Posted on 09/06/2010 12:26:07 PM PDT by 2ndDivisionVet
OK, I think it's time to spell out just why so many people on the right come across as "anti-intellectual" or "anti-elite." And the reason is based on one of the most fundamental rules of science.
Supporters of President Obama like to tout his intellectual credentials. Columbia, Harvard Law, Harvard Law Review Constitutional Law scholar, and so on. (Just don't look too carefully for actual proof of his intellect -- don't ask for his grades, his writings, or stuff like that. Just take his success there at face value.)
They especially like comparing his resume' to that of Sarah Palin's -- four schools, five years, one degree.
Obviously, Obama is a genius and Palin is a moron. Especially if you listen to them speak -- one's a gifted orator (especially with TOTUS at hand), the other's a down-home country bumpkin hick.
Here's where that fundamental rules of science kicks in:
Experiment always trumps theory.
Where Palin absolutely demolishes Obama is in reality. He's got the fancy certificates; she's got a Ph.D. from the School Of Hard Knocks.
Yes, she went to four schools over five years for her degree. That's because she paid her own way through, worked various jobs to earn her tuition, and went where she could afford to.
Obama dabbled briefly in the private sector, a low-end drone at a trading house. Then he discovered the delight of the public payroll.
Palin, on the other hand, helped start a couple of businesses. She's had to make -- and live within -- budgets. She's had to make payroll.
Obama went into public service as a career. Palin went in because she saw things that needed fixing, kept finding more things that needed fixing, and walked away when her enemies found a way to threaten her family's security.
Obama needs to be in office. Palin doesn't.
The fundamental difference between a lifetime academician and theorist like Obama and a lifetime pragmatist like Palin is that Obama is fundamentally incapable of recognizing and admitting that his theories might be wrong. If they don't work, then obviously he didn't explain it well enough, he didn't spend enough money, or the Vast Right Wing Conspiracy sabotaged it.
Palin, on the other hand, understands The First Rule Of Holes and The Definition Of Insanity. When something doesn't work, she looks at it again and, if necessary, tosses it aside.
It's not that the right is anti-intellectual. The right reveres great intelligence. But, to reveal my Dungeons and Dragons background, it also understands that Intelligence is different from Wisdom. And in a crunch, we'll trust Wisdom over Intelligence -- because Intelligence unchecked by Wisdom leads to hubris.
And in the hands of the powerful, hubris often leads to catastrophe. In Obama's case, it's clear that his inability to conceive that he might be wrong tends to make him "double down on stupid" -- witness how his reaction to the overwhelming public disapproval of ObamaCare (to the point where Democrats who voted for it are refusing to acknowledge their support for it) means, to him, that he has to just keep on trying to "educate" us about how wonderful it is. He simply can't grasp that a lot of us already know the details, and still reject it.
It's not the intelligence that turns off conservatives. It's arrogant, all-knowing intelligence untempered by wisdom and experience that turns us off. And we're not that respectful of those who worship that strain of intelligence.
It's a pity that the left can't accept that there is a diversity of intelligence, and the best minds embrace more than one strain.
This is a really good article.
Sarah really needs to learn some microphone technique she always sounds like she’s shouting and her voice can be particularly high and irritating when she speaks like that! Obama on the other hand is all technique without substance but it’s amazing how many that will fool!
Mel
Palin dumps a pile of birth certificates on the podium....
Palin: "see your long form and raise you 10"
"These are my family birth certificates going back 5 generations"
LOL, I would love that!
I agree with what you said. It’s like someone taught Hussein to hypnotize people (I’ve seen online theories about that too). I can’t listen to him for two seconds because I feel like I am getting hypnotized!~ But even (my) conspiracy theories aside, you pegged it -— people fall for that.
I’m into the final pages of a book I’d like to recommend and send to Sarah. It was written by Nixon and Ford’s Secretary of the Treasury, William E. Simon, and it’s a fantastic primer into how state (and federal) governments “work.” The book’s title is “A Time for Truth.”
The book’s “preface” was written by Milton Friedman, and the book’s “forward” was written by F. A. Hayek — Two great economic names.
Contact info is requested.
A book of ancient wisdom contains a warning which might have served to curb such hubris as well. It is:
"Get wisdom, get understanding: forget it not. . . .
Wisdom is the principal thing; therefore get wisdom: and with all thy getting get understanding." Proverbs 4:4-6
The parallels are closer...but with the collapse of the Greek military dictatorship in the early '70s
The greek junta was eventually hijacked by the Greek military police..
Like the dims hijacked by 0bambi's Chicago mafia.
Result is the same.
total collapse.
I don’t buy the writer’s logic for a second, and yet come to the same conclusion. I no more care about the number of schools she went to than I do the number Obama went to, and “meeting a payroll” says absolutely nothing about one’s ability with handling the US economy anymore than having a paper route (something beyond Obama) means one knows how to communicate.
I’m very much a bottom-liner, and no one can dispute that Obama’s is that of an empty vessel who was smart enough to know that was his greatest asset (as even he aknowledged). That’s all I need to see to understand he should never have been president, and all the comparing of academic careers is meaningless. He has an inability to ADAPT to challenges—he thinks the positions he has had since college are the right ones and anyone who sees them will simply agree with them. When that doesn’t happen, he has no clue how to proceed. That’s all I need to know about how his brain works.
Yup, any day now.... :(((
Besides that, when he speaks for himself, he says some strange stuff.
Someone with the grit to work themselves through college is many times the person as those who glide through on AA.
I’m still waiting for the evidence that he truly is intelligent. Affirmative action and a fawning media have gone a LONG, LONG way with this guy. He certainly is glib, but this emperor has no clothes.
I’m still waiting for the evidence that he truly is intelligent. Affirmative action and a fawning media have gone a LONG, LONG way with this guy. He certainly is glib, but this emperor has no clothes.
Sarah actually attended classes. Does anyone know for certain that Øbama ever attended even one?
Yeah, and at least Parker’s grandfather stands eternal guard at the Battle Green in Lexington. Once Obama finds that out, the rug is going to be GONE . . .
Yeah, and at least Parker’s grandfather stands eternal guard at the Battle Green in Lexington. Once Obama finds that out, the rug is going to be GONE . . .
Great article.
“we’ll trust Wisdom over Intelligence”
Common sense—the groundwork of wisdom.
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