Anti-intellectualism Is Killing America

[G_j]

https://www.psychologytoday.com/blog/our-humanity-naturally/201506/anti-intellectualism-is-killing-america

Social dysfunction can be traced to the abandonment of reason Post published by David Niose on Jun 20, 2015 in Our Humanity, Naturally

--

The tragedy in Charleston last week will no doubt lead to more discussion of several important and recurring issues in American culture—particularly racism and gun violence—but these dialogues are unlikely to bear much fruit until the nation undertakes a serious self-examination. Decrying racism and gun violence is fine, but for too long America’s social dysfunction has continued to intensify as the nation has ignored a key underlying pathology: anti-intellectualism.

America is killing itself through its embrace and exaltation of ignorance, and the evidence is all around us. Dylann Roof, the Charleston shooter who used race as a basis for hate and mass murder, is just the latest horrific example. Many will correctly blame Roof's actions on America's culture of racism and gun violence, but it's time to realize that such phenomena are directly tied to the nation's culture of ignorance.

In a country where a sitting congressman told a crowd that evolution and the Big Bang are “lies straight from the pit of hell,” (link is external) where the chairman of a Senate environmental panel brought a snowball (link is external) into the chamber as evidence that climate change is a hoax, where almost one in three citizens can’t name the vice president (link is external), it is beyond dispute that critical thinking has been abandoned as a cultural value. Our failure as a society to connect the dots, to see that such anti-intellectualism comes with a huge price, could eventually be our downfall.

In considering the senseless loss of nine lives in Charleston, of course racism jumps out as the main issue. But isn’t ignorance at the root of racism? And it’s true that the bloodshed is a reflection of America's violent, gun-crazed culture, but it is only our aversion to reason as a society that has allowed violence to define the culture. Rational public policy, including policies that allow reasonable restraints on gun access, simply isn't possible without an informed, engaged, and rationally thinking public.

----

What Americans rarely acknowledge is that many of their social problems are rooted in the rejection of critical thinking or, conversely, the glorification of the emotional and irrational. What else could explain the hyper-patriotism (link is external) that has many accepting an outlandish notion that America is far superior to the rest of the world? Love of one’s country is fine, but many Americans seem to honestly believe that their country both invented and perfected the idea of freedom, that the quality of life here far surpasses everywhere else in the world.

..more..

[SamKnause]

1. It's intentional.

[valerief]

3. Yep, Teh Stooopid keeps rich people rich and makes them richer. nt

[nxylas]

23. Ignorance and stupidity are not the same thing

I know white collar professionals with college degrees who pride themselves on not being like those pointy-headed intellectuals with their facts and their evidence and their nuanced thinking. Ignorance can be cured, but not when it's wilful, any more than you can cure an addict who refuses to admit he has a problem.

[hifiguy]

30. Religion also plays an enormous part in keeping people

both ignorant AND stupid, justifying both.

[Enthusiast]

80. You sure got that right!

[HomerRamone]

44. Degree or not, acting that way, they're *stupid* nt

[lunasun]

65. +1 !! exactly

[longship]

70. What the fuck good is a degree from the not so cynically named Liberty University?

Well, it could get you into a position in the George W Bush administration.

(BTW, for those who aren't paying attention, Liberty University is the invention of insane pastor Jerry Falwell, of whom Christopher Hitchens said, "If they had given him an enema they could have buried him in a matchbox.&quot

The GOP is a theocratic Christian party. Meanwhile they wring their hands about how Obama wanting to establish Sharia law in the USA, while simultaneously claiming that this is a Christian country and also screeching about religious freedom. Only an ignorant, stupid buffoon could simultaneously have those contradictory beliefs. Or one who wants to turn the USA into a Christian theocracy.

Yup! That's it.

[maddiemom]

77. Yes! You've got it right.

[hifiguy]

91. All of the reichwing "universities" are nothing but diploma mills

for the fundymentalpatients. If I were in a position to hire anyone and saw the name of any one of those phony institutions on a resume it would go straight into the shredder. They are the perfect antithesis of what higher education has been about for centuries.

