Why exactly has the United States always been so anti-intellectual in character?i don't think it's possible to deny that anti-intellectualism is one of the most enduring traits of America's national character. There's an unbroken line between Adams seething about French philosophers holding too much influence over people in the late 18th-century all the way to French Fries being renamed Freedom Fries because the French didn't want to go carpet-bomb Arabs with them after 9/11.Even when Americans try to be truly philosophically/metaphysically intellectual, it doesn't work. Their left wing "intellectuals" just blather long, drawn-out empty word salads and their right-wing intellectuals don't exist.This isn't to say that Americans aren't "smart" per se. They obviously are since America has also consistently been on the cutting-edge of mankind's material standard of living and technological progress since its founding. America has produced cultural giants like Whitman, and they're obviously brilliant in their own right, but they never conveyed or created any truly original schools of thought that weren't rehashing what Europe had already come up with. They were New & Improved Euro Thinkers 2.0 (as seen on TV) but they were still at their core products of the Enlightenment and not truly original. The Founding Fathers also strike one as down-to-earth, practical, highly-capable men with a great deal of mature common sense as to how to conduct matters of state. But "intellectual" doesn't seem like quite the word to describe them. So i guess the best way to describe Americans across their history is that they're very "intelligent," but not "intellectual."Where did this sentiment and trait of Americanism come from, exactly? what are some good books about this topic?
Pioneer culture doesn't encourage intellectualism, it encourages acting out of necessity to get things done, hence you have a capable but non-pensive mindset. Historically and culturally Europe is very comfortable, and that is what you need for things like philosophy to bloom. It's also the case in China. Confucius didn't come out of bad times, he advised maintaining the existing social order because at the time of his writings China was already doing pretty well.Obviously the US has known periods of comfort, after WW2 for example. But their culture was ingrained in them from the 17th to 19th centuries, when the difference between living and perishing was up to the individual. In Europe there were steady established jobs that communities were built up around. In America first you had the settling of the West, then you had the relentless charge of Capitalism, and new industries like oil being born. American culture was born in a time that there wasn't the ability to sit and ruminate about things, and today even though there's plenty of safety and security to navel-gaze they won't do it because culturally it is alien to them.
>>18509670sounds about right. Real original culture can only take root when working for practical gain doesn't constantly take up people's time, and Americans tend to pride themselves on never sitting still due to their super-charged WASP work ethic mentality. No time to sit around thinking when we've got geopolitical enemies to industrially out-compete.
>>18509670>>18509677I'm skeptical that the same Europe that was sending millions to flood American shores throughout the 18th and 19th centuries was at a sufficient level of development that a significant share of the population was devoting itself to higher cultural pursuits.
Reagan hated the concept of education because he's an actor who got denied by smarter people. He's not an intellectual by any means yet he went against established norms because he's dumb to plan ahead. He learned from Truman who hated intellectuals cause Oppenheimer and MacArthur didn't understand how much Americans sacrificed to prop them up.
>>18509682The people going to America were not the core of the states sending them.At first the people Britain was sending were various religious minorities. Quakers, Puritans, Presbyterians, catholics all people who didn't constitute the majority Anglican English.Later on the subsequent waves of immigrants were even further removed. Irish catholics during the famine, Catholic Germans the Prussians had no love for, and the worst gangsters and mafiosos from the South of Italy after the Risorgimento. This is without even mentioning the Poles and other assorted Slavs from the Russian Empire.
>>18509682that was due more to overpopulation than real impoverished stress (besides famine-ridden Ireland). Germans in the 19th century had a reputation for breeding like rabbits and hordes of them moving to the US Midwest was something the higher German socio-cultural castes encouraged.
