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Anti-intellectualism in American Culture
Does it exist? Should it exist? How does it compare to the situation in other countries?
- Zuider 19y agoThe sleep of reason produces intellectuals. It is worthwhile making the distinction between a healthy suspicion of the intelligentsia and a hostility to thought.
- david927 19y agoI don't know what you want to discuss, really. Yes, there is a strange element of anti-intellectualism in America. It stems from its form of capitalism and it's a shame really, because America has essentially lost its production capability, so if it doesn't compete intellectually, it's not going to compete at all.
- dangph 19y agoHuh? Manufacturing output in the US is at record high levels. http://freetrade.org/pubs/pas/tpa-035es.html http://freetrade.org/pubs/pas/tpa-035es.html
- jsmcgd 19y agoI think what is meant is that the US is not a manufacturing world leader and is not as high as it should/could be.
- dangph 19y agoFrom the executive summary at the link I provided: "And despite all the stories about the erosion of U.S. manufacturing primacy, the United States remains the world's most prolific manufacturer--producing two and a half times more output than those vaunted Chinese factories in 2006."
- david927 19y agoToo bad no one wants it: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_countries_by_current_account_balance http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_countries_by_current_ac...
- neilc 19y agoHardly: the US exports more than $1 trillion USD of goods per year. The fact that it imports more than that doesn't mean that "no one wants US exports", or that the US "has essentially lost its production capability". Your argument would be more persuasive if you cut out the hyperbole.
- david927 19y agoOk, I'm being dramatic. But that export number includes, for example, when Ford produces a car in Mexico, with Mexican labor, and sells it in Mexico. We've been outsourcing not just blue-collar work, but more and more white-collar work as well. While this is essentially inevitable, it will, in the end, demote America to a second-world country, divided into starkly wealthy areas and dirt poor areas.
- JeffL 19y agoIt's not that they don't want what we produce. It's that they are stupid enough to trade us stuff for our fiat pieces of paper that we send in exchange that they hold in reserve.
- angryprofessor 19y agoIt's true that we were the world leader once upon a time. From the 20's to the early 40's, we had a major competitive advantage: our factories didn't explode much, whereas European and Japanese factories did. In the late 30's and early 40's, there were also trade barriers (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/U-boat http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/U-boat, http://www.navy.mil http://www.navy.mil) preventing the US from receiving Japanese and European exports. However, in 1945, Europe and Japan figured out how to build non-exploding factories. The trade barriers were also removed. We retained our competitive advantage for some time after that, since it took them time to build up an industrial base. But it is silly to expect us to be world leaders to the extent we were back then. That epidemic of factory explosions was a one time occurrence.
- david927 19y agoHuh? An opinion piece from the Cato Institute?
- kingkongrevenge 19y ago> a strange element of anti-intellectualism in America There is a healthy distrust of elites claiming authority on the basis of intellect and education. "We are in charge because we're smarter than you and know how to take care of you" really does fly in a lot of other countries. Call it "Mandarinism"; its hallmark is examinations and elite institutions. In America, opposition to this sort of thing goes back to the defeat of the Hamiltonians. As for a general disdain for intellectual pursuits in the culture at large, that's just a bunch of bullshit. It's no different from any other country once you take demographics into account.
- david927 19y agoI'm an American living in various countries in Europe for the last 12 years, and really, there's a difference. Americans have a wonderful distrust of those claiming authority. But there is also a lack of respect for education and intelligence. Americans worship the rich, not how they got there. They venerate Bill Gates and Steve Jobs, not Alan Kay or Steve Wozniak. Trust me, there really is a strange element of anti-intellectualism in America.
- kingkongrevenge 19y ago> I'm an American living in various countries I've lived in various countries over 8 years and am otherwise well travelled. I say there's no difference. The popular media is a bit more dumbed down in the US, but that's no reflection of the intellectual pursuits of people in general.
- timr 19y agoGiven the prevalence of "college is for suckers" comments in this forum, I'm surprised that you need to ask.
- icky 19y agoLittle known fact: the mortarboard, or "thinking cap", grants all college graduates uncanny powers of logic and memory. It is impossible to become an intellectual without one.
- michaelneale 19y agoSsshhh.. you aren't supposed to share that.
- jsnx 19y agoSo if I just buy the mortarboard, I don't need all that fancy book learnin'...
- Zuider 19y agoDon't even need no mortarboard if your head's already flat.
- aswanson 19y agoThere may be a fair amount of criticism of college as it exists today on news.YC, but I think it's also fair to say that the average poster here is not hostile to knowledge itself.
- timr 19y agoRegardless of one's position on "knowledge", criticism of college is a form of anti-intellectualism.
- aswanson 19y agoI disagree. Critism of college in terms of what it proclaims to be and what it is, I think, is as healthy as self criticism. You could argue that criticising college is a form of hyper-intellectualism, in which case the person criticising makes the observation that it does not live up to it's ideal in many cases.
- dhimes 19y agoYes, anti-intellectualism exists in the US (Canada? Other Americas? I don't know). It always has. That doesn't mean it's the prevalent thought. But intellectualism is hard, anti-intellectualism, as in hiding behind a doctrine that has been "thought out" for you (say by a church or a political party) is far easier. If you adopt what others say, you immediately belong to a social network and have all the "answers" to the hard questions. If you have to think for yourself, the road is much more lonely and difficult.
- michaelneale 19y agoBut, its got electrolytes !! Its got what you need !
- neilk 19y agoYou would have to define what anti-intellectualism means first. And the USA compared to what? Most people in the world live in cultures that have an uneasy or hostile relationship with their educated classes -- namely, traditional and authoritarian cultures. I think it would be fair to say that Americans don't have a sort of automatic, institutional relationship with their elites. Let me put it this way. If Canadians heard that all of their scientists said that X was bad and we should stop it, they'd nod their collective heads and get about to implementing the changes. The scientists are considered to be on the side of our general interest and enlightenment. This is the way it goes in most Western democracies. In the USA, there's no such automatic acceptance. The urbanized half of the country is similar to the other Western democracies, but there's another half that has no such allegiance. They look to their churches for such leadership, and in their estimation, urban elites have caused nothing but trouble.