A large part of Newt Gingrich's appeal among the anti-intellectual wing of the Republican Party appears to be (surprisingly) that he's an intellectual, or at least can play one on TV. They eagerly look forward to him beating Obama at his know-it-all game. This raises two obvious questions -- Why to right wingers hate intellectuals so much? And, given that they do, why do they want an intellectual as their champion. This commentator thinks it is a failure to understand the humility of real intellectuals. "In fact, anyone who actually has met (say) a college professor knows that most are earnest, deeply knowledgeable in their field while cautious about the inherent limits of human knowledge, open to differing opinions while instinctively skeptical toward crackpot ideas. Of course there are exceptions but as a rule true scholarship leads to humility, not arrogance."
With all due respect, that shows a certain lack of reality about how ordinary citizens encounter college professors and other experts. Ordinary citizens don't see someone being humble about their knowledge outside their field, or humbly and painstakingly peer reviewing with professional colleagues. Ordinary citizens claiming the mantle of expertise in their given field and dismissing the views of non-experts as worthless. Ordinary citizens see their gut-level intuition distained as lacking rigor. Ordinary citizens see experts saying I am right and you are wrong as a matter of scientific fact. They don't see the humble process of investigation and research in reaching these conclusions. only the final outcome, and the contempt experts have for people who haven't put in the work they did in reaching their conclusions. And, yes, it does come across as arrogant.
A fine example of this sort of arrogance might be:
Or, to take a milder version, consider Jon Stewart's remark, "Is that not the purpose of education vis a vis belief structures? To replace your belief structure with facts?"
Yet at the same time, the Republican base is very eager to have one of these arrogant know-it-alls as their standard bearer. This leads me to believe the right wingers' real objection to intellectuals is not their offensive sense of intellectual superiority, but the fact that that offensive sense of intellectual superiority is always employed against conservatives and never for them. Obviously right wingers do respect scientific expertise (hence the constant attempt to dress, say, creationism, up in scientific garb). And they eagerly look forward to having it in their corner for a change.
Which does lead me to one suggestion about how to soften right wing hostility toward intellectuals. As we all know, conservatives greatly value hard work and achievement. That is why they are great champions of wealth -- the rich earned their wealth; they deserve to keep it. Well, then, why not pitch knowledge and expertise as a form of wealth. After all, some people are born into wealth, but everyone is born with a knowledge base of zero.* Experts worked hard for their knowledge and deserve to be respected for it. Don't just stand on your credentials; explain the sort of work that went into them. And not just studying so many years at such and such a university; explain the lab experiments you did, the archives you investigated, or whatever. And if you are offering an expert opinion on a subject, explain all the work you did to reach it. Claims to expert knowledge will be less resented if you can prove they are earned.
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*I know, it's not that simple. Being born into an intellectual family and community that encourages learning is a major head start. But we're talking about people who can't acknowledge that wealth might be anything other than a reflection of merit. Is it so much to ask the same respect for knowledge?
With all due respect, that shows a certain lack of reality about how ordinary citizens encounter college professors and other experts. Ordinary citizens don't see someone being humble about their knowledge outside their field, or humbly and painstakingly peer reviewing with professional colleagues. Ordinary citizens claiming the mantle of expertise in their given field and dismissing the views of non-experts as worthless. Ordinary citizens see their gut-level intuition distained as lacking rigor. Ordinary citizens see experts saying I am right and you are wrong as a matter of scientific fact. They don't see the humble process of investigation and research in reaching these conclusions. only the final outcome, and the contempt experts have for people who haven't put in the work they did in reaching their conclusions. And, yes, it does come across as arrogant.
A fine example of this sort of arrogance might be:
An argument that judgment matters but knowledge does not is profoundly anti-intellectual. It implies that we do not need ever to learn anything in order make mature decisions. We can just proceed off some simple ideological template and apply it to everything. This sort of thinking is part of what is wrong with this country. We wouldn’t call a man in to fix our plumbing who knew nothing about plumbing, but we call pundits to address millions of people on subjects about which they know nothing of substance.
Or, to take a milder version, consider Jon Stewart's remark, "Is that not the purpose of education vis a vis belief structures? To replace your belief structure with facts?"
Yet at the same time, the Republican base is very eager to have one of these arrogant know-it-alls as their standard bearer. This leads me to believe the right wingers' real objection to intellectuals is not their offensive sense of intellectual superiority, but the fact that that offensive sense of intellectual superiority is always employed against conservatives and never for them. Obviously right wingers do respect scientific expertise (hence the constant attempt to dress, say, creationism, up in scientific garb). And they eagerly look forward to having it in their corner for a change.
Which does lead me to one suggestion about how to soften right wing hostility toward intellectuals. As we all know, conservatives greatly value hard work and achievement. That is why they are great champions of wealth -- the rich earned their wealth; they deserve to keep it. Well, then, why not pitch knowledge and expertise as a form of wealth. After all, some people are born into wealth, but everyone is born with a knowledge base of zero.* Experts worked hard for their knowledge and deserve to be respected for it. Don't just stand on your credentials; explain the sort of work that went into them. And not just studying so many years at such and such a university; explain the lab experiments you did, the archives you investigated, or whatever. And if you are offering an expert opinion on a subject, explain all the work you did to reach it. Claims to expert knowledge will be less resented if you can prove they are earned.
_______________________________
*I know, it's not that simple. Being born into an intellectual family and community that encourages learning is a major head start. But we're talking about people who can't acknowledge that wealth might be anything other than a reflection of merit. Is it so much to ask the same respect for knowledge?
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