America has always had a strong streak of innovation and invention in it, which runs counter to the "anti-intellectual" narrative. I think this is because most of the country, for most of its history, was rural people living in small farming communities. Farmers are not famous for their love of learning and intellectual pursuits. They tend to be practical, salt of the earth types. Because America is a democracy, and was far, far more decentralized in the past, that meant these rural farmers had a massive impact on the character of the American government. Yet, despite this, the cities were hotbeds of innovation and discovery that attracted brilliant people from all over the world. Mostly, I think this is because of the kind of "hands off" approach the farmers demanded (being such fiercely independent folk) was also great for fostering mercantile interests, which in turn made American cities incredibly wealthy, which in turn drew people from all over the world in search of opportunity. Farmers didn't care too much what was going on in the cities, living by their own creed of "mind your own business", so despite their total lack of interest in anything scholarly or scientific, great doings were going on in those places, leading to all manner of scientific achievements that they were happy to ignore.
>America found itself on having no high-culture>Europeans come right out of the gate and accuse Americans of lacking a culture entirely because Europeans only recognized aristocratic culture as legitimate and disregard Folk culture entirely>American academia responded by simply not entertaining European sensibilities>Europeans interpret this as anti-intellectualism>American academics are proven right
>>18509694The Puritan emigrants were overwhelmingly the 17th century equivalent of the middle class, i.e. landowning yeomen, merchants and artisans/skilled craftsmen. Even afterwards a considerable share of English emigration was from classes that would've been otherwise comfortable if they remained in the UK.
>>18509643Because intellectuals are irrelevant , ineffective faggots who only hinder society by constantly casting doubt over the plans and ideas of the Chad great-man-of-history. Pic related . Intellectuals only chain down society with useless hinderimg thought-forms. This is precisely the reason the USA is the greatest country in the world. They follow human nature: rally behind one cause, one leader, one Chad, and that is why they always win .
>>18509711I was responding to someone claiming Europe didn't have high development or they wouldn't be sending millions to the colonies.The first wave of religious emigrants went because they were persecuted. (Or, more accurately in the case of the Puritans, got BTFO after Oliver Cromwell died and could no longer persecute others) The next wave were the underclass, all of this is to say Western Europe was highly developed, despite sending millions to the colonies.
>>18509643Here's a serious answer:Because American's aren't anti-intellectual. They are paranoidThey started their country with a complete mistrust over the institutions of the Church and government. Majority of colonies to the Americas were the likes of Puritans and Baptists who are escaping Europe because they were branded as heretics by both the Church and other protestantsIt is easy to romanticize the idea of oppressed people fleeing their landsBut these groups of people were known to be trouble makers who are responsible for moral hysterias like Munster Revolt and witch hunts.From the start, America was founded from the seed of madness and mistrust. Faith is almost nonexistant and, to them, any institution that is larger than their clan cannot be trusted.It is beyond them to realize that it is possible for an institution to grow because it has proven itself against the tests of time.Thus, you end up with crazies like Creationists, Rapturists, Evangelicals, and so on
>>18509749rich coming from a superstitious latinx that thinks the freemasons gave his abuela cancer
>>18509750Is evolution real?
>>18509709I fucking love America, bro. Thirdies seethe.
>>18509753Yes.Now, is latinxistan notably less paranoid, superstitious or mistrustful of institutions after 500 or so years of catholic domination than el norte?
>>18509765?Brother, no other country suffers conspiracy tards like the USA
>>18509643Art and academia are impotent archaic expression of culture which serve no value other than to tie peasants to psychopathic elites who hate them. Europe is poorer per capita than Missipi, our poorest trashiest state, when they typically view themselves close to the top when asked, completely unaware of their situation. Our culture has won so thoroughly and profoundly you can't even articulate a response to it.
>>18509775Mcdo is gone. It is too expensive nowIn fact, it is not even a restaurant anymore and just a real estate company
>>18509774cope
>>18509777Which you read about on American technology, consuming American cultural narratives, which you are now discussing with me in the American language on an American website. Thanks for playing
>>18509781I'm not underming Americas influence and contributions.Just pointing out that McDo is not really the symbol of America anymoreIn fact, America has no cultural symbol anymore.American culture was killed by the consumerism that it proudly displayedEverything is a product to consume and bring some experience. Rather than a heritage to identify yourself as and protect
>>18509785>t.