The scam is amazing - pay private university level tuition for an "education" that isn't worth one thin dime. Fleecing the suckers is always the first commandment.

[charliea]

24. Across many fronts...

It's how they do it too. For example, "no child left behind" seems designed to end public education. At some point no public school will be able to meet the requirements. At which point charter schools (education for profit) will siphon away most public education money. An expected course of education is established, Common Core or something like it, and the consequences of teachers not achieving acceptable results requires them to "teach to the test", to prepare the students to "get a good job". Critical reasoning, art, civics are ignored, students are taught a laundry list of set facts and the company that prepares the tests gets rich.

Now let's be clear, I like that Common Core has more rigorous goals than some school districts have had before. However its still unattainable with class sizes up to 40 children. I think they've perverted the purpose of testing, tests should be used as markers for individual instruction, a guide to the teacher to tailor help for an specific student, not a means of saving the teacher's job.

I agree with Jefferson: "An educated citizenry is a vital requisite for our survival as a free people."

Public education is a universal service that a democracy must provide to all citizens if it wishes to continue as such. It appears that the authoritarians have decided to kill the roots of our democracy and if we let them soon we will have a cute little bonsai democracy.

Go Bernie!

[hifiguy]

31. The republic given to us by Mr. Madison, Mr Jefferson and Mr. Franklin, among others,

rested on the foundation of an informed and involved citizenry.

That foundation has been deliberately destroyed in the last 35 years. The news was once news - anyone remember Walter Cronkite and John Chancellor? What now passes as news is carefully designed propaganda designed to serve only the interests of the state and the tenth-percenters who control that state.

To paraphrase Roger Waters, we are being amused to death.

[appalachiablue]

47. +1

[Enthusiast]

62. +1 a huge bunch! Very well said.

[raouldukelives]

73. For the stability of the markets we are better off not knowing.

The truth would be very bad for business, indeed.

What is good for Goldman is good for America. Or at least, those vested in them. Which are the only people they truly care about anyway, those who care so much about them they generously donate to advance their causes.

[deutsey]

94. The counter-revolution began back in the early/mid-'70s

The Powell memo and the Trilateral Commission's Crisis of Democracy were the opening salvos of the reaction among the elites against the "excess of democracy" in America and the West during the '60s and '70s.

http://andrewgavinmarshall.com/2012/04/02/class-war-and-the-college-crisis-the-crisis-of-democracy-and-the-attack-on-education/

In 1975, the Trilateral Commission issued a major report entitled, “The Crisis of Democracy,” in which the authors lamented against the “democratic surge” of the 1960s and the “overload” this imposed upon the institutions of authority. Samuel Huntington, a political scientist and one of the principal authors of the report, wrote that the 1960s saw a surge in democracy in America, with an upswing in citizen participation, often “in the form of marches, demonstrations, protest movements, and ‘cause’ organizations.” Further, “the 1960s also saw a reassertion of the primacy of equality as a goal in social, economic, and political life.”

...

While elites were lamenting over the surge in democracy, particularly in the 1960s, they were not simply complaining about an “excess of democracy” but were actively planning on reducing it. Four years prior to the Trilateral Commission report, in 1971, the infamous and secret ‘Powell Memo’ was issued, written by a corporate lawyer and tobacco company board member, Lewis F. Powell, Jr. (whom President Nixon nominated to the Supreme Court two months later), which was addressed to the Chairman of the Education Committee of the U.S. Chamber of Commerce, representing American business interests.

Powell stipulated that “the American economic system is under broad attack,” and that, “the assault on the enterprise system is broadly based and consistently pursued… gaining momentum and converts.” While the ‘sources’ of the ‘attack’ were identified as broad, they included the usual crowd of critics, Communists, the New Left, and “other revolutionaries who would destroy the entire system, both political and economic.” Adding to this was that these “extremists” were increasingly “more welcomed and encouraged by other elements of society, than ever before in our history.” The real “threat,” however, was the “voices joining the chorus of criticism [which] come from perfectly respectable elements of society: from the college campus, the pulpit, the media, the intellectual and literary journals, the arts and sciences, and from politicians.” While acknowledging that in these very sectors, those who speak out against the ‘system’ are still a minority, Powell noted, “these are often the most articulate, the most vocal, the most prolific in their writing and speaking.”

