[Vision2020] Anti-Intellectualism and the Future of America

[Nick Gier]

Greetings:

This is a column that will soon appear in the Sandpoint Reader.  On a 
related note, some of you have asked where the "Intelligent Falling" spoof 
came from.  Where else but the incomparable Onion, one of the funniest mags 
I've ever read?  Many more belly laughs per paragraph than even Dave Berry.

WHAT DO YOU KNOW? NOT MUCH!
Anti-Intellectualism and America's Future

The host of a popular NPR radio program begins his weekly show with this 
question:  "What do you know?" to which the audience replies 
enthusiastically "Not much!"  The highlight of the show is a quiz involving 
trivia questions at which even the most well informed contestants have to 
guess.

When I visit India my professional friends parade their children before me 
in an impressive show of their academic achievements.  One night one 
seven-year old did a virtuoso recitation of all the US states and their 
capitals.  Many Americans of any age would be hard pressed to locate India 
on a map, let alone many of the American states.

My Indian experience was not limited to the scholarly elite.  After 
realizing that her very existence depended upon it, I reluctantly kept the 
servant that came with my one-bedroom apartment in Bangalore. Lakshmi had 
an invalid husband and three daughters, and she worked long hours to pay 
for her daughters' tuition.  They came with her every day, and they worked 
diligently all morning preparing for their afternoon classes.

One day in November, 1992, two students came to my office at Panjab 
University and, after a short greeting, asked me what the meaning of life 
was.  I was amazed and stunned.  I gathered my wits enough to give them a 
short lecture on the wisdom of the Middle Way of Buddha, Confucius, and 
Aristotle. In thirty-one years of teaching American students, I was never 
asked a question of such magnitude and profundity.

It is well known that Americans are the most insular and worst informed 
people in the world.  Nigerian Nobel Laureate Wole Soyinka was utterly 
surprised to hear an educated American speak of the recent war in 
Yugoslavia as if it took place in Asia and involved the Chinese 
Communists.  Soyinka rightly believes that geography is just as important 
as history, which is "the material reality from which everything else derives."

We Americans have a president who once called the Greeks 
"Greecians."  (That's a hair formula, George!)  During the 2000 election he 
could not identify any of the central Asian countries that were important 
for Iraq and Afghanistan. Bush also scandalized the American Indian 
community by calling the Hindus "Hindis."  I hope that he got that straight 
before receiving the Indian prime minister on a recent state visit.  I 
assume that he was told that the Manmohan Singh is a Sikh and not a Hindu. 
This is the type of ignorance that led men in California to drag a Sikh 
from his car and beat him to death because he was an "Arab."

Not only do Americans know very little of substance, they are, incredibly 
enough, proud of their ignorance and vote for a president as ill informed 
as themselves. Sadly H. L. Mencken's 1920 prophecy has been fulfilled: "As 
democracy is perfected, the office of president represents, more and more 
closely, the inner soul of the people.  On some great and glorious day the 
plain folks of the land will reach their heart's desire at last and the 
White House will be adorned by a downright moron."

Mencken of course exaggerates, because this problem is not a matter of 
intelligence.  One of my students once wrote a course evaluation that began 
"this professor is a good teacher, but he thinks we are a bunch of dumb 
shits."  This student totally missed the point of the sermonette that 
prompted this response.  After an especially bad test performance, I told 
this ethics class that I thought that two years of compulsory national 
service would be a good thing for every high school graduate as a way to 
get a better grip on their lives.

Today's American students are smart enough IQ-wise, but they are not 
prepared, either emotionally or academically, to take full advantage of the 
university experience.  The U.S. has the lowest high school graduation rate 
in the industrial world; and only half those graduates, a recent study has 
shown, are actually prepared for higher education.

If it not IQ, what is it?  In 1963 it took me a long while to screw up my 
courage to inform my parents that I was switching my major from 
oceanography to philosophy. My dad answered the phone and there was a long 
pause after I blurted out my decision.  His response was: "Son, how on 
earth will you make any money doing that?"

We Americans are a very practical people and this pragmatic spirit is the 
genius that has allowed us to succeed in so many areas.  But there is a 
down side to this optimistic "always-can-do" or "always-get-results" 
attitude.  For many Americans, such as my dear father, education, and the 
knowledge it ensues is a means to end rather than an end in itself.

European and Asian cultures still respect knowledge as an end itself and 
they value their teachers more and pay them accordingly.  These societies 
also give solid support their schools and their students. For example, all 
Danish university students who keep up their grades are given a $500 
monthly stipend.

While Congress cuts the National Science Foundation budget and prohibits 
funding for stem cell research, countries such as Korea blaze new 
scientific paths. Asia and Europe see the wisdom of investing in human 
capital as well as research and development.  They realize that taxes are 
the price we pay for high culture and civilization.

There is a bitter irony in our crude utilitarian view of education and 
knowledge.  Americans want their children to get good educations and become 
doctors, attorneys, scientists, and university professors.  But many of 
them then turn around and reject the expertise and knowledge that these 
professionals develop.

I was shocked at a recent documentary featuring students talking about 
evolution.  Almost without exception these students thought their own 
personal opinion about human origins was just as good as the results of 
population genetics.  Even more problematic is the fact that some 
scientists, many inspired by their religious faith, are proposing that the 
theology of "intelligent design" is on par with the science of 
evolution.   For more on this topic see www.class.uidaho.edu/ngier/design.htm.

State Farm Insurance just moved its headquarters and its $60 million 
payroll out of Monroe, Louisiana (Steve Wilkins' town!) because of the 
area's lack of "intellectual capital."  Even with lucrative financial 
incentives from several southern states, Toyota has chosen to locate a new 
plant in Canada.  Although labor costs are higher, the Japanese don't have 
to pay employee health insurance.  But the main reason is that over the 
years they have been disappointed at the education level of the Dixie 
workforce.

India and China are producing far more computer scientists and engineers 
than we are and foreign students now dominate American graduate schools in 
these areas.  Fewer and fewer American students are choosing these fields, 
primarily because they lack the study skills, ambition, or work ethic that 
these disciplines require.  Too many students lack Sitzfleish, a German 
word that indicates that virtual flesh that exists between one's behind and 
the study chair.

The 21st Century will definitely belong to India and China, as well as the 
equally well trained and well informed citizens of Japan, Korea, Taiwan, 
the Phillipines, Thailand, Vietnam, Sri Lanka, Singapore, and Indonesia. 
They have just as much Sitzfleish as our forebearers. A Calvinist 
capitalism that neglects knowledge for knowledge's sake will be replaced by 
new Confucian, Hindu, and even Muslim varieties.

Nick Gier taught philosophy and religion at the University of Idaho for 31 
years.


"The god you worship is the god you deserve."
~~ Joseph Campbell
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