>>18509786You don't identify with cowboys anymore.Your last remaining "cultural symbol" is guns, which you treat as just another product meant to entertain and dispose soon after than proclaim your identity and celebrate asJaps still have the Katana proudly displayed. The older it is, the more loved it isYou only want the newest and most entertaining poppers
>>18509787Traditionalists are the biggest consumers of all. Our mortal enemy, Islam, is a very sophisticated product with a loyal customer base which allows no substitute. The idea that history repeats and should be learned from is insidious programming to prime people to maintain brand loyalty to opressive firms which, as we have said, have rendered them poorer than the most backward non-functional region of our country. But at least you have cool swords and arbitrary restrictions on what you can and can't monetize because of the fear indoctrination you received in high school.
>18509787>It's another episode of Euros seething about how America doesn't have any """real""" culture for the fifth gorillian time because culture=old
>>18509774They do, American ones are simply louder and more know.
>>18509749>They started their country with a complete mistrust over the institutions of the ChurchAnd they were correct to do so. Anyone loyal to the church over their nation is a traitor.
>>18509799Culture is about *what represents your nationAmerican culture is all about consumerism which kills any possibility for enshrinement of an identityImagine if Japs started treating Katanas like Americas treated everythingKatana bag, Katana utensils, Katana holidaysThere is no sense of respect.Nothing but exploitation for monetary gainIn fact, this is exactly what you guys did with Chinatown. Dragons are super special in China. Meant to exist only on the Emperor's robe and royal chamber.Not displayed in every household like a decor>>18509804No one should be blindly loyal to anythingLoyalty is earned through daily displays of virtue and faith towards God and their people
>>18509813>Imagine if Japs started treating Katanas like Americas treated everything>Katana bag, Katana utensils, Katana holidaysAnon you are aware that the Nips are just as if not more consumeristic than Americans. Also they don't treat katanas like holy relics>Dragons are super special in China. Meant to exist only on the Emperor's robe and royal chamber.Not displayed in every household like a decorThe Chinese also slap dragons on everything you retard
>>18509827Everyone has a level of consumerism. The difference is that others can draw the line on somethingNotice how there was NEVER a single media that depicts the Japanese Emperor?This is because half of Japan still treats the Emperor as a god and it is scandalous for him to be seen outside of religious ceremoniesWhat does America have that it considers sacred and must never be exploited?
>>18509749>>18509813>Avatar fagging >Reddit spacing >Da Prots are low IQ Chuds unlike us enlightened TradCathsHey Pablo I think you got lost on your way to the wholesome Latinx E-Catholic Discord server
>>18509838Luther venerates Mary
>>18509841Is Rapture here yet?
>>18509839>Doesn't deny being a Favela Monkey
>>18509842>>18509753If you're going to mock 'the protties' for the hundred thousand divisions thing you can't really also mock them for beliefs held only by specific branches of protestantism/non-denominational christianity>You consider yourself a lutheran, yet the mormon church is non-trinitarian! HMMMM CONTRADICTION MUCH, PROTTOID?
>>18509753>>18509842It's funny that you never answered these questions and instead started deflecting by assuming everyone who disagrees with you is a schizo Prot
>>18509848>>18509844You are all borne from the belief in Sola ScripturaSola Scriptura means that no interpretation is wrongTo say otherwise is to recognize the need for a proper interpreter, which is the MagisteriumI have every rights to mock the fruits born from the same tree
>18509850>Are you Brown?>UH....UH....SHUT UP PROTOk so you're Brown, end of discussion
So-called “intellectuals” are priests of the new world order, leading the stupid and submissive in believing the officially correct opinions. If you believe in “intellectualism”, if you follow the dictates of “intellectuals”, and if you “trust the science”, it means you are a mindless ape which is convinced it is a genius.
