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| title | chunk | source | category | tags | date_saved | instance |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Anti-intellectualism | 2/6 | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Anti-intellectualism | reference | science, encyclopedia | 2026-05-05T14:56:20.293606+00:00 | kb-cron |
== Distrust of intellectuals == In the U.S., the conservative American economist Thomas Sowell argued for distinctions between unreasonable and reasonable wariness of intellectuals in their influence upon the institutions of a society. In defining intellectuals as "people whose occupations deal primarily with ideas", Sowell conveys the view that they are different from people whose work is the practical application of ideas. Under this framework, the cause for layman's mistrust lies in the intellectuals' supposed incompetence outside their fields of expertise. The portrayed view is that, although having great working knowledge in their specialist fields when compared to other professions and occupations, the intellectuals of society could face little discouragement against speaking authoritatively beyond their field of formal expertise and thus are unlikely to face responsibility for the social and practical consequences of their errors. Hence, a physician is judged competent by the effective treatment of a patient's sickness, yet might face a medical malpractice lawsuit should the treatment harm the patient. In contrast, a tenured university professor is unlikely to be judged competent or incompetent by the effectiveness of their intellectualism (ideas) and thus not face responsibility for the social and practical consequences of the implementation of the ideas. In Britain, the anti-intellectualism of the writer Paul Johnson derived from his close examination of twentieth-century history, which brought him to the conclusion that intellectuals have continually championed disastrous public policies for social welfare and public education, and warned the layman public to "beware [the] intellectuals. Not merely should they be kept well away from the levers of power, they should also be objects of suspicion when they seek to offer collective advice." In that vein, "In the Land of the Rococo Marxists" (2000), the American writer Tom Wolfe characterized the intellectual as "a person knowledgeable in one field, who speaks out only in others." In 2000, British publisher Imprint Academic published Dumbing Down, a compilation of essays edited by Ivo Mosley, grandson of the British fascist Oswald Mosley, which included essays on a perceived widespread anti-intellectualism by Jaron Lanier, Ravi Shankar, Robert Brustein, Michael Oakshott among others.
=== Discrimination === Discrimination of excellence is the violation of formal equality of opportunity and meritocracy, which reward merits of individuals and overachievement. Discrimination of excellence can be caused by different reasons, including legacy preferences, nepotism, substantive equality, affirmative action, ageism or random luck. An example is when academics, teachers, and students were targeted during the Cambodian genocide. Khmer Rouge chose new teachers by ideology and not by teaching excellence, which resulted in high illiteracy. Gifted education has been criticized on substantive equality grounds. Legacy preferences for college admissions have been criticized. Discrimination against excellent students during admissions to Ivy League has been debated during 2019 college admissions bribery scandal. The United States Department of Justice scrutinized higher education over potential systemic biases in college admission standards that would underweight transparent standardized testing criteria due to affirmative action. Harvard College has been sued in Students for Fair Admissions v. President and Fellows of Harvard College due to individuals outperforming on standardized college admission tests but not being admitted. Non-merit-based admissions practices, degree conferral or promotion standards have been criticized. Some universities perform affirmative action on men, in order to maintain a gender balance.
== In the United States ==
=== 17th century === In The Powring Out of the Seven Vials (1642), the Puritan John Cotton demonized intellectual men and women by saying that "the more learned and witty you bee, the more fit to act for Satan will you bee. ... Take off the fond doting ... upon the learning of the Jesuits, and the glorie of the Episcopacy, and the brave estates of the Prelates. I say bee not deceived by these pompes, empty shewes, and faire representations of goodly condition before the eyes of flesh and blood, bee not taken with the applause of these persons". Yet, not every Puritan concurred with Cotton's religious contempt for secular education, such as John Harvard, a major early benefactor of the university which now bears his name. In The Quest for Cosmic Justice (2001), the economist Thomas Sowell said that anti-intellectualism in the U.S. began in the early Colonial era as an understandable wariness of the educated upper classes because the country mostly was built by people who had fled political and religious persecution by the social system of the educated upper classes. Moreover, few intellectuals possessed the practical hands-on skills required to survive in the New World of North America, which absence from society led to a deep-rooted, populist suspicion of men and women who specialize in "verbal virtuosity", rather than tangible, measurable products and services:
"From its colonial beginnings, American society was a "decapitated" society—largely lacking the top-most social layers of European society. The highest elites and the titled aristocracies had little reason to risk their lives crossing the Atlantic, and then face the perils of pioneering. Most of the white population of colonial America arrived as indentured servants and the black population as slaves. Later waves of immigrants were disproportionately peasants and proletarians, even when they came from Western Europe ... The rise of American society to pre-eminence, as an economic, political, and military power, was thus the triumph of the common man, and a slap across the face to the presumptions of the arrogant, whether an elite of blood or books."