Anti-intellectualism is taking over the US

Patricia Williams over at the Guardian wrote an interesting piece about the rise of academic book bannings and the growing disregard for scholarship itself. The quote that really upset me was

After the Chronicle of Higher Education published an item highlighting the dissertations of five young PhD candidates in African-American studies at Northwestern University, Chronicle blogger Naomi Schaefer Riley wrote that the mere titles of the dissertations were sufficient cause to eliminate all black studies classes. Riley hadn't read the dissertations; they're not even published yet. When questioned about this, she argued that as "a journalist… it is not my job to read entire dissertations before I write a 500-word piece about them," adding: "there are not enough hours in the day or money in the world to get me to read a dissertation on historical black midwifery."

WTF!!!! That's your job as a journalist! You report the facts! Not read a headline or title and make your decision...

Here's an excerpt from her bio here

Naomi Schaefer Riley is a weekly columnist for the New York Post and a former Wall Street Journal editor and writer whose work focuses on higher education, religion, philanthropy and culture. She is the author, most recently, of "Got Religion?: How Churches, Mosques, and Synagogues Can Bring Young People Back" (Templeton Press, 2014) and "Opportunity and Hope: Transforming Children's Lives through Scholarships" (Rowman & Littlefield, 2014).

Anyways. I highly recommend giving the article a read.

Recently, I found out that my work is mentioned in a book that has been banned, in effect, from the schools in Tucson, Arizona. The anti-ethnic studies law passed by the state prohibits teachings that "promote the overthrow of the United States government," "promote resentment toward a race or class of people," "are designed primarily for pupils of a particular ethnic group," and/or "advocate ethnic solidarity instead of the treatment of pupils as individuals." I invite you to read the book in question, titled Critical Race Theory: An Introduction, so that you can decide for yourselves whether it qualifies.

It's an epidemic all in itself.

So many people just don't want to "think" about anything anymore. Life is so clogged up with technological machinations and social interactions that people only have enough capacity to think about what's right in front of their face... which is usually their phone or tablet.

Critical thinking has become a lost art. The socratic method is dying. Science is suffering, and as a result, our progress as a species has slowed to a crawl. While it happens, the majority of people don't care.

There was a time when the distractions we have today didn't exist. They were periods of our greatest advancements, periods of enlightenment and creativity to solve the toughest problems we face.

Now, we spend more time making more problems for ourselves rather than solving them, and bickering over whose perspective is "right" rather than accepting that just about every perspective has value, even if unrealized.

It's so bad, that people openly admit their ignorance, such as in the OP...

There is still hope, but it's fading.

~Namaste

Naomi Schaefer Riley

As soon as I see a woman with two last names I know we won't be getting along.

Just saying.

Nothing to think about here.

I don't think I would want to try to read the book either, but then again, it isn't in my job description to do so.

originally posted by: Metallicus

Naomi Schaefer Riley

As soon as I see a woman with two last names I know we won't be getting along.

Just saying.

quoted for ironic mirth

a reply to: theNLBS

I have a problem with the title of this thread and I'm certainly not going to read your OP.

There's not enough potato chips and pop in the world which could tempt me to.

originally posted by: SonOfTheLawOfOne
It's an epidemic all in itself.

Critical thinking has become a lost art. The socratic method is dying. Science is suffering, and as a result, our progress as a species has slowed to a crawl.

Progress? PROGRESS? You thought we were making progress??? Another victim of the Enlightenment, aren't you?

There was a time when the distractions we have today didn't exist. They were periods of our greatest advancements, periods of enlightenment and creativity to solve the toughest problems we face.

I disagree. Distraction is more than an overwhelming environment. At it's core, distraction is an attitude.

There was enough or "wine, women and song" in the ancient world to distract plenty of young people; Augustine wrote extensively on this. The difference is not the input, but rather the degree with which we drown ourselves in the sensorium.

The ancients of Greece and India both taught the successive degeneration of mankind--- an original "golden age" was followed by a less-vaunted "silver age," and then by the iron age... as people sank further and further into the dregs of consciousness. One could argue that people in the future will be unconscious for the whole course of their lives, with the advent of the "Age of Lead."

Spengler claimed in his Decline of the West (written exactly 100 years ago), that civilizations have a life cycle, which he compared to the seasons of the year. The Springtime is marked by the rise of a "class of equals" who create a democracy for themselves (like democratic Athens, or the Saxon's Althing, or the Magna Charta). This equality isn't society-wide; it is only the elite, who consider each other 'peers'. Thing of the White Male entrepreneurs who framed the US Constitution.

During the "Summer" of a given culture, more and more people are welcomed into the category of political/moral equals. But as the system becomes top-heavy, and more people are "born into" the class without having earned it --- like British Lords inheriting their titles---the whole system becomes a giant wedding-cake, with layer upon layer of privilege and bureaucracy.

The "Autumn" of a civilization is marked by the rise of an autocrat who will "save civilizaiton"-- the rhetoric of Mussonlini and Hitler. The leader assumes the mantle of a Pharaoh, and we are governed by men, rather than by the rule of law. Americans who think will instantly see the "rise of the imperial presidency" as the Autumn of their democracy.

the "Winter" of a civilization is the aftermath; the fall. We've been entering in for the past century in the west.

THE SECOND COMING

Turning and turning in the widening gyre
The falcon cannot hear the falconer;
Things fall apart; the centre cannot hold;
Mere anarchy is loosed upon the world,
The blood-dimmed tide is loosed, and everywhere
The ceremony of innocence is drowned;
The best lack all conviction, while the worst
Are full of passionate intensity.

