Academics = Bad

[sleigh]

McCain, in NH today, said the problem with Obama and his economic plan is that Obama is a "detached academic," and "...the one thing academics are good at is inventing and redefining terms, which is what he’s up to with that phony income tax cut for 95 percent of the American people."

What a wealth of prejudice against higher education is contained in that remark... So it's a problem if you're educated and erudite? It's a problem to have a depth of intellectual knowledge about the subject at hand? It's a problem to base your opinions and strategies on hard, cold analysis rather than emotion (you 'detached academic', you)?

No wonder we have a problem with education in this country. If you're actually well-educated and use the knowledge and skills you've acquired, you're mostly worthy of scorn.

Comments

[sleigh.livejournal.com]

In fairness, it's not just Republicans; I've heard it from all sorts of places. I don't understand how someone can be educated.

[greenmtnboy18.livejournal.com]

In fairness, it's not just Republicans;

Indeed... I've seen it anywhere anyone is trying to court "blue collar". As if the working class isn't trying like hell to send their kids to college, to actually get the education everyone then sneers at.

I begin to think it has to do with people (in general) getting concerned that "the smart person" might "know more than *I* do".

No one likes feeling stupid, or even just like they've missed the joke. It's sort of a lowest common denominator appeal to slap on the kindly (or smarmy, depending on the perspective) smile and say "well, I'm not talking down to you like those effete academics, because I'm just a plain-talkin' regular guy."

And I can certainly attest, as my high school valedictorian, that being thought of as smart has never really been particularly popular or winning.