This is the kind of thing that needs to be shouted from the rooftops. I have been thinking about this for a while and this essayist couldn’t be more dead on right.
Intellectuals are difficult to influence because they insist on applying human reason in a much broader way than non-intellectuals, and are therefore much less likely to simply accept ideas given to them by those in power or even those coming from the popular culture (religious belief, for example) that might not stand up to intellectual scrutiny. They are much more likely to follow the beat of their own drum than to conform to expectations, and this non-conformity leads to suspicion and even ostracization (think of the "nerd" sitting alone at a high school lunch table).
Carl Sagan observed in Demon-Haunted World (1995) that "People in power have a vested interest to oppose critical thinking" precisely because it makes people harder to fool. He strongly argued that we need to expand the intellectual base, especially in our era where technology is so dominant in all of our lives. He feared a society where nobody understands the technology, the science, and the methodical reasoning which underpins it all and just believes whatever supposed authorities tells them (about horse de-wormers, for example). An excellent synopsis of Sagan's prescient thoughts on this can be found at https://www.openculture.com/2017/01/carl-sagan-predicts-the-decline-of-america.html
Exactly. Sagan died in 1996, but I think he could already see the rising tide of idiocracy. To mention another one of the greats, Isaac Asimov has a famous quote where he decries, "...the false notion that democracy means that my ignorance is as good as your knowledge." Another very relevant quote comes from the late Senator Pat Moynihan, "You are entitled to your own opinion. You are not entitled to your own facts." Today, the very idea of fact as a reality to which opinion must defer has been lost.
The american disdain for expertise is at least as old as the nation itself, and in many tellings derives from the 'energy' of the frontiersmen.
PS: I cannot imagine Brooks endorsing a Jim Wallis social or economic platform, thoug hI can imagine him trying to massage it into something to his own taste.
This is the kind of thing that needs to be shouted from the rooftops. I have been thinking about this for a while and this essayist couldn’t be more dead on right.
Thanks much, Jaime.
Intellectuals are difficult to influence because they insist on applying human reason in a much broader way than non-intellectuals, and are therefore much less likely to simply accept ideas given to them by those in power or even those coming from the popular culture (religious belief, for example) that might not stand up to intellectual scrutiny. They are much more likely to follow the beat of their own drum than to conform to expectations, and this non-conformity leads to suspicion and even ostracization (think of the "nerd" sitting alone at a high school lunch table).
Carl Sagan observed in Demon-Haunted World (1995) that "People in power have a vested interest to oppose critical thinking" precisely because it makes people harder to fool. He strongly argued that we need to expand the intellectual base, especially in our era where technology is so dominant in all of our lives. He feared a society where nobody understands the technology, the science, and the methodical reasoning which underpins it all and just believes whatever supposed authorities tells them (about horse de-wormers, for example). An excellent synopsis of Sagan's prescient thoughts on this can be found at https://www.openculture.com/2017/01/carl-sagan-predicts-the-decline-of-america.html
Exactly. Sagan died in 1996, but I think he could already see the rising tide of idiocracy. To mention another one of the greats, Isaac Asimov has a famous quote where he decries, "...the false notion that democracy means that my ignorance is as good as your knowledge." Another very relevant quote comes from the late Senator Pat Moynihan, "You are entitled to your own opinion. You are not entitled to your own facts." Today, the very idea of fact as a reality to which opinion must defer has been lost.
The american disdain for expertise is at least as old as the nation itself, and in many tellings derives from the 'energy' of the frontiersmen.
PS: I cannot imagine Brooks endorsing a Jim Wallis social or economic platform, thoug hI can imagine him trying to massage it into something to his own taste.