[lbo-talk] stupidest quote of the week from an American politician?

[George Scialabba]

I dunno, Jerry. I emphatically agree that most philosophy and political 
science professors should be washing toilets. But don't you feel the 
occasional surge of indignation against your fellow citizens for letting 
the wool be pulled over their eyes so regularly and calamitously? Doug 
politely called this a deep conservative streak in American political 
culture; but besides conservative principles, there's an awful lot of 
apathy, ignorance, and prejudice out there, isn't there?

At 12:07 PM 7/20/2006, you wrote:


>On 7/20/06, Wojtek Sokolowski <<mailto:sokol at jhu.edu>sokol at jhu.edu> wrote:
>
>[WS:] Yeah, this is a lesson for Democrats: follow the mushroom theory of
>politics (keep them in the dark and feed manure), and you do really well at
>the polls.
>
>
>
>Why are you any different?  Why are you not "them"?  Why do you insist 
>that "they" are so stupid? If they are so stupid, what makes you so smart, 
>and so not them?
>
>I simply don't get it, Woj.  I guess since I worked as a Taxi Driver for 
>my years of in school I have a different view of things.  I kept on 
>thinking to myself that most of the people I knew should switch 
>places.  Everybody in the philosophy and humanities and social "sciences" 
>department should wash toilets and drive taxis and everybody driving taxis 
>should teach philosophy and social science.  Maybe the two groups should 
>alternate semesters.  As a general rule I haven't found that the lowly are 
>any smarter than the elite.
>
>Jerry
>
>
>Wo said: "People are by nature like sheep - they follow the flock and keep 
>up with the
>Joneses.  This, I believe, is the result of our evolutionary adaptation.  We
>succeeded as a species mainly because we could act in sync with a group
>rather than individually - which means that those with a strong herd
>instinct had a better chance of survival.  This means that people by nature
>need rituals that create and confirm their belonging to a group.  Those
>rituals may take many forms - from an orgy, to religious celebration, to
>going to a football game or a rock concert, and to voting to this or that
>celebrity."
>
>JM:  Show me the evolutionary proof.  Do you even know one damn thing 
>about evolution?  This is the kind of insanely ignorant speculation that 
>gives evolutionary reasoning about human psychology and behavior a bad 
>name.  You should just keep off of this deeply prejudicial and ideological 
>stuff until you actually think it through.  Show me the evidence about 
>"evolutionary adaptation"  or admit that you are talking from simple 
>personal prejudice and hatred.
>
>
>
>
>
>
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