Anti-Intellectualism

Grimhelm

Grimhelm

First Post
IM and I talked the other day and I brought up the point that there is a marked move toward anti-intellectualism in this country. The underlying assumption goes like this: He is too lofty and learned and therefore is incapable of being in touch with grass roots, kitchen table issues. In other words, being smart and informed is being translated into a veritable liability. This is the line that the conservatives have taken with Obama and Biden.

What this ignores is that both Biden and Obama have humble beginnings. It ignores that men can rise from nothing and become informed, intelligent individuals. It ignores, in so many ways, the very American dream itself.

Apparently, I was not the only one to notice this profound trend:

The Bilerico Project | The War on Intellectualism
 
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Thanks for the link to the essay. It was good.

Still, it sounds like a grand topic for a great cartoon to tackle... :)

I agree. Somehow conservatives talk about academics, professors, and college-educated persons as somehow being not worth heeding.

I want a college educated leader who can make informed decisions (and used those informed decisions to rise from humble roots to the heights of the elite).

I am sorry, but running for President of the U.S.A. is an elite thing to do, so I don't see how a charge of "elitist" is a bad thing.
 
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Sorry... let me put down my beer and pull my hand out of my pants.... there we go. I always have to do that before I wax philosophical or political... ;)

Wait... can both things coexist? I sure hope so. It really is a form of bigotry. The intellectuals are prejudiced against the uneducated and the uneducated are prejudiced against the intellectuals. However, Mozart was ever one to laugh at fart jokes and the greatest philosophers could often be found down at the pub getting totally pissed. We fail to make the connection sometimes that the world is not either or. It is a little of this and a little of that. And thank god!
 



Of course there is room for both in the Presidency. I'm sorry, but I would have a hard time understanding a guy who could be that intellectual all the time. Does he have to be Joe Six Pack? No. But, he could be intellectual and still enjoy a pint of beer and a dick joke. Obama has displayed a very humorous side on David Letterman and other shows. Something tells me he is not totally without his "Joe" side. You know?

What I am trying to say is that neither side should be painted as polar opposites because they clearly are not. To think of them in this way is far too divisive, and ironically all too like how the conservatives would have people see the world.
 
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Oh. I get what you are saying now. You are saying you want a human being in office, not a caricature. I disagree. I think caricatures are the way to go.:)

Seriously, I didn't understand you meant room for both in one person. I was arguing a preference for an educated man over an uneducated one in office - regardless of his sense of humor, or how he looks/acts in his off hours.

Obama may have his Joe side - but he isn't portraying himself as Joe, and painting himself as a caricature.

It is just that when I hear Sarah Palin say she is Joe Six Pack, I can't help but hear, "Am I uninformed and not an intellectual? You betcha!"

Until Pres. Bush and Gov. Palin came along, I never saw the Democrats and Republicans all that differently - just that they had different opinions (some good, some bad on both sides). I usually vote the independant ticket. However, Bush and Palin really scream "I am uninformed!" at me like no other.

However, I am not implying that an intellectual is always an intellectual nor am I implying that multifaceted people are undesirable. Sorry if I gave that impression.

My only statements are really these: 1. People should be qualified for their office. 2. Disparaging intellectuals for being intellectuals doesn't make sense to me. 3. I prefer informed, qualified, intelligent leaders who come across as informed qualified and intelligent in relation to the job (regardless of any other facets to their character). 4. Charges of elitism don't make sense, as going after the presidency is an elite thing to do. 5. I dislike having to qualify everything I say with paragraphs of explanation when I feel like I was perfectly clear to begin with if people would stop being so damn literal.
 
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