It’s an election year, and that means that the worst of humanity parades itself on TV and the internet just to get our attention, while the best of humanity is drowned out by their screaming. This actually happens all the time, but during election years, it seems to get worse. There’s been something that’s been bothering me for the past few years, and it seems that it’s taken a toll on the electorate and the politicians who pander to them. It’s this fever of anti-intellectualism.
The driving force is evident when we think of the words of Isaac Asimov: “Anti-intellectualism has been a constant thread winding its way through our political and cultural life, nurtured by the false notion that democracy means that ‘my ignorance is just as good as your knowledge.’" We see this in all the Tea Party rallies, when someone tries to have a conversation with one of these people. They don’t know anything about what they claim to be upset about, but they don’t want to know anything about it. “I hate Socialists and Nazis, and Obama is one, just like Karl Marx.” “Well, what do you know about those things? Do you know who Marx was?” “No, but this ain’t no history class.” This is a paraphrasing of what I saw in a taping of a Teapublican rally. It sums up exactly what Asimov was talking about. “Your liberal-biased analysis is on the same level as my conservative values-based feeling.”
I am a firm believer in the idea that, since we’ve temporarily run out of land to conquer, the only territory left to conquer lies in the minds of the public. This battle is waged via radio, TV, internet, and the undermining of the education system. But, when you wake up in the morning, you have choices to make. When you listen to the media, you choose whether or not to exercise the ability to practice what Chomsky called “intellectual self-defense.” This means critically analyzing what is presented to you by the media. This is how you fight back. This is how you stand your intellectual ground.
Also, anti-intellectualism is at the heart of the reactionary revamping of America that seems to be the agenda of the current Right. Recently, the Texas Republican Party stated their agenda. For right now, I will not get started on the homophobic streak that’s marring today’s politics. I want to tackle anti-intellectualism. The Texan Republicans have decreed that an education system based on critical thinking is a threat to their“traditional” way of life. They revealed something that's at the core of their agenda: "We don't want people who can critically think; we want dumb, obedient wage-slaves."
The reactionary partner of anti-intellectualism is religious fervor. Yes, many people say “all religions have their fringe.”Well, such cop-out statements are no longer valid as the religious fringe has taken center stage in right-wing politics. Dominionism and the desire to tear down the wall between church and state are becoming more and more popular sentiments among the Teapublicans. As I said, the fringe has taken over the conservative movement. Michelle Bachmann is a dominionist. Rick Santorum wanted to enforce his religious beliefs if he were elected.
The reason behind this religious fervor is another attack on the American mindset. What many adherents to the religions of Abraham, especially Christianity, believe is that everything will be fine once God comes to save the day. So, they sit back and wait and take little action. So, if we were all believers, or if our political system were based on this belief system, we would be constantly told that God will come and enforce His will on the world one day. We would be encouraged to sit back and wait for that magical day, and not interfere with His will. So, the first question we should ask ourselves, when we see politicians running for Theologian in Chief, is this: “Who has an interest in getting people to sit back and wait for Judgment Day, and not take actions right here and right now?”
This synergy of anti-intellectualism and religious fervor is now taking its toll on an already-failing education system. Some politicians actually want to get rid of the Department of Education. The most ridiculous thing that sticks out most in my mind involves one of my favorite subjects of study – evolution. The reason I find it so fascinating is because everything that we are – sociologically, biologically, psychologically– we owe to the evolutionary path that we’ve taken as a species.
Those who want to “teach the controversy” say that evolution is “just a theory” that is on equal footing with creationism. First of all, evolution is a theory. However, in the scientific sense, a theory is a huge deal. A theory is a set of laws and proven hypotheses that explain a given phenomenon. Theories, in addition, have been proven time and time again, and are rarely disproven, but are always filled in and made clearer with further experimentation. The reason we don’t “teach the controversy” is because there is no controversy to teach.
Evolution is the only theory about the diversity of life on this planet. Creationism and all of its bastardizations are not theories. They are stories made up by superstitious people to explain things without going through any of the scientific method. And these stories have never stood the scrutiny of scientific testing, and therefore should never be included in any scientific textbook.
Beyond the trappings of religious fervor in which the “controversy” is wrapped, there is our nemesis –anti-intellectualism. Let’s review what makes evolution so fascinating. To understand humanity from an evolutionary standpoint is to understand our nature. Throughout history, there have been three ways to conquer other tribes of people. The first way is to obliterate them off the map. This has happened time and again, with the Right’s love of war. The second way is to enslave them. This can be seen in the Right’s attack on the working class. The third way is to weaken them psychological and sociologically. This is seen in the Right’s attack on evolution.
Conquering a people’s mindset is best done by making them forget who they are. When we learn about our evolutionary path, we learn who we are as a sentient species, as a people. We learn that we are intelligent primates. Primates are social creatures. This means that everyone in the tribe uses their individual abilities to help the tribe as a whole. They look after themselves first, but also look out for their fellow tribesmen. In addition, primates are pack creatures. This means that they follow leadership, but they readily replace that leadership when it becomes faulty. These two traits are deep-rooted in our nature. We learn this through the study of evolution. Using intellectual self-defense, we should ask ourselves every time we see the Religious Right attacking the teaching of evolution: “Whose interests are best served when we stop believing that it's in our nature to look out for each other? Whose interests are best served when we stop believing that it's in our nature to replace leadership when it is faulty, and follow blindly? Who wants us to forget about our primate nature?”
The world is in trouble. Those who want to undermine our education and mix faith and politics will tell us that the world would be a better place if we just give into a waiting game, and hold out for a superman to come and fix everything. They want us to stick with what hasn’t been working – clinging to Bronze-Age totems and flinging high-tech rocks at each other. However, those who want a more reasoned approach to things want us to understand our primate nature. They want us to see that it is in our nature to help out our other tribesmen. Furthermore, if we do this, we must also do one more thing – expand what our notion of the tribe is. Now, more than ever, we need to get in touch with our primate nature. We need to get up off our smart-ape asses and strive for social reforms that help the tribe. It's time to make our leaders of both parties accountable to the people they lead, or replace them.
