>Until someone offers more than anecdotal evidence otherwise, I will take
>for granted that anti-intellectualism in the united states is primarily
>among intellectuals, not within the population as a whole.
>
>Carrol
>___________________________________
>
>
But sometimes it's difficult to distinguish between "intellectuals" and
"the population as a whole."
For example, a year or so ago I reconnected with my highschool boyfriend Max. Max had an IQ of 172, could ace the Calculus test without doing any homework, and wound up doing a double Ph.D. in Chem and Physics. He is now a senior scientist at U.C. Berkeley.
We went out to lunch where, among other things, he made fun of my Ph.D. in English --- what could that possibly be about he asked --- and then, a month later, when I suggested that he might want to bring his kids to see another bunch of kids put on the Nutcracker ballet, he said that he asked his children and they said they'd prefer to go to the dentist. He was clearly very proud of their response. This is the same guy who would make fun of me for listening to chamber music when we were teens.
His mother was a physical therapist and his father was a truck driver. There were no books in his house. None. Other than schoolbooks. Something tells me he didn't pick up these attitudes at U.C. Berkeley which is where he got his Ph.D's and where he's been hanging out most of his life.
Joanna