Anti-intellectualism
2008-Jul-1 |
*Inspired by a Limmer*
Anti-Intellectualism refers to anyone who feels hostile to any kind of intellectual pursuit. This includes books, news, religious study, politics, anything intellectual.
I would probably say that up until around the age of seventeen, I didn't really care about anything other than myself in life and how certain aspects affected me. It was certainly down to the people I hung around with in school. They had a horribly bad influence on me. By 17, I started to grow out of that, and look at the wider picture. I got to know new people, who could inspire me to use my mind alot more.
I started reading Newspapers daily.
I started reading books frequently, Ancient Rome books, Ancient Greece, Renaissance books.
I started thinking Politically.
I started questioning Religious beliefs.
It strikes me as incredible, that as a species, we've gone from banging rocks together, to building houses, piloting machines that stay in the sky, writing blogs in which the entire World can be able to read in a split second.
And yet, there appear to be those (people I remember from school) who have a fear of anything that might make them use their minds for anything other than weed or alcohol. It's a growing trend. It seems unpopular to use your brain. We have the capacity to learn and to know so much, to question, to think constantly, we have the capacity to be inspired, and to inspire, we can be as creative as possible, we can question the World around us on an incredibly well thought out level, and yet when we do that, we're "geeks".
Infact, some idiots from my old school days, still act like that. I don't retaliate. It gives me great pleasure to know that I am better than them. It's an incredible show of jealousy of their part. It's usually followed by personal insults and threats. It's almost laughable.
It seems alot more desirable nowadays to pick up a magazine with the cover story "World Exclusive: Charlotte Church seen pissing behind a tree in a park". Of course it's the World Exclusive, the rest of the World doesn't give a shit. I live here, and I don't give a shit.
If I were to spend my time, reading nuts magazine constantly, whilst smoking and drinking myself to death, without understanding the World around me, i'd feel inadequate, i'd feel useless, and i'd feel completely worthless.
I can't personally imagine why people wouldn't want to learn new things.
I try to surround myself with people who could easily challenge my beliefs and make me think deeper. It helps to broaden the mind, it helps to understand people. I have cut out everyone in my life, who I considered a bad influence, or who's main concern in life was where their next bag of weed was coming from. I don't need fuckwits like that.
Being intelligent in certain areas (like the area I live) is undesirable, it's not popular at school. I knew I had intelligence at school, but I chose not to use it. I may have even ridiculed those who were using their brains. Looking back, i'm annoyed by this. Those people were much better people than I could ever have hoped to be. As much as I try to make up for it now, but pursuing much more intellectual activities, I went back to college. I'm going on to University. Both something I never thought i'd do when I was 17.
A TV special called "Merchants of Cool" suggested that big advertising agencies are creating a commodity obsessed culture, where intelligence comes second.
I disagree. It is not advertising's fault that people have weak minds.
Anyone who conjures up an opinion on something, without thinking it through, and looking at both sides of the argument, who just says "yeah you're wrong", is a fucking idiot. If you come up with an absolutist view, without checking the evidence on the other side, you should be shot. In regards to Religion, i'm Atheist. I looked at both sides of the argument, even taking up Philosophy in college to have that Atheism challenged, and after considering the evidence, i'm now even more of an Atheist than I was. Politics, I looked at both sides, the right winged approach and the left winged approach. On some issues, i'm left wing, on others, i'm more right wing, i'm not just one thing. It's ridiculous to suggest otherwise.
Intellectualism, even to the people who seem to be scared by using their minds, is all around us, it has created the TVs that you watch, it has put man on the moon, it has invented the Internet that you're now sitting on, and from what? 300 years ago, just 300 simple years, in billions of years, we had no light bulbs, and now look what we've got. How can anyone not be inspired by that? How can someone be more interested in Heat magazine than what's happening in Zimbabwe right now?
It could be down to the lack of usefullness of such pursuits. What good is it for me to know how Claudius ruled Rome, or how Plato has affected all modern Religious beliefs more than Jesus? Why do I need to know that? What benefit is it to me?
Why does it have to benefit you financially? I just like to know that I know these things. If i'm bored, I want light a spliff, i'll read up more on the subject, i'll sit and question myself, i'll have a conversation with someone who could provide a decent debate. I'm lucky in that my dad is Politically minded, so I can have a talk with him about Politics whenever it comes up. My mum loves religious thought, so it's easy for me.
I don't put it down to one person being more intelligent than another. We're all capable of such intelligent thought and debate. There are 16 year olds at the College, that are 100 times better read than I am, that isn't because they're more intelligent, it's because they put more effort in than I did at that age. I put it down to how secure we feel with ourselves. If someone is so insecure that they ignore the World around them and the knowledge that comes with it, swapping it for a spliff, then they will never accept that they have a computer in the heads much more powerful than any other computer on Earth. If people realise that we clearly have the potential as humans to learn an instrument, to read up on our History, to challenge Politcal ideals, to question Religious beliefs, if we all understood the power of the mind, the World would be incredible.
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2008-Jul-1 - Untitled Comment |
| Posted by WelshPixie |
| I don't think we're ready for that world, heh. More's the pity. |
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