Jon writes:
> A lot of the fashionable anti-intellectualism (not to mention
the fashionable flaunting of Christianity) seen today is probably
masked anti-semitism.
Huh? Anti-intellectualism is not disguised anti-Semitism. It is the pragmatic response to one of the worst forms of HIV -- Human Intelligentsia Virus.
The right always bemoans that the left is entrenched (entombed?) in academia, but they should actually be rejoicing. The left's occupancy of academia has left the real world and it citizens ripe for the cultivation/picking by the right.
Leftists advocate theory so much that they turn off the very people they are supposedly trying to cultivate. Take the advocacy for Nader as an example. Most Real Worlders see a campaign as trying to win an election. There are leftists, however, who say Nader's campaign is about sending a message (use Western Union) or bringing new issues to light (I don't see that happening, do you?).
In Theory Land these ideas sound sensible, but in the Real World they do not play out the way they are intended. Does this worry the Theorists? Of course not. In their world theory is currency. So long as they spin new abstractions and secure tenure they are safe. The actual benefit of their theories to real people is not part of the equation.
Anti-intellectualism is not anti-Semitism (still cannot figure that leap out), but the natural response to useless reams of theory.
Brian Dauth Queer Buddhist Resister