>>18509850>Sola Scriptura means that no interpretation is wrongStrawman fallacy>To say otherwise is to recognize the need for a proper interpreter, which is the MagisteriumNon sequiturThat there are true interpretations and false interpretations implies there is a need for true interpretations, not a supreme interpreter. Your magisterium can be and typically is wrong about its teachings and holds false interpretations and false doctrines, and there is no greater justification for your arbitrary decision to sell your soul to the pope of Rome than if you arbitrarily chose the prophet of Mormonism to be the supreme interpreter. The ability both to interpret truly and falsely are properties of human nature and common to all men, and are objectively distinguishable from each other (so that there is no need for human judge to settle controversies apart from scripture itself). It is possible for one’s interpretation of Immanuel Kant’s Critique of Pure Reason to be in error, the existence of an infallible Kantian magisterium does not follow from this.
>>18509863Don't trust blindlyDon't mistrust blindlyAsk questions and the truth shall present itselfWell, if you are willing to stake losing your """identity""" and silly dogmas of course>>18509866Interpretation is not an opinionIt is the truth that presents itself under the guidance of TraditionScriptures are to be read under the guidance of the Magisterium under the dictations of TraditionThere is only one Truth.Anyone who tolerates the existence of contradicting interpretation is a heretic just like them
>>18509868This post consists of empty platitudes which I think you wrote for the sole reason of satisfying yourself emotionally.>Interpretation is not an opinion>It is the truth that presents itself under the guidance of TraditionThis is not the meaning of the English word “interpretation”. An interpretation is the imputed meaning of a verbal speech. To interpret is to impute meaning. For this reason only is interpretation necessary, i.e. as being the mode by which understanding is achieved. A text is understood when it is interpreted correctly.>Scriptures are to be read under the guidance of the Magisterium under the dictations of TraditionNow, this notion of the magisterium is in and of itself ungodly, the spirit of Antichrist, and a doctrine of demons. There indeed is an authority of the visible Church to teach and proclaim God’s truth, and all Christians are bound to it, but this authority is ministerial only and not magisterial; the authority to enforce the law, and not to write it. The claims of the Roman church to have the authority itself to bind the consciences of Christians shows its head to be “that man of sin be revealed, the son of perdition; Who opposeth and exalteth himself above all that is called God, or that is worshipped; so that he as God sitteth in the temple of God, shewing himself that he is God.“ This is plain, since he usurps God’s exclusive authority and exalts himself above His authority expressed in scripture alone. (cont.)
>>18509868As for tradition, the necessity has always been recognized by all Christians of cleaving to the sacred tradition deposited through the apostles. But to this end, it is necessary that the ground of all religion be recognized in scripture alone, since by the wisdom of men and the treachery of demons abundant innovations have crept in to corrupt tradition, it is therefore necessary to preserve and protect authentic sacred tradition by purging these novelties and errors by the test and tribunal of scripture, such as the worship of images, or the exclusion of the laity from the cup. So we can truly claim to follow sacred tradition if and only if we do and believe nothing besides that which is written in holy scripture.> Anyone who tolerates the existence of contradicting interpretation is a heretic just like themThere are varying degrees of error. Not all errors are equally damning. There are errors which destroy the foundation of religion (such as many of those maintained by the church of Rome) and which impugn the articles of faith found in the Creed; these errors must not be tolerated (and we do not tolerate them). Then there are errors which do not directly deny the foundation, yet undermine the ground on which it is built; these must not be tolerated in the clergy, but may be accepted if not encouraged in the laity without guilt. Then there are errors which, while they do not impugn the foundation, strike at the superstructure and possess a certain importance in themselves, and there errors of little significance; these must be tolerated in clergy and laity alike, and must not become a pretext for schism.
