When did it become a BAD thing to be smart? To be educated? To be worldly? I've been asking myself this question since Bush was first elected and morons would come up with reasons why they liked George--something to the effect of "I could have a beer with him." To paraphrase a comedian, next time you are in a bar, look around and see how many presidents are there. I don't want some chuckle-head, regular guy to be president. I want the smartest person we can find. We NEED the smartest person we can find.
Now it's happening again with Palin and to a lesser extent McCain. If Obama seems smart or articulate, he's branded an elitist. The neo-conservatives have gone out of their way to convince the moronic population of this country (which is growing much faster than the intelligent population) that anyone that is smarter than they are is somehow a threat. You'll see this when a scientist describes something that knucklehead doesn't understand. Knucklehead immediately discounts or distrusts what was said. Rather than thinking, "that person has spent much of their life studying topic X, maybe I can learn something here" they dismiss them entirely.
Sam Harris wrote a brilliant article in Newsweek recently describing this phenomenon and how it's currently playing out--dangerously--in our political system. Read it and weep. (Thanks for the heads up Jack.) And by the way, read Sam's books, The End of Faith, and Letter to a Christian Nation.
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Speaking of smart people, while neither of them set the academic world on fire, George W. Bush actually edged out John Kerry in his college grades. But John Kerry is always portrayed as intelligent and nuanced while Bush is always portrayed as an idiot. And Al Gore flunked out of divinity school. Go figure.
Academic achievement is not the only measure of intelligence, though it’s part of one’s entire picture. In Bush’s case, I feel that his actions and dialog, post–university, reveal a man that simply doesn’t think clearly. If you can’t formulate a coherent sentence in your native language, you can’t think clearly. In addition, Bush is further handicapped by a dogmatic view of the world, perhaps a result of his religiousness. Palin is in an entirely different league of ignorance, though. In the history of this country there has never been anyone in this position less prepared to assume the presidency, and I think Sam Harris makes a pretty compelling argument to that effect.
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