses, such as Random House, are ejaculating the printing equivalent of what Israel calls global junk food for the brain. It's all part of a process of dumbing down American culture, by keeping the book industries afloat on a steady diet of sex, fear, death, riches, and violence. "Last time I checked," writes Israel, "it was the same with hip hop, especially rap: a celebration of guns, girls, and guys gashing guts in the gutter."