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From: colonel@gloria.UUCP (Col. G. L. Sicherman)
Newsgroups: net.singles
Subject: Re: intelligence and intellectualism
Message-ID: <879@gloria.UUCP>
Date: Wed, 26-Jun-85 18:36:02 EDT
Article-I.D.: gloria.879
Posted: Wed Jun 26 18:36:02 1985
Date-Received: Sun, 30-Jun-85 02:44:36 EDT
References: <1560088@acf4.UUCP> <1100@peora.UUCP> <498@ttidcc.UUCP>
Organization: SUNY-Buffalo Computer Sci.
Lines: 37

["You're hurt bad, Mister--have some Wheaties!"]

> 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:
> 
> 	Effete intellectual snob  (Thank you, Spiro Agnew)
> 	Egghead  	Know-it-all  	Smartass  	Smart guy
> 	Wise ass  	Wise guy

Dutch has "wijsneus," and there are probably lots of others.  

> 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.

There's no reason to assume that others want the benefit of your
intelligence, or that you ought to give it to them.  All the terms
above describe people who consistently assume so.

> For further evidence of anti-intellectualism, consider teachers' pay scales
> as compared with, say, plumbers' or auto assembly line workers.

If plumbers' skills were as low as teachers', the whole country would
be under water.  Very few of my schoolteachers were intellectuals; most
were just hacks, educated by rote and teaching by rote.

Intelligence has two uses: to improve one's life, and to win admiration.
Only the second seems to matter in schools; to some people only the
second matters all their lives long.  And a lot of "intellectuals"
belong to that group.
-- 
Col. G. L. Sicherman
...{rocksvax|decvax}!sunybcs!colonel