[lbo-talk] Alex Cockburn is funny

Michael Smith mjs at smithbowen.net
Wed Jul 27 23:48:30 PDT 2011


On Wed, 27 Jul 2011 19:37:54 -0500 Carrol Cox <cbcox at ilstu.edu> wrote:


> I've been complaining for years on this e-list about the tendency to
> identify intelligence with correct results.

Carrol & I have taken some contrary stances on the list of late, so it's a great pleasure to find myself once more in complete agreement with a fella who has given much stimulus to my own thinking -- as I humorously refer to it.

This 'intelligence' trope is thoroughly iniquitous -- a residue of the petty-bourgeois meritocratic mentality. The unstated premise is that if we could just replace all the stupid people in power with smart ones, things would be better.

This rests in turn upon the notion that smart people -- whatever that means -- are necessarily better-disposed toward us and our causes than stupid people.

As far as I can tell, there is absolutely no actual evidence to back up this claim.

-- --

Michael J. Smith mjs at smithbowen.net

http://stopmebeforeivoteagain.org http://www.cars-suck.org http://fakesprogress.blogspot.com



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