[RKP5637]

2. Just briefly looking at the lineup of GOP presidential hopefuls is very telling on the extent of

anti-intellectualism killing America.

[appalachiablue]

48. Oops, says it all.

[Agnosticsherbet]

4. Premeditated ignorance occurs because an educated citizenry

will not automatically accept whatever those in power tell them.

[Baitball Blogger]

5. You only have to watch Jeb Bush reaching out to his constituents to understand

the level of dumb that's out there in America.

Unfortunately, that mindset is based on ideas that is reinforced by large numbers of people-which is why right-wing politicians will always cater to it.

[corkhead]

6. Hopefully we're not headed for another 9 or 10 century long bender like last time

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Middle_Ages

[heaven05]

8. may be necessary

to try to get it right a second time. Not a completely bad idea, to me. Blow it up and start all over again. Everyone have the same amount and type of weapons and population, and knowing human nature for what it has been down through the ages, let them go at it.

[hifiguy]

32. Nope. This is an AMERICAN thing.

Our kind of anti-intellectualism is barely extant in Europe and Asia.

People there know science works, that the universe is 14-15 billion years old, that the earth is 4 billion years old and evolution explains how life as we know it came to be.

Religion has a huge amount to do with this and nothing has ever been invented that can turn people into drooling morons more effectively than fundy 'murkan protestantism. Nothing.

[Cosmocat]

74. Its affluence

or at least living a life of affluence.

We were hard wired differently than Europe all along, more raw but disciplined.

But, the more comfortable we have become in our lives, the more we have tended toward self interests.

Wrapped up in self interests, we become WILLING "victims" the purposeful efforts to manage us through division and hatred.

Always a boogyman, always something to pit ourselves against each other over.

But, because we live so well here, we won't go to violence or action, we don't give up our lives or risk prison.

We just get mean and self interested.

Mean and self interested is the republican brand, more and more as we go on.

I do know religious based republicans, but I see just as many completely disconnected from religion who mean and self interested who are railing against some version of the evil liberal boogyman.

[maddiemom]

78. Good take!

Also leads us into denial about the obvious way things are heading.

[maddiemom]

82. Also, that those lucky enough to have decent (even barely decent) jobs, can be so easily convinced

those who don't are lazy "takers" is a real crime. My parents, who grew up during the Depression, were always aware that they were luckier than many. Their families both had enough property to help sustain them, while not trying to make a living by farming---long story, short. I can't recall their generation being so resentful of those less fortunate receiving help from the government. Of course they'd seen, and barely skirted, the kind of poverty yet be seen these days.

[Cosmocat]

89. It just is beyond my comprehension

how many people have this laser like focus on the people getting "free handouts" while not even having the first concern about big business bilking out political system 100 different ways.

I did social work and I absolutely saw people game the system at that level. It bothered me. It did.

But, not near as much as super rich people who make a mint off of some business that relies on cushy tax payer funded projects who horde corporate money in off shore accounts.

This country is so bass akwards in its focus it is beyond any comprehension.

[ladjf]

7. Maybe it's as simple as "low intellect". nt

[Pooka Fey]

9. K&R

[NRaleighLiberal]

10. I blame Dubya...or his slobbering followers...for this shift

I recall thinking often on how he made it acceptable to be willfully ignorant.

[RufusTFirefly]

11. Part of being an intellectual involves paying attention to history

To blame Dubya is to ignore history.
Anti-intellectualism is a thread that has run through American life almost since the beginning.

More than 50 years ago, now ironically considered one of our more enlightened periods in recent American history, historian Richard Hofstadter won a Pulitzer for his book Anti-Intellectualism in American Life. Dubya was 17 at the time.

[NRaleighLiberal]

25. Dubya had a rather unique platform - corporate right wing radio and TV

The internet and a far more anesthetized public. I think there are lots of ways to assess our slide, and recent politics certainly haven't helped. By the way are you always so snarky in your posts? Really not appreciated.

