Great article on the real problem

[disappoint]

Abandonment of reason.

https://www.psychologytoday.com/blo...01506/anti-intellectualism-is-killing-america

Anti-intellectualism Is Killing America

Social dysfunction can be traced to the abandonment of reason

Posted Jun 23, 2015

The tragedy in Charleston last week will no doubt lead to more discussion of several important and recurring issues in American culture—particularly racism and gun violence—but these dialogues are unlikely to bear much fruit until the nation undertakes a serious self-examination. Decrying racism and gun violence is fine, but for too long America’s social dysfunction has continued to intensify as the nation has ignored a key underlying pathology: anti-intellectualism.

America is killing itself through its embrace and exaltation of ignorance, and the evidence is all around us. Dylann Roof, the Charleston shooter who used race as a basis for hate and mass murder, is just the latest horrific example. Many will correctly blame Roof's actions on America's culture of racism and gun violence, but it's time to realize that such phenomena are directly tied to the nation's culture of ignorance.

In a country where a sitting congressman told a crowd that evolution and the Big Bang are “lies straight from the pit of hell,” (link is external) where the chairman of a Senate environmental panel brought a snowball (link is external) into the chamber as evidence that climate change is a hoax, where almost one in three citizens can’t name the vice president (link is external), it is beyond dispute that critical thinking has been abandoned as a cultural value. Our failure as a society to connect the dots, to see that such anti-intellectualism comes with a huge price, could eventually be our downfall.

In considering the senseless loss of nine lives in Charleston, of course racism jumps out as the main issue. But isn’t ignorance at the root of racism? And it’s true that the bloodshed is a reflection of America's violent, gun-crazed culture, but it is only our aversion to reason as a society that has allowed violence to define the culture. Rational public policy, including policies that allow reasonable restraints on gun access, simply isn't possible without an informed, engaged, and rationally thinking public.

Some will point out, correctly, that even educated people can still be racists, but this shouldn’t remove the spotlight from anti-intellectualism. Yes, even intelligent and educated individuals, often due to cultural and institutional influences, can sometimes carry racist biases. But critically thinking individuals recognize racism as wrong and undesirable, even if they aren’t yet able to eliminate every morsel of bias from their own psyches or from social institutions. An anti-intellectual society, however, will have large swaths of people who are motivated by fear, susceptible to tribalism and simplistic explanations, incapable of emotional maturity, and prone to violent solutions. Sound familiar?

And even though it may seem counter-intuitive, anti-intellectualism has little to do with intelligence. We know little about the raw intellectual abilities of Dylann Roof, but we do know that he is an ignorant racist who willfully allowed irrational hatred of an entire demographic to dictate his actions. Whatever his IQ, to some extent he is a product of a culture driven by fear and emotion, not rational thinking, and his actions reflect the paranoid mentality of one who fails to grasp basic notions of what it means to be human.

What Americans rarely acknowledge is that many of their social problems are rooted in the rejection of critical thinking or, conversely, the glorification of the emotional and irrational. What else could explain the hyper-patriotism (link is external) that has many accepting an outlandish notion that America is far superior to the rest of the world? Love of one’s country is fine, but many Americans seem to honestly believe that their country both invented and perfected the idea of freedom, that the quality of life here far surpasses everywhere else in the world.

But it doesn’t. International quality of life rankings (link is external) place America far from the top, at sixteenth. America’s rates of murder and other violent crime (link is external) dwarf most of the rest of the developed world, as does its incarceration rate (link is external), while its rates of education and scientific literacy are embarrassingly low (link is external). American schools, claiming to uphold “traditional values,” avoid fact-based sex education, and thus we have the highest rates of teen pregnancy (link is external) in the industrialized world. And those rates are notably highest where so-called “biblical values” are prominent. Go outside the Bible belt, and the rates generally trend downward (link is external).

As this suggests, the impact of fundamentalist religion in driving American anti-intellectualism has been, and continues to be, immense. Old-fashioned notions of sex education may seem like a relatively minor issue to many, but taking old-time religion too seriously can be extremely dangerous in the modern era. High-ranking individuals, even in the military (link is external), see a confrontation between good and evil as biblically predicted and therefore inevitable. They relish the thought of being a righteous part of the final days.

Fundamentalist religion is also a major force in denying human-caused climate change (link is external), a phenomenon that the scientific community has accepted for years. Interestingly, anti-intellectual fundamentalists are joined in their climate change denial with unusual bedfellows: corporate interests (link is external) that stand to gain from the rejection of sound science on climate.

Corporate influence on climate and environmental policy, meanwhile, is simply more evidence of anti-intellectualism in action, for corporate domination of American society is another result of a public that is not thinking critically. Americans have allowed their democracy to slip away, their culture overtaken by enormous corporations that effectively control both the governmental apparatus and the media, thus shaping life around materialism and consumption.

