Encountering anti-intellectualism

[Nocta-Aeterna]

Members of the Escapist, the academics in particular, have you ever been confronted with anti-intellectualism or any form of depreciation of intellectual pursuits?

I believe that, a few days ago, I had my first encounter with a borderline militant anti-intellectual. A friend and I (both university students) were on our way home on our daily commute, when suddenly this man started babbling at us in the train. I'm uncertain what he was saying exactly, as it was a mix of his mothertongue and mine. However the parts he did speak in Dutch suggested he had an intense loathing of students, saying we should just get a job out of secondary education and whatever we were studying he would understand in an instant. Also, he apparently supports our governments new ruling that students who take extended time for their studies are fined ?3000,- (roughly $4069.2 USD) for each consecutive year after the first extra year taken. (Granted, loafing requires some proper consequences, but COME ON.)

Then again, the man might have been drunk, drugged, or enibriated in another way.

 

[SilverIntoSteel]

All the time. While I was a student, I would occasionally encounter the local scum loudly protesting against students. I remember a guy walking through campus once drunkenly shouting that 'all students are fraggles' (I never knew what that meant) But generally, in this country now I find that being well spoken somehow projects an image of being educated is becoming offensive to people. Pretty much exclusively chavs, but still.

 

[Scarecrow]

When I talk to people they say I 'talk like a fag and use too many big words'.

You tell me if I suffer from anti-intellectualism.

 

[Vault101]

though it can go the other way

I read some people wont go out with or even be freinds with somone who dosnt have a university degree...thats a little harsh

for some reason I really HATE the word fag, if somone usues it..thats it your opinion dosnt matter because your an idiot

 

[Merkavar]

there was a chick in one of my classes at uni who got yelled at out the front of liquor land for having a barren womb. Does that count? she is like in her early 20s and doesnt have a child and the people yelling at her are similar age and have 1-3 kids and probably never saw the inside of a classroom after the age of 15.

i think i might be talking about something else but i was thinking it fit. one group not so bright with kids yelling at a smart person cause they dont have any kids.

 

[Dioxide45]

Well. There's certainly an anti-intellectual culture in certain areas of the world. I know that with all the shows that glamourise being a total airhead, I've ended up having about 5 people I can talk to without needing to explain every second word, two of which have English as a second language.

Look at it this way, though. Most of the people who tell you not to bother with an education won't go as far as you will.

 

[Connellanator]

Pretty much half of my grade from high school questioned me as to why I sometimes used words that contained 3 or more syllables. These questions were always rhetorical (if I spelt it right?), and were immediately followed by them yelling "******!", a word which I can't stand, for some reason...

 

[Lordpils]

Only when the conversation turns to something that people get really emotional about. I've been called a robot and have been accused of thinking too logically (without using the word logically usually it's someway of covering it up). I've also been called an "elitist" as well as being critisized for siding with experts. The way I see it I'd rather listen to a doctor for medical advice then someone who tells me they believe in crystal healing.
Take your pick personally I consider all of that anti-intellectualism.

 

[Heart of Darkness]

Nope, not really. Then again, this is what happens when I live as far north as you can get in the Southeastern United States: Central Florida.

 

[The Salty Vulcan]

My entire life in High-School was this. Other students would ask why I used big words, my science teacher made us watch The Core for god sucks. And not to poke holes in it, to actually educate us.

 

[Le_Lisra]

I'm studying at the HAN University of Applied Sciences and many of my fellow students only have a limited secondary education as qualification for the studies. I'm not exactly sure how much that is really worth in the Netherlands, but in my two home countries (Norway and Germany) such an education doesn't get you much prospects of a good job. These people *need* the tertiary education.

But this attitude of "do some real work" or "get a job" was around when my father was protesting against stuff in the sixties so.. yeah. Happens. Sad, but true. Maybe it's envy.

 

[Dioxide45]

Only when the conversation turns to something that people get really emotional about. I've been called a robot and have been accused of thinking too logically (without using the word logically usually it's someway of covering it up). I've also been called an "elitist" as well as being critisized for siding with experts. The way I see it I'd rather listen to a doctor for medical advice then someone who tells me they believe in crystal healing.
Take your pick personally I consider all of that anti-intellectualism.