[skepticscott]

46. No, it started with Reagan

He led off the merging of anti-intellectualism with conservative politics. He made being dumb something to be proud of.

[appalachiablue]

49. Exactly. Dutch the 3rd rate TV actor ushered in Cowboy Dumb and Americana exceptionalism(?).

[Enthusiast]

63. It's the fault of the entire propaganda mechanism that promotes this ignorance.

That would include Dubya, his slobbering followers and the media that never ever challenged his idiocy.

[Kyblue1]

85. It's not just Faux, the media as a whole has tried to elevate the right wing to respectability

And credibility. Even the once proud CBS gies way too much coverage of looney tunes as being worthy of air time. Why do younthinkthere are so many Rethug candidates? Because the get attention from the networks. They should be mocked not given a hint of credibility

[Enthusiast]

87. Even NPR and the NYT.

Without this biased media their influence would whither and die.

[RobinA]

95. You Are More Forgiving

than I am. I abhor Fox, but I don't blame them. In order to sell that shite somebody's gotta be buying it, and people are buying it in droves. I believe it's up to the individual to not be stupid. We all can't be an expert in everything, and I'm sure I hold some positions that I wouldn't if I knew all the facts. But each and every person has the responsibility to learn about their world to the fullest extent possible. Turn off g-d Wheel or Fortune and pick up a newspaper! Even if the newspaper is biased, you will be better for it. And a mixture of news sources can go a long way to mitigating the biases of one news outlet.

If you are voting for candidates that hold polar opposite opinions than you profess to believe, as convincingly demonstrated in the midterm election as well as elections before that...I'm sorry, that's on you.

[Kyblue1]

81. The dullard who brags about being a C student: American Exceptionalism at its best

[maddiemom]

84. Try Reagan, to start. That he had less excuse than Dubya, just makes it worse.

[Cosmocat]

90. Yep - saint ronnie was the pivot point

Dubya was the symptom, not the cause ...

[Fred Sanders]

12. I think the American mass media decided en mass to embrace The Stupid in order to compete

financially and intellectually with the level of The Stupid the mass media knew would be brought forth by the advent of the Internet and the Orwellian named "Smart" phone.

The mass media was only naturally and biologically reacting, much like a slime slug to salt, to market forces to protect it's own financial viability, and with the dawning of the Age of Casharius it will not end....but it can it be diminished?

[niyad]

13. exactly. it is difficult to control a population capable of critical thinking.

[jwirr]

14. Unfortunately faux news is now one of our biggest educators. And teachers of history and other

sensitive subjects often avoid the real issues because they will get fired when parents complain. That was happening years ago. In the 50s I remember a science teacher who tried to talk about birth control to sophomore students. I sat in that class and he was not truly allowed to say anything. But he tried. Even then the parents screamed.

That happens more often today and not just on the issue of birth control. Television is even worse. Our children are watching Sponge Bob for education.

Not to mention that we have private schools that refuse to teach anything other than creationism and their version of history. Ignoring science all together.

No wonder we are anti-intellectual.

[sammythecat]

15. Excellent post

I completely agree. Can't have an Idiocracy without ignorance.

Question any proponent of classism, any boot-strapper, misogynist, racist or zealot of any kind. Ask them to defend their position and they will always come up with some profoundly stupid shit. The really troubling thing is, even if their ignorance is irrefutably proven most of them will still refuse to change their thinking. That, I think, is the result of Pride. The great sin of Pride. Lucifers sin. The worst sin of all.

btw, I'm not religious, I'm just not ignorant of Catholic teaching.

[Auggie]

16. My academic disciplines: S-M-A-R-T-E

Science Math Art Reason Technology Engineering

Replaces S-T-E-M

[DamnYankeeInHouston]

43. Need history, political science and economics, too.

[appalachiablue]

50. +1

[a la izquierda]

58. Thanks!

From a history prof

[colorado_ufo]

17. "Bread and circuses" has not worked since Rome fell.