Indeed, these corporate interests encourage anti-intellectualism, conditioning Americans into conformity and passive acceptance of institutional dominance. They are the ones who stand to gain from the excessive fear and nationalism that result in militaristic foreign policy and absurdly high levels of military spending (link is external). They are the ones who stand to gain from consumers who spend money they don’t have on goods and services they don’t need. They are the ones who want a public that is largely uninformed and distracted, thus allowing government policy to be crafted by corporate lawyers and lobbyists. They are the ones who stand to gain from unregulated securities markets. And they are the ones who stand to gain from a prison-industrial complex that generates the highest rates of incarceration in the developed world.

Americans can and should denounce the racist and gun-crazed culture that shamefully resulted in nine corpses in Charleston this week, but they also need to dig deeper. At the core of all of this dysfunction is an abandonment of reason.

 

[tynopik]

<-- P&N

 

[disappoint]

<-- P&N

Psychology and Nerds? No we don't have a subforum named that. Although now that you mention it...

Nah.

 

[OverVolt]

Well spoken dribble unfortunately because they aren't wrong on certain points. Despite it seeming like they have alot of support for their arguments their argument is actually vague and incoherent. Look how many huge subjects they touch on in 500 words or so.

Everytime it changes subject go "Ohhh Ho! The _______ TOO!?"

Then you'll see how ridiculous it is.

When they feel they have established credibility they start with the crazy shit that you don't notice. Like this:

High-ranking individuals, even in the military (link is external), see a confrontation between good and evil as biblically predicted and therefore inevitable. They relish the thought of being a righteous part of the final days.

 

[disappoint]

Well spoken dribble unfortunately because they aren't wrong on certain points. Despite it seeming like they have alot of support for their arguments their argument is actually vague and incoherent. Look how many huge subjects they touch on in 500 words or so.

Too much content and not enough fluff?

Hit too close to home?

Not sure what your beef is with the article. Seemed on point to me.

 

[Dr. Zaus]

Anti-intelectuallism? Are you joking? We're the most pro-nerd we've ever been in the history of the US.

Perhaps the problem is really that our in-tolerance for anti-intellectualism is growing faster than are anti-intellectualism is fading.

 

[HamburgerBoy]

It'd be nice if they made some kind of direct connection between being a racist or a creationist and the other things they lament. I'm pretty sure that being black is a far greater indicator of teen pregnancy than being a fundamentalist Christian, but maybe I'm wrong? I'd argue that religion has a negligible effect on our overall crime and incarceration rates, which are more thanks to our government and our war on drugs. And of course, there's the typical gun fear-mongering mentioned as well. Boo-hoo.

EDIT: Hmm, I'm actually seeing only a 2-fold or so difference between whites, Hispanics, and blacks in terms of teen pregnancy, which isn't what I expected. Unless I'm getting the wrong numbers; ~10% teen pregnancy seems really high to me. Regardless, the measurements out there include 18 and 19 where the woman is technically still an adult and has probably graduated high school. I'll admit that in that scenario religion probably does have a significant role in making women want to carry to term at that age, although in that case it's questionable that it's as damaging as is made out to be. Huge difference between pregnant at 15 and pregnant at 19.

 

[OverVolt]

But what about global warming, corporate interests, materialism, school ranking, military spending, and hyper-patriotism?

 

[John Connor]

Article was written by an idiot.

 

[HamburgerBoy]

Remember: it's hyper-patriotism unless it involves outsourcing, in which case Americans (and other white Western Europeans) are entitled by birthright to all the best jobs.

 

[disappoint]

Article was written by an idiot.

Well there we have it. The article was hated by an idiot. Best case in favor of the article I've seen.

 

[disappoint]

Anti-intelectuallism? Are you joking? We're the most pro-nerd we've ever been in the history of the US.

Perhaps the problem is really that our in-tolerance for anti-intellectualism is growing faster than are anti-intellectualism is fading.

It'd be nice if they made some kind of direct connection between being a racist or a creationist and the other things they lament. I'm pretty sure that being black is a far greater indicator of teen pregnancy than being a fundamentalist Christian, but maybe I'm wrong? I'd argue that religion has a negligible effect on our overall crime and incarceration rates, which are more thanks to our government and our war on drugs. And of course, there's the typical gun fear-mongering mentioned as well. Boo-hoo.

EDIT: Hmm, I'm actually seeing only a 2-fold or so difference between whites, Hispanics, and blacks in terms of teen pregnancy, which isn't what I expected. Unless I'm getting the wrong numbers; ~10% teen pregnancy seems really high to me. Regardless, the measurements out there include 18 and 19 where the woman is technically still an adult and has probably graduated high school. I'll admit that in that scenario religion probably does have a significant role in making women want to carry to term at that age, although in that case it's questionable that it's as damaging as is made out to be. Huge difference between pregnant at 15 and pregnant at 19.

Now try comparing us to other first world nations. Look at how their cultures value reason, critical thinking and intellectual pursuits compared to our culture as a whole.

Lets face it most religions fight intellectualism, reason and critical thinking, some even fight education itself, banning certain members of society from obtaining a secular and/or formal education in a selfish, destructive (to society) attempt at self preservation.