>>18509880>>18509879The necessity of a single moral authority that would lead the Church has existed BEFORE Christ's incarnationIn fact, the necessity for it has existed over and over throughout the entire OT. Deuteronomy and Leviticus blatantly calls for the execution of anyone who teaches falsehoods under Yahweh's nameWhich means that there has to be an AUTHORITY and a court system that would investigate and enact judgementIn fact, this is one of the biggest event in the OT wherein King Manasseh was "captured and paraded with a hook on his nose", as punishment from God for tolerating teachings that contradict the Truth.One of his first and biggest repentance upon freedom is to enforce a BAN on worship at the highplaces and enforce worship *only at the TempleThe Magisterium is traditional and founded by God's divine mandate
>>18509888This all proves a ministerial authority, and not a magisterial authority. In these cases the Israelites were required to enforce God’s own laws which He Himself had revealed, and are not authorized to add to or replace His laws and revelations which He gave by the prophets. This in application to the Church shows that the visible Church has the authority to enforce the rules and teachings found in scripture, such as the Nicene Creed is to be understood as, but not at all that they may invent new articles of faith out of thin air on their own pretended authority and require them to be believed under pain of a curse (such as the church of Rome has done in requiring belief in transubstantiation or the bodily assumption of Mary, which are never found in scripture, nor were known among any in the ancient Church). Now, as far as the bold claims of the Roman church go, they find agreement only with the practice of the very wicked men who built the high places, or built a pagan grove in the temple, being corruptions of religion additional and contrary to the revelation of God, in which the kings and priests of Israel were often complicit.
>>18509896The ministry IS the magisteriumOne single ministry that enforces a single interpretation borne from the guidance of tradition.Every decree is the result of ruthless study and debate about God's nature. It is not born from someone's opinion, but through the trialsOne. Single. Truth
>>18509900The magisterium of Rome is not a monolithic hive mind with a single opinion. It includes wildly different views, from traditionalist to modernist, of which the latter is ever increasingly dominant and openly tolerated (despite its heretical nature and despite your insistence on intolerance). Second, the largest part of the magisterium’s decrees over its millennium of existence have not been the interpretation of scripture at all, but the imposition of false doctrines, which in some cases are so indefensible under the tribunal of scripture that even its most ardent defenders do not pretend that it is or could be derived from scripture, but hang it entirely on the pretended authority of the magisterium itself (such as the case with the bodily assumption of Mary). Even very true and biblical decrees of the Church (such as is the Nicene Creed) do not themselves have the authority to bind the conscience, but only the holy scriptures from which they are derived, yet Rome arrogates authority to itself so that its own decree is made binding in and of itself, such that to dissent from them for any reason is held to be a great crime, and they are not ashamed even to call their opinions irreformable. This shows the great difference between the biblical, divinely instituted, ministerial authority of the visible Church, and the wicked, arrogated, and pretended authority of the apostate church of Rome.
>>18509643Americans also seem to be allergic to learning other languages. It's hard to take linguistics like Chomsky seriously when they can only speak English.
>>18509910Yuropoors will never know what it's like not to live in a country that's bordered on all sides by 15 different languages lmao. Not even LatAms will know this pain
>>18509902Views, sureInterpretations, noThe dogmas of the Church is concrete and it cannot be changed. To try otherwise is a heresyCall the Catholic Church anything you wishBut not even the worst Pope has committed a single heresyAll of them upheld the same dogmas of Trinity, Immaculate Conception, Apostolic Unity, and Scriptures, Magisterium, and TraditionCan't say the same about Prots who, out of nowhere, started speaking ill about Mary
>>18509643The USA is an ESTP culture.>ESTP cultures have a sort of "frat boy" or "Micheal Bay" energy, their idea of "cool" is driving a huge truck while getting a BJ from a supermodel while blasting rock or rap music while going 100 MPH. Just LOOK at those "trump riding a tank" paintings.ESTP cultures form when a primitive nomad(settler) societies becomes ultra-powerful before thier cultural institutions catch up. The mongol empire was also ESTP (mongols idea of cool was feasting and drinking while fucking a slave girl while a bard sang about how awsome pillaging was)....>Positives of ESTP cultures:They believe they're the hero of the story, this delusional belief means they often accomplish things others think is impossible, and it causes massive amount of dynamism within the society.>The problem with ESTP cultures: They get bored of stuff really fast and have no forward thinking beyond a couple of months. ...tl:dr Americans are unrionically culturally similar to ancient Mongol Barbarians.
