What is anti-intellectualism?

Public Number: Cross the Bridge Potato/guoqiaopotato

According to Wikipedia, anti-intellectualism is an attitude that exists in culture or thought, rather than a clearly defined theory of thought.

Although it is impossible to clearly define what anti-intellectualism is, it is still possible to roughly describe what is anti-intellectualism.

Anti-intellectualism is simply the theory of the futility of knowledge. Divided into two categories:

1. Opposition or doubt about intellect and knowledge, believing that intelligence or knowledge is harmful to life and not beneficial.

2. Suspicion and contempt for intellectuals.

For example, doubt or oppose knowledge and reason; despise or despise intellectuals, experts, and elites; indulge in vulgar entertainment and popular culture; superstitious religion; reject science; spiritual inertia; and so on. These are all manifestations of anti-intellectualism.

Anti-intellectualism was actually proposed by American historian Richard Hofstadter in his 1962 book Anti-intellectualism in American Life.

He has an important point in the book, which he believes is the so-called mass education, which is a source of anti-intellectualism gradually prevailing in the United States. Because mass education pursues universality and laxity, this has led to lower and lower educational standards and levels of education. The result is that in the name of universal education, a group of people who are not motivated have been trained.

He believes that this kind of loose school education that emphasizes popularization will only help students learn to understand the world through consumerism, learn to attract attention through social interaction and comparison, and learn to live a negative and hedonic way of life.

Apathy toward intellectual life and a lack of respect for intellectuals pervade American society throughout American society. Television, star chasing, and merchandising are the troika of popular culture's anti-intellectuality. The combination of these three has created an anti-intellectual atmosphere in American society.

The manifestation of anti-intellectualism in politics, in the original book "Anti-intellectualism in American Life", is mainly manifested in that the opinions and actions of intellectuals or elites from all walks of life are divorced from public opinion, causing people's incomprehension or attack.

The authors argue that intellectual education and skills are seen as power and privilege. Intellectuals are seen as a small group of arrogant, arrogant, hypocritical and flattering elites. The idea that they are knowledgeable is seen as unrealistic by anti-intellectuals, and their upbringing is seen as useless.

The author believes that the main reasons for anti-intellectualism are as follows:

1. Contradictions among intellectuals. The obstacles to the upward passage of intellectuals, and the contradiction between intellectuals and existing authorities.

2. Contradictions among intellectuals, academic elites and the general public. Lack of active and effective communication, knowledge and disengagement of the people.

3. Cultural confrontation. In the United States, the confrontation between small town culture and urban culture.

4. national character. Americans are in the same line about their own national imagination.

It seems that there is nothing new in the world.

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"Turn ignorance into a sharp blade" - web article

You don't believe in education, and you mention, intentionally or unintentionally, that Bill Gates didn't graduate from college and that Einstein got bad grades.

You feel that your grades are poor just because you don't work hard, and you don't work hard just because it doesn't make sense.

You open your mouth and keep your mouth shut, but you have high grades and low abilities. You work hard, and you have a world. You heard that you can’t find a job with a master’s degree or a doctorate. So you think that studying is useless.

You don't think there's much to learn in the humanities, and the "democracy is good" that scholars spent hundreds of years researching is no different from the "majority of the minority" that your grandmother said.

You don't think there is much to learn in natural sciences. You often think about the meaning of a science education. In the end, I found that mathematics knows that addition, subtraction, multiplication and division is not enough. Trigonometric functions, complex numbers, calculus all make no sense. "These won't be used for grocery shopping anyway."

You know 10,000 ways to succeed, and you know every word Jack Ma said.

You know that success has nothing to do with reading, reading is poor thinking. You keep saying that IQ is less important than emotional intelligence.

You get bored when you hear proper nouns. You feel that everything in the world can be said clearly in the most straightforward vernacular.

When it comes to politics, it is a national conspiracy theory, and when it comes to economics, it is Rothschild. You deconstruct the experts and think that all the experts are just a bunch of idiots who cheat.

You listen to pop music, listen to the European and American superstars recommended to you by QQ Music, hum a song, shake your head, and only know the word Baby when you ask. When I ask people around me if they like it, I feel that my taste is really good.

You don't believe in literary taste, and you don't believe in people who actually like bands you haven't heard of.

You also go to the music festival. In the evening, Wan Qing sings to kill that Shijiazhuang person. People around you are discussing that Wan Qing is out of tune on the saxophone today. You think it sounds very good, and you can't get in, so you silently curse in your heart: "Pretend to be a force."

You think those movies that you don't understand from the name are just pretending to be seen, your favorite movie is Tai 囧, and you also like to watch Little Times. After reading Zhiyoun's return, I cried. When I was full and swiped on Weibo, I saw someone citing scriptures and arguing why Xiaojie was so bad from industrial production to plot. You are very angry, and you leave a loud message below saying that there is a market for such movies, using your newly learned word - "down to earth".

You have a special yardstick in your heart that you use to judge others. When a husband and wife divorce, someone must be stealing. When an official is promoted, he must have spent money to bribe his superior. A little-known character suddenly became the heroine. "Look how far apart her legs are," you smugly analyzed the others.

You laugh at ideals, you emphasise reality. You see "life needs poetry and distance" yelling, and then you try to laugh at yourself. Tell everyone: "Be serious and you will lose."

What's wrong with you attacking the judge and arguing that child trafficking deserves the death penalty. You attack doctors, thinking that all doctors receive red envelopes.

You think you are the mainstream, and pretending is the label you put on everyone who is different from you.

You are the truth and you are the will of the people. You say it to every one of you - and the common people can't be wrong. Each of you responded loudly. "We can't go wrong".

This is already a war.

You know that you are the world itself. The multitude is your strongest chariot.

You are on a rampage with no one in sight.

You are the market, the darling of the times, the customers, and the unstoppable torrent.

Whoever speaks for you will be made king, and whoever dares to block the flood will go over vigorously and tell him that this is the power of the market. Tell him that this is the result of being ungrounded.

This is an era when the word pretending is abused, this is an era when everyone is talking about being down to earth, this is an era when nothing is important except money and nothing but marketing.

The world is made of you, and the whole world is studying your habits. The world no longer needs heroes, the world only needs carnivals.

You sharpen your ignorance into a knife, pierce its heart, and cut the world into what you want it to be.

I know that in this day and age, you'll be fine

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Posted on: June 9, 2021