(June 20, 2015 at 6:58 pm)Alex K Wrote: Pyrrho, I'll agree that anti-intellectual attitudes are a serious issue in the US, but the connection to the Charleston shooting seems forced, and it therefore leaves a very bad taste in my mouth to use the shooting as a talking point in this fight. I'd rather not join the ranks of those who use the latest tragedy to raise awareness for their pet issue. It just seems too far-fetched to be justified.
The article continues with:
Quote: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?
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Is that satisfactory to you? If not, you might want to continue reading at:
https://www.psychologytoday.com/blog/our...ng-america
"A wise man ... proportions his belief to the evidence."
— David Hume, An Enquiry Concerning Human Understanding, Section X, Part I.