Surely some revelation is at hand;
Surely the Second Coming is at hand.
The Second Coming! Hardly are those words out
When a vast image out of Spiritus Mundi
Troubles my sight: a waste of desert sand;
A shape with lion body and the head of a man,
A gaze blank and pitiless as the sun,
Is moving its slow thighs, while all about it
Wind shadows of the indignant desert birds.

The darkness drops again but now I know
That twenty centuries of stony sleep
Were vexed to nightmare by a rocking cradle,
And what rough beast, its hour come round at last,
Slouches towards Bethlehem to be born?

originally posted by: Metallicus

Naomi Schaefer Riley

As soon as I see a woman with two last names I know we won't be getting along.

Just saying.

(Somewhere, a woman with two last names reads this and huffs off to work. Bad mouthing you on Facebook and telling everyone you're a slut.)

a reply to: theNLBS

I agree that anti-intellectualism rhetoric runs rampant throughout the majority of our society. However, a small subsect exists--at least in my generation. The ones who were pulled out from Kindergarten onward as being the smart ones. I remember learning Gulliver's Travels when I was 5. And reading The Hobbit on my own in 4th grade--followed by the rest of LoTR. Granted, I was always sort of an anomaly but I'm positive there's people way better than me. But yeah, hasn't intellect always been a rather rare gift for one to posses? True, many educational practices suppress it--and I've always been of a mind that ALL kids should be taught like honors/the 'special' kids. Because much is wasted the way things are--and have always been.

Because the unfortunately reality is is that life is rarely fair.

The only way to combat anti-intellectualism is to end materialism--and that isn't going to stop any time soon, I don't believe. Terence McKenna (who I seem to talk about a fair bit! lol) has said a lot of interesting things on this BS matter that I think everyone interested would enjoy immensely.

Anyway, peace

We live in an era of ADD/ADHD. We are used to things happening very quickly. So, even those who think of themselves as "intellectuals" tend to bypass anything that would take up too much of their time, i.e., "not enough hours in the day to read all that stuff". It's all about the cliff notes, sum it up in a nutshell - TLDR.

People are bombarded with information these days, often conflicting information.

So wear blinders and focus or become overwhelmed and just glance over the details and try to filter out the noise.

Bias is sure to result no matter how you try to handle it.

maybe intellectuals don't want to talk to anyone that isn't, it's a waste of time. so the only people you hear are the ones that are not. maybe a change of friends and acquaintances are in order.

originally posted by: jimmyx
maybe intellectuals don't want to talk to anyone that isn't, it's a waste of time. so the only people you hear are the ones that are not. maybe a change of friends and acquaintances are in order.

Everyone I meet is equally ignorant & below me.

a reply to: theNLBS

Interesting... the article accuses partisanship to be part of the problem, yet takes a clearly partisan stance in and of itself.

What in the blue hell is this:

Brooke Harris, a teacher at Michigan's Pontiac Academy for Excellence, was summarily fired after asking permission to let her students conduct a fundraiser for Trayvon Martin's family.

doing being presented as evidence of anti-intellectualism in schools? Is support of a thug now considered "intellectualism?" I find that fascinating, considering everything we've seen of Martin's history alongside the Mortal Kombat-esque FATALITY his girlfriend deftly performed on the English language and critical thinking in general portrays a clear sort of anti-intellectualism of it's own... unfortunately for the article, that anti-intellectualism is pointing towards someone the author is trying to present as an intellectual.

I'm opposed to book bannings in schools, yet as I am confronted with the reality of an all out war against one particular book, the Bible, across every school district in the nation, conducted by these very same self important "intellectuals", I have a tough time feeling for their cause.

originally posted by: Eunuchorn

originally posted by: jimmyx
maybe intellectuals don't want to talk to anyone that isn't, it's a waste of time. so the only people you hear are the ones that are not. maybe a change of friends and acquaintances are in order.

Everyone I meet is equally ignorant & below me.

goes without saying

An anti-intellect flow, attitude ect is important for the destruction of a culture. One of its biggest features is teaching kids early that their opinion is just as good as the next. The other is just the flat out lack of teaching kids what constitutes good research. Instead of research we have "position building" which amounts to contextual distortion and "facts" are to serve the position and argument.

Anyway we are in deep already.

Life in general has become a matter of convenience. Critical thinking or just thinking has been replaced with automated systems that do it for you. And in the meantime suggest no need for having the skills required for manual processes that technology has replaced.

Many fine arts such as writing or penning a letter for example, is now just a touch of a button and seconds for delivery.

Technology in and of its self has replaced many things that once required a hands on approach and some level of thinking for results.

As we move into the future and advancements are made, IMO, the gap will further widen. Leaving behind a world that once utilized hammers and tape measures, for machines and programs that do it for us.

a reply to: theNLBS

Concerning Intellectualism on the Internet , It has Already been taken Over Since 2016 . Nothing but FAKE AI Websites and Posters Now . WELCOME to the NEW Jungle.......(

a reply to: jimmyx


RIP Misfit.............(

I'm wondering when "intellectualism" and "African American Studies" became synonymous.

Don't get me wrong "African American Studies" is a small part of the much larger umbrella that is "intellectualism" ... but maybe its the conflation that is leading to the backlash.

Let me know when people start asking to burn dissertations on Quasars, the Sumerian Empire or Microkernels and I might be persuaded to think there is a growth in anti-intellectualism.

Right now there just appears to be a boring culture war and both sides feel they hold the corner on absolute truth, which gives them the right to dehumanize the other.