dumbth, truthiness, and Steve Allen

Steve Allen (1921 - 2000) was a renaissance man.  He is generally known as a comedian.  But he was also the first host of the Tonight Show (1954 - 1957), an actor (Benny Goodman in "The Benny Goodman Story"), pianist, and Grammy winning composer ("The Spaghetti Waltz").  Later in life he became interested in the dumbing down of American society.  He coined the word "dumbth" to characterize this phenomenon.  He expanded his ideas in a book "Dumbth and 81 ways to Make Americans Smarter".  A few years later he put out a revised version called "Dumbth: The Lost Art of Thinking With 101 Ways to reason Better & Improve Your Mind".  For many years he was active in what is now known as the CSI (Committee for Skeptical Inquiry) and in Allen's time as CSICOP (Committee for the Scientific Investigation of Claims of the Paranormal), publisher of "Skeptical Inquirer".

The term "dumbth" has almost completely gone out of fashion.  Thankfully, Steven Colbert has come forward with the term "truthiness" to replace it.  If Allen were still alive I am sure he would whole heartedly support Colbert's efforts.  The words are not synonymous but they address the same general issue, namely ignorance.  "truth" is believing what is.  "truthiness" is believing what you wished was.