Yeah. I've been verbally attacked by a lot of the crystal healing types for preferring to take prescribed medication from a trained professional than choking on incense and being "healed by crystal energy". After all, the placebo effect (for that's all I believe it to be, at best) wouldn't work on me, because I don't believe.

 

[Enamour]

In South Africa our government is placing strong emphasis on education and having less kids. Watching the vast majority of American shows on TV is absolutely F'ing horrible. Then my encounters on the internet with most Americans is also an "intellectual" train wreck; it feels like most(qualifier, meaning NOT ALL) Americans know nothing about nothing. My experience of UK media and Europeans is different. On the internet and WoW I've had alot of exposure to the Irish, Scottish and British and I find that a 15 year old Irish kid on WoW is alot more knowledgable than the average 35 year old American. This is MY experience and yes, I'm generalizing.

The point is that when a society becomes too comfortable then it becomes lazy and then it can't figure out why immigrants are taking over while also resenting China for filling in the global economic gaps.

Anti-intellectualism is a luxury that, we've seen through history, is a symptom of Empires/Ages/Governments etc that are heading downhill. 50 - 60 years ago, Americans were in general alot more competent in their respective fields than they are today, and I'm basing this statement on Education statistics, general production and societal factors. I'd say it's because the Soviet Union then was a strong threat which every American understood as "If I don't work my F'ing ass off, the Reds are going to take over."
When there's no enemy then there's no real reason to wanting to better yourself. I'm leaving out ALOT of uhh supporting argument and evidence here since I don't want to write an essay.

One last thing that I've observed in the white Afrikaans speaking population that I belong to here is that it is polarized. There are two mindsets: 1.) The blacks have taken over so what's the use of me even trying? And 2.) We're living in a new age and a new country, let's make the best of it and see how far ALL OF US can get.

Group 1 has a tendency to be anti-intellectual since they see no reason in trying to be better and educating themselves; these are the guys who live to go the pub or they simply fuckoff overseas and ironically come back a few years later. They've NO reason not to be lazy.
Group 2 are the people who go to college and don't live in racial stereotypes. Professionals, intellectuals etc.

Empires, countries, whatever who have grown complacent grow stupid. We've seen this many times in history. The fall of almost any great civilization has had these same symptoms: the Greeks, the Romans, the Mongolians etc etc. It's always been social or religious complacence. I think we're seeing America and Europe(specifically Britain) following this trend of anti-Intellectualism foreshadowing a rapid decline.

I hope I'm wrong... I like being a Westerner.

 

[Rarhnor]

I'd rather hear about how "fucking smart" I am, than being looked down upon by smug university students 2 years older than me...

 

[Enamour]

Only when the conversation turns to something that people get really emotional about. I've been called a robot and have been accused of thinking too logically (without using the word logically usually it's someway of covering it up). I've also been called an "elitist" as well as being critisized for siding with experts. The way I see it I'd rather listen to a doctor for medical advice then someone who tells me they believe in crystal healing.
Take your pick personally I consider all of that anti-intellectualism.

Yeah. I've been verbally attacked by a lot of the crystal healing types for preferring to take prescribed medication from a trained professional than choking on incense and being "healed by crystal energy". After all, the placebo effect (for that's all I believe it to be, at best) wouldn't work on me, because I don't believe.

Another F'ing symptom of mystical bullshit that's made a come back in the civilized world. Developing countries focus on science: underdeveloped and developed countries tend to believe in herbs, crystals and WHAT THE F.

 

[magicmonkeybars]

Well to be fair intelectualism will eventually destroy our civilization.
If we remained stupid and animal like we'd never have to fear a self realized collapse of society.

 

[SckizoBoy]

I'm lucky I haven't really come across anti-intellectualism.

My high school was so old fashioned that my year (1996) was the first to have girls (yeah... bloody hell, right?). So it's intake was generally quite intent on doing well in school. Those that didn't weren't that much of a bunch of assholes to go mocking intellect. They just knew it wasn't for them.

And then there was uni, undergrad was done at the UK equivalent of MIT (i.e. Imperial College, so if it doesn't involve maths of some sort, don't come here).

So, I keep company with and have for the most part been surrounded by clever people (note, degree not a prerequisite of intelligence) and have been lucky not to encounter those who deride us for whatever reason.