Anti-Intellectualism will be the death of us
There was a time when the smartest among us, like Einstein, were treated like rock stars. Now our rockstars appear to be those with more money than common sense. Somewhere, our priorities have gotten skewed. And I hope the light at the end of the tunnel isn’t the oncoming train, but I am not optimistic. With access to internet, the only thing a person really needs in order to become educated is curiosity, willpower and the ability to learn. Having said that I think some of the anti-intellectual backlash we find these days comes directly from religion, where faith is a virtue. And asking questions is actively discouraged and books are banned that discuss things like evolution.
I think intellectualism is, at the root, the ability and desire to seek intellectual challenge and stimulation. And the best source of intellectual challenges is to intelligently talk and debate with other people. Today’s culture wets their pants over shallow literature like Twilight, and gush over accomplishments of pampered superstars, they listen to generic corporate music that glorifies a vapid consumer culture, and generally show a lack of regard for anything that remotely passes for critical thinking. These people are just so banal and vapid and I try and avoid them where possible, being around them causes me to want to troll the ever living shit out of them.
I think nowadays access to information is so broad and easy that everybody feels intellectual and the real value of the intellectualism is degraded.
Thanks for the reply!
People seem to be too lazy to care about finding answers and I mean really digging for information. They would rather blindly follow what they are told by the media and politicians than to actually spend the time necessary in cross checking information, and applying critical thinking and logic. Believe it or not.. logic is one of the things that I simply can not bring up often enough. People are inclined to completely forgo logic if it means going against the grain. This is deterimental to our society.
I agree when it comes to media. Though I feel like outside the mainstream spectrum, we see many more truth seekers. So I am optimistic.
Sad that Startalk Radio had to recently run a series titled 'Make America SMART Again' and that we need to have Science Marches. Marches to defend science!! How far we have fallen from the tree that was the age of enlightenment.
This really is the tip of a very large and frustrating iceberg. You can factor in flat earthers and more of these nutjobs with a captive audience that barely finished high school. Who's to blame? Hopefully we don't blame freedom of speech, or the internet... Maybe just the focus of the society that conditions us along with the education system.
I'd love to see the demographic of where most flat earthers and anti-science types come from. Would be an interesting picture.