There is a universal rule: Grow or die. With the lack of critical thinking and exaltation of ignorance, we are worse than stagnant - we are decaying as a society.

[aint_no_life_nowhere]

18. This is probably just a very small part of the problem

but it bothers me that so few people I meet nowadays are avid readers. I can name great authors from history and their works and I get blank stares in return. I don't think people are voluntarily trying to get a broad exposure to various ideas through reading, if those books are not boring assignments in the classroom which are quickly forgotten. I'm beginning to think that the average long-term incarcerated criminal is more well-read than the average student nowadays simply because there is little else to do behind bars than to read. I don't know if the Internet plays a role or if Twitter is responsible and the incessant need to share every banal moment of life with someone else on a cellphone, but I do shutter every time I see the English language spelled the way it is in tweets.

[GeorgeGist]

19. Southern strategy tapped a motherlode of stupid.

[Demeter]

20. Phony Intellectualism is what spawned the Anti-Intellectualism

aka Propaganda, Push, Pull, Lies....

And the phony intellectualism can be laid at the feet of Mother Church, I'm afraid. But it's taken on a New Age life of its own, as well. So now there are two sources.

[Skittles]

21. I see examples here very often

when people seriously debate whether that silly women Rachel Dolezal is "trans-racial" and in a way, JUST like Caitlyn Jenner, it boggles the mind of people with critical thinking skills

and the swooners? Don't even get me started.

[hifiguy]

34. A few years back, when there was still a Meta group

I became trapped in the quicksand of dealing with people like that.

Somehow the subject of evolutionary psychology came up. The Usual Suspects were incoherently railing and screeching as they always do. My response was "put it to the test of the scientific method." We KNOW the scientific method works. It has described a significant part of the cosmos, sent men to the moon and returned them safely, drastically lengthened human lifespans and vanquished dread diseases that killed countless millions over the ages. It may be the supreme accomplishment of our species. I didn't have any particular dog in the evo psych fight, but I am passionately devoted to the scientific method and the advancement of knowledge.

One of the Usual Suspects, no longer on DU, responded that "there are certain questions that should never be asked because they might yield the 'wrong' answers" and that the scientific method was inherently patriarchal and suspect.

That kind of imbecility cannot be fixed, and it is identical in every detail to fundymentalpatient stupidity.

"I'd rather KNOW than BELIEVE." Carl Sagan

[Skittles]

37. WOW

[hifiguy]

38. Amazing, isn't it?

I thought lefties were supposed to be a lot smarter than that. More disillusionment. I couldn't believe anyone could actually be ignorant/stupid/self-brainwashed enough to make a statement that cosmically insane.

[MindPilot]

22. Anti-intellectualism and religion have a symbiotic relationship.

One really cannot exist without the other. Of course THE original sin in Christianity was the attainment of knowledge, and that it was done by a woman in defiance of a man's orders, just makes the act that much more egregious.

This topic also goes to another discussion about voting and people being demotivated to do so. When I will likely get to choose between some one who thinks basic laws of nature are things one chooses whether or not to believe in, and someone who say the Bible is the most inspirational book they ever read, I'm inclined to write in Adam West.

(That said, I'm a Bernie fan, but I can't see the PTB ever allowing him to get far enough in the primaries that I would get the chance to vote for him.)

[hifiguy]

36. A thouand billion times this.

Stupidity and ignorance begin with religion.

[Enthusiast]

83. Huge +1!

[hobbit709]

26. Idiocracy is a documentary.

[neverforget]

27. "I'm tired of ignorance held up as inspiration, where vicious anti-intellectualism

is considered a positive trait, and where uninformed opinion is displayed as fact." Phil Plait, Bad Astronomy

That's been my sig line for years now.

[G_j]

41. and being ignorant is a matter of pride

[Initech]

28. Racism and sexism are direct byproducts of anti intellectualism.

Until we fix that, we fix nothing.

[hifiguy]

29. i just saw "Idiocracy" last night

and here's a thread about the movie http://www.democraticunderground.com/10026869914

That film scared and depressed me because we are so very far down that road already.

