[lbo-talk] Some thoughts on BTN

Chuck Grimes c123grimes at att.net
Sat Jul 21 13:58:41 PDT 2012


I keep forgetting BTN's new time slot Thurs Noon. So I usually listen sometime Sat Morning as I did this week's show. Both Goldberg and Featherstone were very good, very relevant.

The ending question of education in an anti-intellectual society was highly interesting to think about. In the psychological dimension, I think what is really going on is a substitution effect of class war in the following way.

Everybody I assume wants to be rich and probably believes that is possible for them, when in fact it is impossible. So few people loath the rich, since they want to join the ranks. Most people probably also believe that the rich got to be rich by being smarter and more clever and this is a barrier. Therefore, instead of hating the rich, loathing for the apparently better educated (not necessarily smarther) group get the substitutional wrath of the common place. In effect the dislike of elitism (anti-intellectualism), has been substituted for a dislike of the rich. Rightwing propaganda is very effective in manipulating this substitution or deflection.

There are other factors. I found education to be an endlessly humiliating experience. My grades felt like little stinging needles as I looked at my report cards. I was also trapped in a curious way. If I was really interested in a subject and spent a lot of time with it, I usually got a poorer grade than I expected. This trap tended to disappear in college, because there was more time and fewer classes.

I think these were common experiences, so that people who either never went to college, and/or went to very mediocre colleges tend to have a dim view of education.

I suspect most people want their kids to do well in school and go to college, but not to really learn about their culture, history, society, and most important (I think) learn how to learn.

They view education as credentialing systems for a better paying job.

So, this is just a sketch for fleshing out what anti-intellectualism is based on in the psycho-social dimension.



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