 

[Dr. Zaus]

Well there we have it. The article was hated by an idiot. Best case in favor of the article I've seen.

Its a tribal-identity perpetuation piece. It's not about objective criteria in the world relative to previous situations; it's about polemically caterwauling.

 

[HamburgerBoy]

Now try comparing us to other first world nations. Look at how their cultures value reason, critical thinking and intellectual pursuits compared to our culture as a whole.

Lets face it most religions fight intellectualism, reason and critical thinking, some even fight education itself, banning certain members of society from obtaining a secular and/or formal education in a selfish, destructive (to society) attempt at self preservation.

Poland still enforces anti-blasphemy laws yet they beat us by many of the metrics mentioned in the op. There's some correlation between religious fundamentalism and Bad Things(tm), sure. Fundamentalist Christians are going to have a disproportionate number of poor and ignorant members, sure. They're also dwindling in numbers with every generation and have never been less influential in America. It can't be used as an easy fix-all.

 

[disappoint]

Its a tribal-identity perpetuation peace. It's not about objective criteria in the world relative to previous situations; it's about polemically caterwauling.

Did you mean piece?

 

[disappoint]

Poland still enforces anti-blasphemy laws yet they beat us by many of the metrics mentioned in the op. There's some correlation between religious fundamentalism and Bad Things(tm), sure. Fundamentalist Christians are going to have a disproportionate number of poor and ignorant members, sure. They're also dwindling in numbers with every generation and have never been less influential in America. It can't be used as an easy fix-all.

Well it's not just religion that's the problem. There are plenty of secular folks that eschew intellectuals.

 

[HamburgerBoy]

Well it's not just religion that's the problem. There are plenty of secular folks that eschew intellectuals.

I'd like to see a table of intellectualism by country. Sounds easy enough to measure.

 

[ALIVE]

Well it's not just religion that's the problem. There are plenty of secular folks that eschew intellectuals.

religion is not a problem
spain and italy they are deeply religion countries but they do not have any problems you have in usa.

not having critical thinking thats the problems and that is what the article is talkie about. and thats why he refers to fundamentalist christians and not to christians in general. because he has a critical thinking and he can see the difference between these 2.

while in usa the fundamentalist christian say world is created in 6 days to be truth in europe the fundamentalist translate it the world was made into 6 periods. and here comes the whole difference in the world. a Christians that claims period and not days is pro scientist and well fitted into the society.

japanese are deeply religious people but japan have nothing to do with usa and the problems you have. but then japanese are not christians.

 

[lxskllr]

I'd like to see a table of intellectualism by country. Sounds easy enough to measure.

Is that sarcasm? Sounds horrendously difficult to measure. Afghanistan vs Canada? Easy. How about Germany vs Norway?

 

[ALIVE]

Is that sarcasm? Sounds horrendously difficult to measure. Afghanistan vs Canada? Easy. How about Germany vs Norway?

well true and usa will be under afganistan???
if in a country no one believes that the earth in flat but in usa there are people that believe that then which country is worse???

the level of stupidity the west generates is amazing
take a book and a metal item in a rather cold day, after you both had them outside, give them to a person and ask which item as the lower temperature.
and tell them they were both outside

and yes the metal will win when the obvious is the are the same temperature
its the same you take a cake out of the oven and the cake surface has lower temp that the pot!?!?!?!?

heat transfer told in school but yes we spend billions of dollars to schools and yet kids do not remember the basics

 

[disappoint]

Is that sarcasm? Sounds horrendously difficult to measure. Afghanistan vs Canada? Easy. How about Germany vs Norway?

Might even be further complicated by the fact that no one would agree on what it means to be an intellectual. You know the religious fundies will be fighting to be called intellectuals because they have a 50Mb down 50Mb up datalink to God.

 

[HamburgerBoy]

Is that sarcasm? Sounds horrendously difficult to measure. Afghanistan vs Canada? Easy. How about Germany vs Norway?

Yeah, that was sarcasm. I think "anti-intellectual" is a really easy and feel-good scapegoat. For example, in the op they also cite Christian fundamentalism as denying climate change, which I won't argue with. However, consider these two lines of thought:

1) "God will save us!"
2) "Hey, fossil fuel makes us money, it gives the average Joe more beer money, and human life is cheap"

I would argue that one of those is irrational and the other is exceedingly rational. I would also argue that the rational line of thought predominates in terms of political influence.

 

[lxskllr]

1) "God will save us!"
2) "Hey, fossil fuel makes us money, it gives the average Joe more beer money, and human life is cheap"

I would argue that one of those is irrational and the other is exceedingly rational. I would also argue that the rational line of thought predominates in terms of political influence.

Rational, but shortsighted and selfish. Isn't the reason we do this shit, is to leave the world a better place for our kids? Take away the artificial constraints of religion, and that's all that's left. We're actively fucking our kids, and it affects everyone from top to bottom. Money will forestall the inevitable, but money only goes so far.