I remember the pre-Raygun world. It would never be mistaken for the Athens of Pericles but the astounding degree to which this country has been dumbed down in the last 35 years could not have been imagined then by anyone but the most dystopian science fiction writer - perhaps Philip K. Dick or Vonnegut.

[smirkymonkey]

33. +1000

[AgingAmerican]

35. It radiates out from RW media

Stupid = votes for the GOP

[MisterP]

39. just like these guys said

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mainstream_Science_on_Intelligence

[colsohlibgal]

40. No Doubt At All

When Doofus Dubya was running in 2000 I commented to one of the men I worked with that Bush 2 was not the sharpest tool in the shed. His response was "good, I want a regular guy".

The dumbing down of America has gained momentum since.

[A HERETIC I AM]

42. Fuck all that shit..

Because Jesus is coming, dontchaknow?

[Gothmog]

45. The GOP is the party of flat earthers and science denial

[Lithos]

51. +1

Wish I could vote more....

[elleng]

52. Yes, and it's just what the repugs' 'doctor' ordered.

[AZ Progressive]

54. America is fucking collapsing all thanks to the Republican Party

They let the corporate animals loose, they let the plague of greed loose to infect the American people, they partnered with the Religious Right to make this war on intellectualism, they have destroyed America's soul for their own gain.

[ImaPolitico]

68. The Republican Party has....

dwindled so much they have become irrelevant. The Rs say stupid outrageous things for shock value. They try and rev up their constituents by dumbing them down. The Rs do not want them to become educated people for they want to keep them ignorant of the facts. This is all the R Party has left. S T U P I D I T Y.

[Blue_Tires]

55. I've said as much here countless times...

One of the permanent legacies of the W. Years...

[Enthusiast]

57. K&R! This post deserves hundreds of recommendations!

I have said it many times, "The right celebrates ignorance." Ignorance is a tool.

"anti-intellectualism comes with a huge price, could eventually be our downfall."

[AngryDem001]

59. I'll just leave this here.

[MadDAsHell]

60. Very astute observations.

I think a lot of it is that as a culture our liberal use of very important and powerful words for political convenience and impact has ultimately rendered those words meaningless.

If everything is racist, nothing is racist. If everything is sexist, nothing is sexist.

Where this hurts us is that once these words are meaningless, it's much harder to call people out on their bullshit use.

So we can't call out idiots like Palin and Bachmann for their anti-intellectual bullshit because it's sexist. Or can't call out Ben Carson because it's racist.

The whole thing has really backfired.

[marym625]

61. The first new war by the oligarchs was the war on education.

And they're winning. Makes the war on minorities, women, LGBT easier when they keep everyone down

[AZ Progressive]

64. Anti-Intellectualism started with Reagan fighting universities and ending free tuition in California in the 60's

http://www.berkeley.edu/news/media/releases/2004/06/08_reagan.shtml

BERKELEY – Ronald Reagan launched his political career in 1966 by targeting UC Berkeley's student peace activists, professors, and, to a great extent, the University of California itself. In his successful campaign for governor of California, his first elective office, he attacked the Berkeley campus, cementing what would remain a turbulent relationship between Reagan and California's leading institution for public higher education.

Smelser, assistant chancellor for educational development at the time Reagan ran for office, recalled that "Reagan took aim at the university for being irresponsible for failing to punish these dissident students. He said, 'Get them out of there. Throw them out. They are spoiled and don't deserve the education they are getting. They don't have a right to take advantage of our system of education.'"

Said Smelser, "The governor could not intervene directly in the administration of Berkeley. The two weapons he had were verbal abuse and the budget. He heaped a great deal of abuse on the Berkeley campus, and particularly on liberals and liberal faculties. He even singled out sociology and philosophy as hotbeds. He tried to cut the budget. And, he did get Clark Kerr fired as UC president."

