08.16.08
Anti-intellectualism in America–and Darwinism isn’t helping either
How Anti-Intellectualism Is Destroying America
By Terrence McNally, AlterNet. Posted August 15, 2008.
Sad but true: Intelligence is a political liability in the US. Author of The Age of American Unreason Susan Jacoby explains why.
This is an important article, but it seems to have gone off course in one way: sneaking into the discussion is the arrogant stance of the ‘Brights’ movement, the New Atheism’s botched secularism, and the implicit Darwinism of the criticism of evolution critics and resisters.
The fact of the matter is that that one part of that dumbing down lies in the liberal wing of the Darwin fanatics who have pushed an unreasonable and culturally barren version of scientism on the public that is left with no option but to resist.
The issues that Jacoby raises are important ones, but it is time to ask just how intelligent the current field of scientists really is after the exhibitions of rank ignorance from the New Atheists, the propaganda of the Darwinists, and the inability of ‘liberal Darwinists’ to grasp the latent Social Darwinism of their stance, something any ‘intelligent’ group ought to be able to do.