I just read in an essay by stephen Jay Gould that the USA has a lot of anti intellectualism.
As far as I can tell, it's really hard to pin down. Lots of people talk about it, but nobody seems to understand it. My theory is that it's not an intentional hostility, but rather symptomatic of continually "economizing" and seeking the lowest-budget option.
People get their news from CNN and the 1-inch capsules in the local newspapers and through online organizations because they don't have
time to go in-depth. American life, if you count up everything you're supposed to care about and be aware of, is chaotically overburdened. So people cut out all but the practical.
This is, at least, what I understand from watching my own parents constantly struggling after a financial plateau in lieu of comfort, happiness, and security. The arts are not practical; schools became more vocational in the 1990s (at least it seemed that way in Oregon); I'll even take a moment to note a certain number of people--not the usual suspects, necessarily--who have in the past actually gotten mad at me because of the length of my posts. People don't have all night. They want an opinion and they want it now ....
They don't have
time to understand their religion, their government, their civic community, the social contract. They have time to function and keep their heads above water.
The intellectual route requires a devotion of time and energy, and many bright people just don't have those resources to spare compared to their priorities. (House payment, kids to feed, &c.)
As a result, people come to mistrust the intellectual route, and over time that mistrust evolves into open distrust.
Take a simple example: "Tax and spend" liberal. That's better than a tax-cutting, overspending politician; logic dictates that you don't increase spending while cutting revenue flows. But people are willing to write that debt to "their children and grandchildren," as such. As it stands right now, with the temptation of a $300 check, the Bush administration has bought off the American people; to wonder about the prudence of the Bush tax cut is to "overintellectualize." To worry about the lack of planning and budget projections for the Iraq war was to "overintellectualize," and overintellectualization was considered a bad thing when
action could "save lives" or (fill in the noble blank).
People are so caught up in today that they haven't time to remember yesterday or think about tomorrow, unless it's farming through past bills for proof of payment or securing retirement funds.
They haven't time for much of what they claim is important.