>>18509707>Farmers are not famous for their love of learningAmerican farmers are famous for their love of learning about farming. One of the first books Benjamin Franklin published was a Farmer's Almanac. Many farmers have small libraries on growing methods. And magazines with articles on new equipment and new methods tend to be quite popular.
>>18509643>anti-intellectualunfortunately in the modern context, "intellectual" usually means belief in retarded ideas like racial equality, communism, and the benevolence of jews.
>>18509643It depends on time period, pre and post 1960.https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Anti-intellectualism_in_the_United_States>In Alexis de Tocqueville's Democracy in America, he offers a classic early diagnosis of tendencies that later readers interpret as American anti-intellectualism: a culture that privileges practical utility, mass opinion, and equality of condition over reflection, intellectual independence, and elite judgment.https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Anti-intellectualism>In the U.S., the conservative American economist Thomas Sowell argued for distinctions between unreasonable and reasonable wariness of intellectuals in their influence upon the institutions of a society. In defining intellectuals as "people whose occupations deal primarily with ideas", Sowell conveys the view that they are different from people whose work is the practical application of ideas. Under this framework, the cause for layman's mistrust lies in the intellectuals' supposed incompetence outside their fields of expertise. The portrayed view is that, although having great working knowledge in their specialist fields when compared to other professions and occupations, the intellectuals of society could face little discouragement against speaking authoritatively beyond their field of formal expertise and thus are unlikely to face responsibility for the social and practical consequences of their errors.Post 1960 America has proved the incredible damage intellectuals can do to a society. If the general American population has become anti-intellectual it is because we as a society are unwilling to bear the financial costs of that sort of damage.
>>18509918>Views, sure>Interpretations, noAgain, the magisterium exceptionally rarely interprets scripture *at all*, and it is impossible for they who disagree about their basic worldview to agree with each other about the meaning of the entire bible.>But not even the worst Pope has committed a single heresyHonorius was the bishop of Rome in the early 7th century, he was known for his public promotion of the monothelite heresy and subsequent bishops of Rome for centuries took oaths upon receiving their office anathematizing him personally by name as a heretic. >All of them upheld the same dogmas of Trinity, Immaculate Conception, Apostolic Unity, and Scriptures, Magisterium, and TraditionNo, they didn’t. The concept of the immaculate conception, and the magisterium, are novelties of the middle ages which did not exist at all in ancient times. You have been sold a false bill of goods.>Can't say the same about Prots who, out of nowhere, started speaking ill about MaryScripture says “we have already charged that both Jews and Greeks are all under sin” (Rom. 3:9)
>>18509888>tolerating teachings that contradict the Truth.Except Judaism is complete nonsense. There is no evidence of a complete Torah existing prior to the 5th century AUC (after of the founding of the city [of Rome]).The Exodus myth was written as a polemic against Manetho, not the other way around (again, no complete Torah prior to the 5th century AUC).Manetho was citing earlier sources and he has been proven correct by history. He was writing about the Shasu and his ONLY mistake was confusing them with the Hyksos. The Shasu were a group of nomads from the southern Levant who worshipped Yahweh and would later contribute to the ethnogenesis of the Jews. They were considered a nuance due to their tendency to raiding and at some point in the late Bronze Age, they nearly succeeded in plundering Egypt but got their asses kicked and expelled. Manetho wrote this in his Aegyptiaca and the Jews, being mad that people remember this humiliation, wrote the story of Exodus in response.Only those with a mental illness and leprosy would deny any of this.
>>18509643We're fundamentally more interested in doing than in pontificating. Fundamentally an American presented with a problem is going to try to make it go away. Now. This is a requirement for people living in a colony or any place with very low population densities where authorities don't exist and help is just your neighbor who isn't any better educated than you are. This fundamental worldview has heavily influenced every single aspect of our culture and still does.To the American mind, "intellectuals" are often educated idiots who aren't any better at actually DOING things than any reasonably intelligent person. An extension of this is a perception the Europeans as a whole may have a very pretty high culture, but are individually useless people who are far too reliant on authorities, elites, and intellectuals to solve even the most mundane issues.Tl;dr>If you're not a physician, engineer, or chemist, what practical use are you, and how do you justify the food it takes to keep you alive?
