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Life Advice / Anti-Intellectualism
« on: October 12, 2013, 11:10:16 am »
Caveat: This post shall be probably rather ranty, hard to follow, and with little to no defining point besides anger. That being said, I felt like venting to a forum of my peers so here goes it.
Has anyone else noticed the rampant anti-intellectualism that has been growing in the world as of late? At least within my own community and those I have visited here in America, it seems like people are trying not to think. Or as if knowing things is too much of a burden for them. In my own personal experience, this has become increasingly frustrating, as I pride myself for my knowledge and want to help people out, but they don't wish to be helped.
I am known amongst my peers as a dispensary of unwanted, useless knowledge. Initially, the complaints may have been warranted. Often, when someone would talk about some kind of subject, for example plumbing, I would make a comment as to how the Romans had their pipes, and have been met with much derision for my comments. As such I have learned to dial back the unprompted fact reflex quite significantly. I can understand how some people may not want to be forced to sit through explanations of subjects they did not ask for.
However, what I do not understand is when people become offended, insulted, and angry when I try to answer the questions they ask me. For instance, my mother recently asked me the other day why the wind blows. So I went about trying to explain how the sun heats different parts of the Earth and the difference in pressure creates the air flow. A rather grand oversimplification of the complex systems that drive the winds but I thought it was a simple, sufficient explanation to a question that was asked of me. I say tried to explain, because about two sentences in I was met with a rather blunt "I don't care." Now, I could chalk this up to my mother's personality, but I could go on and on with the list of examples where people just refuse to even listen to the explanation to the question they just asked!
Is there something so wrong about asking someone to think that warrants taking offense? Am I the only one seeing this, or is this just the way it has always been and I was too young and naive to see it? How are people not interested about things in the world? Don't they want to know how it works at all? We're surrounded by crazy impossible things, methods of transportation that work off the combustion of vaporized molecules of dead animals, compressed under layers and layers of rock over millions of years. Show any of our modern implements to a caveman and he would instantly regard them as magic. What's even more crazy and exciting is that we can understand the magic, and replicate it for ourselves. And people don't want to know how to do these things?! Ask any one of them if they wanted a magic wand to wave to levitate objects in front of their eyes and they'd nod vigorously in an instant. But try and explain to them how they could use pulleys to accomplish the same thing, only applicable to any number of problems and all of a sudden you've become boring and insulting. As if the mere notion of having to figure something out was too much for their brain to accomplish.
We've reduced our usage of the single biggest advantage we have over other animals to a minimum. Relegated to the task of keeping track of our favorite shows and movies, making sure we don't miss a single episode of Honey Boo Boo. I know I'm going to come off as just another pedant shouting about the decline of society and how it will be our downfall, but not really. I realize that there will always be enough people around who are enthusiastic about learning about the world to keep us moving forward. I just can't understand the mindset of people who would rather not bother to understand things.
I don't know how to end this, so I'll just ask my fellow Bay12ers on their experiences with anti-intellectualism. Maybe someone else can frame my ramblings more concisely and accurately.
Or maybe I'm wrong, who knows? Maybe there really is no problem, and it's all in my head. I'd love to hear from some level-headed people to compare experiences.
Has anyone else noticed the rampant anti-intellectualism that has been growing in the world as of late? At least within my own community and those I have visited here in America, it seems like people are trying not to think. Or as if knowing things is too much of a burden for them. In my own personal experience, this has become increasingly frustrating, as I pride myself for my knowledge and want to help people out, but they don't wish to be helped.
I am known amongst my peers as a dispensary of unwanted, useless knowledge. Initially, the complaints may have been warranted. Often, when someone would talk about some kind of subject, for example plumbing, I would make a comment as to how the Romans had their pipes, and have been met with much derision for my comments. As such I have learned to dial back the unprompted fact reflex quite significantly. I can understand how some people may not want to be forced to sit through explanations of subjects they did not ask for.
However, what I do not understand is when people become offended, insulted, and angry when I try to answer the questions they ask me. For instance, my mother recently asked me the other day why the wind blows. So I went about trying to explain how the sun heats different parts of the Earth and the difference in pressure creates the air flow. A rather grand oversimplification of the complex systems that drive the winds but I thought it was a simple, sufficient explanation to a question that was asked of me. I say tried to explain, because about two sentences in I was met with a rather blunt "I don't care." Now, I could chalk this up to my mother's personality, but I could go on and on with the list of examples where people just refuse to even listen to the explanation to the question they just asked!
Is there something so wrong about asking someone to think that warrants taking offense? Am I the only one seeing this, or is this just the way it has always been and I was too young and naive to see it? How are people not interested about things in the world? Don't they want to know how it works at all? We're surrounded by crazy impossible things, methods of transportation that work off the combustion of vaporized molecules of dead animals, compressed under layers and layers of rock over millions of years. Show any of our modern implements to a caveman and he would instantly regard them as magic. What's even more crazy and exciting is that we can understand the magic, and replicate it for ourselves. And people don't want to know how to do these things?! Ask any one of them if they wanted a magic wand to wave to levitate objects in front of their eyes and they'd nod vigorously in an instant. But try and explain to them how they could use pulleys to accomplish the same thing, only applicable to any number of problems and all of a sudden you've become boring and insulting. As if the mere notion of having to figure something out was too much for their brain to accomplish.
We've reduced our usage of the single biggest advantage we have over other animals to a minimum. Relegated to the task of keeping track of our favorite shows and movies, making sure we don't miss a single episode of Honey Boo Boo. I know I'm going to come off as just another pedant shouting about the decline of society and how it will be our downfall, but not really. I realize that there will always be enough people around who are enthusiastic about learning about the world to keep us moving forward. I just can't understand the mindset of people who would rather not bother to understand things.
I don't know how to end this, so I'll just ask my fellow Bay12ers on their experiences with anti-intellectualism. Maybe someone else can frame my ramblings more concisely and accurately.
Or maybe I'm wrong, who knows? Maybe there really is no problem, and it's all in my head. I'd love to hear from some level-headed people to compare experiences.