But I do think Hofstadter firmly established that there is a strong strain of anti-intellectualism that runs through our culture for various reasons (not all of them are necessarily bad ones either). One of the examples Hofstadter gave that resonates with me is the 1950s school principal who believed that not every child should be able to read, write or do basic arithmetic.
Between this day and that a lot of selling must take place. But it's coming. We shall some day accept the thought that it is just as illogical to assume that every boy must be able to read as it is that each one must be able to perform on a violin, that it is no more reasonable to require that each girl shall spell well than it is that each one shall bake a good cherry pie. ...
One junior high in the East has, after long and careful study, accepted the fact that some twenty percent of their students will not be up to standard in reading. . . . and they are doing other things for these boys and girls. That's straight thinking. Contrast that with the junior high which says, "Every student must know the multiplication tables before graduation."
More:
http://neuralgourmet.com/2006/02/08/dont_k... While I certainly don't think everybody should be able to do calculus or chemistry or even read Moby Dick, I do think there is a certain base knowledge that everyone needs to have in order to function well in our modern society. Furthermore, I think there is a core set of skills that is needed in order for our political system to work and increasingly a basic understanding of math, science and technology is part of that.
After all, how can somebody cast an intelligent vote for their representatives who must make laws concerned with (for instance) carbon emissions reductions or internet policy is they themselves don't have a basic understanding of science or computing technology? At least enough to understand when they're being fed a bogus argument.
It's interesting too I suppose that Hofstadter wrote Anti-Intellectualism In American Life at least in part in response to the New Left which was attacking not just the military and the government but also academia. While Hofstadter was no friend of the New Right (the Goldwater-style conservatism that later morphed into Reaganism and right wing political talk radio), he did tend to drift more centrist in his later years precisely because of the anti-intellectualism that was strongly a part of the New Left in the mid-late 1950s and 1960s. I think it's still a problem today, especially when we have too many people on the left who are advocating what were traditionally far right wing conspiracy theories.
In any case, I look forward to reading Susan Jacoby's new book. I thoroughly enjoyed and learned a lot from Freethinkers: A History of American Secularism.