And then in the 70's, the elite adopted the idea that educated people were the enemy. From the trilateral commission (commissioned by David Rockefeller to foster closer cooperation between North America, Western Europe, and Japan) and it's "Crisis of Democracy" report:

In some measure, the
advanced industrial societies have spawned a stratum of
value-oriented intellectuals who often devote themselves to
the derogation of leadership, the challenging of authority,
and the unmasking and delegitimation of established
institutions, their behavior contrasting with that of the also
increasing numbers of technocratic and policy-oriented
intellectuals. In an age of widespread secondary school and
university education, the pervasiveness of the mass media,
and the displacement of manual labor by clerical and
professional employees, this development constitutes a
challenge to democratic government which is, potentially at
least, as serious as those posed in the past by the aristocratic
cliques, fascist movements, and communist parties.

- https://archive.org/stream/TheCrisisOfDemocracy-TrilateralCommission-1975/crisis_of_democracy_djvu.txt

http://www.trilateral.org/download/doc/crisis_of_democracy.pdf

From Wikipedia (https://en.wikipedia.org/?title=Trilateral_Commission)

Noam Chomsky has described the Trilateral Commission's goals in less glowing terms:

Essentially liberal internationalists from Europe, Japan and the United States, the liberal wing of the intellectual elite. That’s where Jimmy Carter’s whole government came from. [...] [The Trilateral Commission] was concerned with trying to induce what they called ‘more moderation in democracy’ – turn people back to passivity and obedience so they don’t put so many constraints on state power and so on. In particular they were worried about young people. They were concerned about the institutions responsible for the indoctrination of the young (that’s their phrase), meaning schools, universities, church and so on – they’re not doing their job, [the young are] not being sufficiently indoctrinated. They’re too free to pursue their own initiatives and concerns and you’ve got to control them better.[12]

[snagglepuss]

66. Actually it started with the Puritans. Historian Richard Hofstadder in his Pultizer Prize

winning book Anti-Intellectualism in America discusses the sources and repercussions of American anti-intellectualism. The book, written in the early 60s, was prescient. A very interesting read.

[ImaPolitico]

67. Absolutely!

Great article. Spot on!

[Betty Karlson]

69. Pathology of the rich and anti-intellectualism go hand in hand

When the mediocre get chance after chance to succeed, at some point the mediocre become the norm - and the above-average thinker becomes the outcast.

[chervilant]

71. The "above-average thinker"

is an outlier on the "upper end" of the IQ scale; thus to be feared. And, we cannot talk about our IQs, lest we be perceived as "arrogant" or "too smart for our own britches" (never have understood that one...). In short, we have been taught to fear the intellect, as though it is some bad thing to be avoided at all costs.

In 1966, Coleman wrote a seminal study of education in the US, wherein he discussed the two factors that strongly correlated with academic success: family support of education and peer support of education. This study emerged during the turbulent years of social movements to effect fundamental changes in our society: civil rights, anti-war movement, women's movement... is it any wonder that the conservatives were opposed to these efforts? The anti-intellectuals perverted Coleman's study, and began a systematic assault on public education that continues to this day.

And, Richard Hofstadter has been mentioned herein above a couple of times. His Pulitzer Prize winning Anti-Intellectualism in American Life is an essential treatise on the history of anti-intellectualism.

[Betty Karlson]

86. But in France, that outlier is revered.

Because the outliers get to determine the norm in that country. The outliers ARE likely to be a part of the (not highly segregated) French upper class. France is a land where footballers are respected more, not less, when they quote Voltaire, and where boxing champions engage in arguments with meaningful statements, not platitudes.

The problem with us is that the norm is said by those who need the mediocre to be the norm, because they are so mediocre themselves.

[chervilant]

92. Mediocrity...

Yes, indeed. And, those whose minds are the most mediocre are entrenched in their willful ignorance.

[Betty Karlson]

93. those whose minds are the most mediocre are entrenched in their willful ignorance

I might just put that in my sig-line.

[davidpdx]

72. Fox News is killing America

[jtuck004]

75. nuh uh. n/t

[KG]

76. thread win.

[jtuck004]

88. ^^^The Real Winner^^^ <G> n/t

[kentuck]

79. Yeah, we should re-litigate the Scopes monkey trial...

[Scuba]

96. Kickety kick kick.