By
Joshua
Michail
19
April, 2012
The
value of being well educated should go without needing to be stated. It
ought to be obvious, even to those who are not not so well educated,
that education is so very important. In fact, it is as simple as being
the most basic principle, education is the foundation upon which all
human progress has been and will ever be built. First one learns, then
one applies what one has learned. This is the most fundamental process
to advancing our understanding of the universe, our technology and to
improve every aspect of humanity. The intellectual pursuit is the
greater accumulation of wisdom, knowledge and justice for all people.
Education and intellectualism are inseparably tied together. The one is
embodied in the other, they each depend also upon the other. Strangely,
however, there are all too many people among us who would destroy these
sisters of inalienable human quality. On the accomplishment of their
desires, whether confessed or not nor whether fully contemplated, would
be the extinction of our species. They would leave the last generation
brain dead.
Recently,
Rick Santorum [at the time I
wrote this back in 2012], the
former US Senator representing
Pennsylvania and a Republican Presidential hopeful, had said that
people should not get a college education. He actually said
universities and colleges are “elitist” factories, as if being educated
were somehow equal to being an elitist. Never mind, for now, that he
used the word “elitist” wrongly in an attempt to mislead people. It
seems to me that this incident is merely the more obvious surfacing of
a long-existing problem. This is not the first time the words “snob” or
“elitist” have been used to insult educated people. There is an
abundance of reason to worry that the very idea of education, let alone
universities and colleges, are under attack. Intellectuals have been
persecuted throughout history, and yet they are the originators of
modernity and higher standards of living. It seems strange that such
people would be so maligned.
But,
there are people who dislike the idea of someone else being smart
enough to question false comforts and supposedly sacred beliefs.
Certainly the daring truth-seeking makes many people uncomfortable.
There are two types of people who enjoy the status-quo. There are those
who fear change and want stability and traditions. They also want to be
reassured that the beliefs they hold are acceptable and that they fit
into some hierarchical design. Then there are those who wish to hold
power over others, or at least to protect some profiteering racket.
They are generally willing to do, or say, whatever needs be to do this,
including influencing the opinions of the masses. The first group wish
to stay comfortable and they see intellectuals as making them
uncomfortable. The intellectual challenges their traditions and calls
for change. The second group see intellectuals as 'rabble-rousers',
challenging to their authority and undermining their power. To the
status quo the intellectual is a painful thorn in the side. Rick
Santorum seems to be the epitome of both groups at once.
Intellectuals think, not to be redundant. They do a lot of thinking
and, in fact, they usually do this as a career. They also tend to be
smart and well educated. But, despite the dishonest use of words like
“elitist” or “snob” intellectuals, and educated people in general, tend
to be concerned with what is best for humanity. People like Santorum
actually want to scare people away from getting an education. Even
though, he has not just one, but two degrees from two different
universities, he says that it's a bad thing for people to go to
college. Santorum, by the way has a M.B.A. (Master of Business
Administration) degree from the University of Pittsburgh and while that
is a nearly worthless, easy to get, degree he also has a J.D. (Juris
Doctor) from Dickinson Law School. Yet, he says that going to school
will make people become heathens who will denounce god and that efforts
to promote greater access to college for as many people as possible is
an evil, presumably “Satanic” effort to turn people against god. He
implies that religious uneducated people are superior to educated
people who might not believe in god. So one must surely get the feeling
that Santorum is a bit of a hypocrite.
Of
course, Santorum could be merely
pandering to a block of voters, upon whom he hopes to have suasion. He
could also be acting like an elitist himself, and he could be fostering
among the people, whose votes he hopes to get, a sense of themselves
being superior. After all, the word “elitist” means one who believes
him/her self to be superior to others. Reasonably, there is an issue
here known in psychology parlance as 'transference', in which a person
– or in this case, a group – project onto others, particularly some
disliked group or person, that which is true of themselves. In other
words, the people who protest educated people as “elitist” are the ones
who are in fact the elitists. It's rather like the thief who accuses
the person he stole from, and who is now wanting his property back, a
'thief'. It is politicians, seeking the power of the office, who
exploit the baser nature of their voting block, and in doing so
perpetuate a dishonest prejudice. They attack their opposition, and
those even very loosely associated with the opposition. They attempt to
make the opposition look bad in the opinions of the voters, in hopes of
winning the votes, but in doing so they do so much damage to the
integrity of the nation.
Nationalism is a political ideology that promotes the supremacy of the
particular nation over all other nations. The truth is, that
Nationalism is both “elitist” and anti-intellectual at the same time.
This political view is that the government must favor the nation to the
point that imports and immigrants are forbidden. 'National security'
becomes a buzz-term and everyone is pressured to embrace a sense of
exaggerated patriotism. In fact Nationalists see their country as being
somehow “exceptional”, as in Santorum's “American exceptionalism”. The
nationalist says that his/her nation is “god's favorite” and “our
country is the greatest ever”. There is a horrific historical example
of, not just what nationalism looks like, but also the connection
between nationalism and anti-intellectualism. Nazis were Nationalists
first and only slightly Socialist second. The Socialist part was not
what made them evil, indeed the Nationalism played more to that point.
An interesting notable is that most intellectuals have long advocated
for socialism, while denouncing nationalism. The latter may have been
part of the reason the Nazis persecuted intellectuals. In fact,
Hitler's Reich rounded up, tortured and murdered intellectuals.
