{UAH} Is there any widely held answer to why America is anti-intellectual?
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6:46 AM |
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In 1991, Professor Daniel Rigney built upon Hofstadter to name three distinct types of anti-intellectualism:
- Religious anti-rationalism: rejection of reason, logic, and fact in favor of emotions, morals, and religious absolutes
- Populist anti-elitism: rejection of elite institutions as well as those categorized within the social and/or intellectual "elite" (e.g., professors, old money politicians)
- Unreflective instrumentalism: a belief that the pursuit of theory and knowledge is unnecessary unless it can be wielded for practical means (e.g., profit)
Anti-intellectualism is not, contrary to popular belief, due to a lack of education or hostility towards acquiring knowledge. Rather, it distinguishes knowledge between intellect and intelligence, and heavily weighs the latter. As Hofstadter describes, intellect is about ideas, which is adaptive across many situations, while intelligence is ideas put to practical use. In his own words, "Intelligence will seize the immediate meaning in a situation and evaluate it. Intellect evaluates evaluations, and looks for the meanings of situations as a whole."
The aversion many Americans feel toward people who actually know things is complex. At heart, it's arrogance. People who dislike academics and other people who study complex topics carefully think that their own native "common sense" is superior. They disdain knowledge for the sake of knowledge as opposed to profit. And often, they disdain knowledge because it contradicts their biases, often religious.
It's been siezed upon by Republican strategists as a mechanism to make their base less intelligent by degrading public and private education in many parts of the USA. A poorly informed and arrogant voting base enables Republicans to get away with absurd things at the expense of everyone.
It's sad watching the USA have to fight to enhance the lives and futures of the voters who keep trying to degrade the lives of everyone.
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