The Cult of Anti-Intellectualism
They live in our cities, our towns, our neighbourhoods, our houses, and sometimes even in the mirror.
They are easily manipulated. They ignore factual evidence that counters their beliefs. They are the majority.
As the world has become more complex, the cultists have entrenched themselves believing their mastery over the world through systems they do not understand. The cult of anti-intellectualism has no need to understand things. For them opinions are as right as facts.
Seeing them as we want to see them, and defining them in simple terms cannot stop the cult. We must attack these cultists on all fronts. We need to let them know that everyone has a right to an opinion, but no one has a right to ignorance.
@RiskDebonair
Irish Writer, Poet, & Dreamer
There is a concept that has lead to useful, true results, and that is the Scientic Method.
For me, this takes the form of Observation, Research, Hypothesis, Experiment, Research, and Praxis.
Praxis is a step I thought of myself, and it means that if a piece of data, a fact, a theory, is true, it should also be useful.
It should be utilized in building a tool, creating a medicine, or inventing a machine. Good information should yield good results, and due to the extreme ignorance of people, the scientific method should grow to be even more difficult to get information accepted as true.
This extra step makes it even harder for information to be considered true, seeing as you have to actually use the information to build something useful that relies upon the principle at hand.
What do you think?
I think it depends within the frame of context. Some information might be discovered which could be useful at another date, or useful to someone else, but I myself might not see any use in it. So in a sense it could mean what is not true today could be true tomorrow.
When it comes to truth though I just like to think that I'll never really know, but as long as I have applied the scientific method I can assume it is true.
I'm all over the show with what to think on true and useful, but I do see usefulness in it :D For example if a politician says something (such as stirring up hatred or creating distractions) which may not be true, if they cannot apply that information in a useful way then it should be dismissed.
I'll start conciously thinking "how can this information be of use to me" and see if it improves my thought processes.
Thanks for sharing!
The new world: I feel something, so that makes it true. It is a strange new mind set and difficult to challenge them, because they don't care about facts or logic.
Humans have always reasoned with emotions. When we think something is true, it is because we feel that it is true and then we create narrative to fit how we feel.
I think if people were taught how they think and reason in school it would prevent a lot of this. But hopefully people will learn to educate themselves.
I agree, there is a subset of people who cannot handle any type of confrontation/differing opinion/being required to defend their position. Its kind of scary who they gang up on people just because they do not agree. Never thought America would come to that.
I've never been to the Americas, but I have always imagined the USA to be a big promoter and exporter of the cult of anti-intellectualism. For example, when United States of Americans react to words like "communist" without even knowing what it means.
I think the USA is just peaking with anti-intellectualism at the moment, but it has always been there.
I live in the Americas and there seems to be a trend where people just believe what they are told so they come off informed and stay in the popular opinion. Its sad really..
Some people in the world always want to be dominating and never wanna listen to others opinions.
muy bueno
Post of the day.i love you blog.
Great topic for a new competition, I really like it. Love to read it.
upvoted.
something like fittest will survive.
May I suggest the root of this problem is universal addiction to morality.