Apparently not content with merely burning their books and banning
their works.
When
conservatives lambaste intellectuals as being
“un-American” they are betraying their actual motivations. The
conservative propaganda machine, largely exemplified in Fox News,
paints a portrait of nationalism and hypocrisy. They throw the word
“patriot” around as if they owned the trademark on it. Grandma, apple
pie, big corporations, the good ol' days, the Stars and Stripes, the
Founding Fathers, Jesus, guns, no immigrants and the like are the
elements of their ideal of America. Communism is still the boogie-man
for them, and worker unions are the most “communist”, or so they say.
It doesn't get much more nationalist than “close the border”, “deny
citizenship to anchor-babies”, “America is the greatest nation ever” or
“America is god's muscle on earth”. Well, certainly the Nazis in WWII
were somewhat more nationalistic.
But,
there is clear reason for the conservative attitudes of
Nationalism and Anti-Intellectualism. It is all about power.
Corporations and billionaires want to protect their interests, their
good times, and they want politicians who will do their bidding.
Otherwise, the politicians might institute and enforce regulations that
protect the economy and the people. To this end they dump millions of
dollars into the campaigns of the political candidates who are likely
to do their dirty work for them. And a central part of this agenda is
education. After all, a well educated populous can see through the
horseshit and will call the politicians out on their lies. So while
they chip away at our liberties, one piece at a time, here and there,
they are strategically weakening the possibility of resistance. Among
other things, while they weaken our liberty, they create Straw-man
representations of the opposition and claim the opposition wants to
take the people's liberties from them. They could never have gone
straight for the brass ring, it would have not been tolerated. But the
people wind up being less unified and present less of a strong
opposition to each of the little, seemingly unrelated, attacks which
occur over a long time.
So now
we're at the point that the pandering corrupt corporate-owned
politicians are shifting attitudes about education. They've gotten to
the point that they openly claim that education is somehow “bad”,
suggesting that those who are smart are not really American. Santorum
is not the only one trying to imply this nonsense, but he is the most
clear example. The greatest lie, the most absurd twist, is the fact
that the anti-intellectuals are both eager to declare their so-called
love of America – while while attempting to stylize themselves after
our founding fathers – and at the same time they distort history to
suit their needs. The fact is that most of the founding fathers were
intellectuals. Thomas Paine wrote and published Common Sense, a booklet
which encouraged the separation of the colonies from the crown and the
formation of the United States. Benjamin Franklin strategically, and
successfully, maneuvered to get the French king to support American
independence from the British king. Franklin also publish quite a few
of his ponderings on the nature of liberty. Thomas Jefferson was a
lawyer and the author of our Declaration of Independence. John Adams
and James Monroe were actually intellectuals also. In fact, many of the
patriotic heroes – the patriot's patriots, one might say – were, by
comparison with today's averages, quite well educated. The
anti-intellectuals, at once, idealize their twisted view of the
founding fathers while demonizing anyone who is anything like them.
While
some may choose to
blame the media, I don't. The reason is that the media is not really
the originator of the shift in attitudes, but rather, the reinforcement
machine. After all, the media is a business, it aims for the lowest
common denominator. It is all about getting the most viewers, to get
ratings that let the companies charge as much as they can for
advertising. Certainly the media is not helping the situation, but it's
also not the premiere offender. If the common people were better
educated, on the whole, it is likely the media, in general, would be
putting out more sophisticated content. After all, the people would be
much more receptive to the higher standards of quality.
Knowledge
is power, as the old adage goes, and education increases
knowledge. If this is true then, would it not be true that to impede
education – to discourage people from getting an education – is
actually an attempt to make the people powerless? Rick Santorum echoes
what many conservative religious people think, that getting an
education makes people “stray away” from the “godly” lifestyle.
Politicians and preachers, generally, do not want to let slip the power
they wield over the heads of their subjects. To them education,
especially outside of the total control of the church, is a serious
threat to the power. Seneca the Elder is reported to have said
“Religion is regarded by the common people as true, by the wise as
false and by the rulers as useful”. But, it's not true that
universities make people leave their religions. In fact, there are many
well educated people who continue believing in their deities after
years of higher education, albeit most tend to shift their views. Many
educated religious people tend to be more moderate and they try to make
their religious beliefs fit around scientific knowledge, rather than
the other way around. Our founding fathers established the United
States as a Democratic Republic, but the current situation with
super-wealthy corporate interests cooperating with religious
conservatives is seeing America being pushed corruptly, insidiously,
toward a Theocratic Plutocracy. A rule by the wealthiest unelected few
couched in a system that claims “divine authority” to rule.
At the
end,
this effort to sure up the religion and the voting constituency for
conservatives is dangerous. The religious conservatives and their
bedfellows have gone to great lengths to obscure the facts about what
they're doing. But, if one is aware, their actions are transparent
enough. In the execution of the dumbing-down of the people, to make
them more useful to the religious and political conservative leaders –
and most secretively, the corporate profiteering puppet-masters – they
may well damage the people far beyond even their own expectations. They
would undo thousands of years of progress. All to satiate their greed
and selfishness. And America, if not all of humanity, may be lost. But,
this need not be our path. If people call the conservatives out on
their nefarious efforts, if we make a strong defense for education and
intellectual pursuits we may yet succeed in protecting humanity's
progress.
Copyright
© 2012 by Joshua Michail
All Rights
Reserved.
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