Relay-Version: version B 2.10 5/3/83; site utzoo.UUCP Posting-Version: version B 2.10.2 9/5/84; site tove.UUCP Path: utzoo!watmath!clyde!bonnie!akgua!mcnc!philabs!cmcl2!seismo!umcp-cs!tove!dsn From: dsn@tove.UUCP (Dana S. Nau) Newsgroups: net.singles Subject: Re: XSO IQ Message-ID: <244@tove.UUCP> Date: Sat, 22-Jun-85 17:34:07 EDT Article-I.D.: tove.244 Posted: Sat Jun 22 17:34:07 1985 Date-Received: Sun, 30-Jun-85 00:30:10 EDT References: <1476@utah-gr.UUCP> <1560088@acf4.UUCP> <1100@peora.UUCP> <498@ttidcc.UUCP> Reply-To: dsn@tove.UUCP (Dana S. Nau) Organization: U of Maryland, Laboratory for Parallel Computation, C.P., MD Lines: 58 In article <498@ttidcc.UUCP> hollombe@ttidcc.UUCP (The Polymath) writes: > > ... There's a strong anti-intellectual streak in the culture of the > United States. ... Examples: > > Effete intellectual snob (Thank you, Spiro Agnew) Our esteemed (:-)) ex-vice-president's phrase was "impudent corps of effete snobs". "Intellectual" was not there. The phrase itself is pretty intellectual-sounding: how many people normally use words like "impudent" or "effete"? > Egghead > Know-it-all > Smartass > Smart guy > Wise ass > Wise guy > >I've had most of these words used against me at one time or another. >Usually the person who used them was someone who resented me knowing more >about a subject than they did. They are not always used with sarcastic >intent. I think most of the above phrases connote not someone who is merely intellectual, but rather someone who is trying to *show off* his/her knowledge in order to feel superior to others. The only times I have ever had such words used against me were times when--at least partly--that was what I was trying to do. I suspect the same might be true for you. Also, how about insults such as "dummy", "stupid bastard", "moron", "idiot", "head up his ass", etc.? How about jokes (such as Polack jokes) that make fun of someone's supposed stupidity? There are a lot of those, too. >For further evidence of anti-intellectualism, consider teachers' pay scales >as compared with, say, plumbers' or auto assembly line workers. I think it's simple supply and demand. Certain people (myself included!) are willing to become professors even though the salaries are lower, because of other advantages of the profession (flexible hours, self-direction, etc). If there were an oversupply of plumbers, the prices would come down, and people would stop becoming plumbers. In fact, computer science faculty salaries have gotten pretty good in the last few years, because of the competition from industry. >Frankly, the implications of this scare the hell out of me. What can one >say about a culture that values learning so little? I could be really wrong about this, because I don't know you personally. However, I can't help but suspect that what really scares you might be the every-day interactions you have with people, rather than abstractions like "the culture of the United States". It might be more beneficial for you to concentrate on the specifics of those interactions, and consider how you might be able to improve them. -- Dana S. Nau, Computer Science Dept., U. of Maryland, College Park, MD 20742 ARPA: dsn@maryland CSNet: dsn@umcp-cs UUCP: {seismo,allegra,brl-bmd}!umcp-cs!dsn Phone: (301) 454-7932