Know-It-All Society

Truth and Arrogance in Political Culture

By: Michael P. Lynch

Narrated by: William Sarris

Taking stock of our fragmented political landscape, Michael Patrick Lynch delivers a trenchant philosophical take on digital culture and its tendency to make us into dogmatic know-it-alls. The internet - where most shared news stories are not even read by the person posting them - has contributed to the rampant spread of "intellectual arrogance". In this culture, we have come to think that we have nothing to learn from one another; we are rewarded for emotional outrage over reflective thought; and we glorify a defensive rejection of those different from us.

Interweaving the works of classic philosophers such as Hannah Arendt and Bertrand Russell and imposing them on a cybernetic future they could not have possibly even imagined, Lynch delves deeply into three core ideas that explain how we've gotten to the way we are: our natural tendency to be overconfident in our knowledge; the tribal politics that feed off our tendency; and the way the outrage factory of social media spreads those politics of arrogance and blind conviction. In addition to identifying an ascendant "know-it-all-ism" in our culture, Lynch offers practical solutions for how we might start reversing this dangerous trend.

©2019 Michael Patrick Lynch (P)2019 HighBridge, a division of Recorded Books

Investigates truth, humility, democracy

This book furthered my research on the current cultural and political divide by investigating the role of intellectual arrogance, intellectual humility, and truth. Explained how convictions lead to arrogant attitudes, and how these in turn harden into contempt and potentially violence. Explained a missing piece of the puzzle for me, which is: why are people so intent on avoiding open discussion or taking each other seriously? What behaviors promote democracy and which behaviors constrain it? Chapters are generally easy to understand. I’ll be reading more from this author.

Highlights important key concepts

I am a communications graduate student, and I found this book to be useful. It helped me to put words to ideas I knew at some level but that I couldn't express succinctly. It was particularly helpful to learn about the differences between "convictions" and "beliefs," and how convictions bleed into our identity. I recommend reading it in tandem with Networked Propaganda, Breaking the Social Media Prism, and The Hybrid Media System.

I think Dr. Lynch proposes a better conceptual solution than any of these three other books, but they all add critical understanding.