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From: oyster@uwmacc.UUCP (Vicious Oyster)
Newsgroups: net.singles
Subject: Re: XSO IQ
Message-ID: <1241@uwmacc.UUCP>
Date: Mon, 24-Jun-85 14:07:10 EDT
Article-I.D.: uwmacc.1241
Posted: Mon Jun 24 14:07:10 1985
Date-Received: Thu, 27-Jun-85 07:51:37 EDT
References: <1476@utah-gr.UUCP> <1560088@acf4.UUCP> <1100@peora.UUCP> <498@ttidcc.UUCP>
Reply-To: oyster@uwmacc.UUCP (Vicious oyster)
Organization: UWisconsin-Madison Academic Comp Center
Lines: 37

In article <498@ttidcc.UUCP> hollombe@ttidcc.UUCP (The Polymath) writes:
>This brings up a point which has troubled me for a  long  time.  There's  a
>strong  anti-intellectual streak in the culture of the United States.  As a
>demonstration of this consider:  So far as I know, colloquial United States
>English  is  the  only  language in which it's possible to insult people by
>saying they're intelligent.  Examples:
> [etc.]
>
>Frankly, the implications of this scare the hell out of me.  What  can  one
>say about a culture that values learning so little?
>-- 

Another anecdote from my files:
   I was doing some biking with a group of people from the university 
recently, and, as it had been raining for 4 hours or so, we decided to stop
at a small cafeteria to get some nice warm coffee.  When one of the gentlemen
I was with was asked by the high-school-aged young woman behind the counter if
he wanted decaffeinated coffee, he responded with a spiel about ATPs and 
what-not, diagrams and all, in spite of her protestations of "Will I care
about this tomorrow?"  This embarassed me greatly, since it seemed clear to me
that it was taken by the young woman as a display of his "superiority" over
her.  Later on (still riding in the rain), he seemed truly put out about
the incident, not because of his "smarter-than-thou" display, but because
it seemed that the young woman just wasn't interested in learning what he
was telling her!  Gosh, he exclaimed, aren't people interested in learning
anymore?
   And you wonder why some people resent "educated" people?  Granted, this
clown may be the exception rather than the rule, but there is at least
*some* cause for anti-intellectualism.  Perhaps it has a parallel in the
way certain smart, non-athletic people I know look down upon those blessed
with athletic rather than intellectual ability.
-- 
 - joel "vo" plutchak
{allegra,ihnp4,seismo}!uwvax!uwmacc!oyster

"Take what I say in a different way and it's easy to say that this is
all confusion."