>>18509910Languages are generally learned by exposure and immersion, anon. Plenty of us learn a second language, we just aren't able to retain it.
Bump
>>18509918>>18509900>>18509888>>18509868>>18509850>>18509830>>18509813the brown latinx has completely lost it kek
>>18510907Please stop making it about race, thank you.
>>18509910>Americans also seem to be allergic to learning other languages.Why would we need to? We live in a nation with over 350 million English speakers and everywhere we could want to go, people already speak English. It's not like Europe where every country is made up of like 4 ethnic groups that speak 10 languages and there's signs in 3 different scripts everywhere. You can pick up 2 or 3 extra languages in Europe just passively growing up there.
>>18509910If you grew up in a place where everybody spoke your language, and you could travel 1500 miles (or kilometers, whatever) and every town you passed through, everybody spoke your language, all the signs were in your language, you too would wonder why anybody learned more than one language.
>>18509643Hang yourself commie
>The American worship of work is well known; the disposition to consider that all men, whatever their wealth, should work at something tangible and visible—nothing like self-improvement, meditation, or unpractical cultural pursuits, for instance. There are no shades between the hard-working man and the useless playboy because the very notion that leisure is essential to intellectual culture is rarely acknowledged in America. The Puritan roots are still visible: “Those that are prodigal with their time despise their own souls,” said the Puritan divine. From Puritan days the worship of productive activity for its own sake is clear. >Alexis de Tocqueville had already noticed it in the quieter days before industrialization: “Nothing is more necessary to the culture of the higher sciences or of the more elevated departments of science than meditation; and nothing is less suited to meditation than the structure of democratic society.... In the midst of this universal tumult, this incessant conflict of jarring interests, this continual striving of men after fortune, where is that calm to be found which is necessary for the deeper combinations of the intellect? How can the mind dwell upon any single point when everything whirls around it, and man himself is swept and beaten onwards by the heady current that rolls all things in its course?”
>>18511053case in point
>>18509643There is a constant tension between theory and practice. Aristotle mirrors it as sophia and phronesis, but really in every single domain you have people who lean a bit too much into theory and people who lean a bit too much into action. America leans towards the latter. This is also one of the reasons they produced Pragmatism, the defining feature of which is a precaution against over-intellectualization and conceptual fallacies.
>yuros when their mom tells them to get a job >>18511057
>>18510201By "learning" I meant scholarship. Not practical observations relevant to agriculturalists (which is what the almanac was) but investigations into things which are not immediately relevant to working the earth. Farmers couldn't care less if it won't tell them how to improve the yield, keep pests out, lose fewer foals, etc.
>>18511115lmao
>>18511140But in the American context farming is a form of scholarship. The great agricultural colleges are built on that. Even colleges not explicitly devoted to agriculture still have very large student bodies concerned with farming. And they do likewise receive a general education from the institutions they study at.
Why is the burden always on Americans to explain why they're anti-intellectuals even though this is clearly a loaded question that rests on a broad generalization and never on the cowardly Europeans to explain why they actually feel this way without them resorting to ad hominems?
>>18511266Europeans have the biggest case of unwarranted self-importance on Earth. Nobody even comes close to their absolute arrogance and pompousness. Americans are also arrogant assholes but at least they have a legitimate case to be made for their arrogance. Europe is a post-apocalyptic aftermath of two world wars with a culture that is rapidly losing relevance
>>18511266i'm a leaf from suburban Ontario. For all intents and purposes Americanization has progressed so far here that there's functionally no real difference between my worldview and mannerisms and that of an American Midwesterner. But it still provides enough of an opening to look at the US from the outside.
>>18509677geopolitics actually requires thinking and decision making. you're putting the cart before the horse.>>18509689I'm no Reagan fanboy but the absolute state of intellectualism he seemed to have some foresight at where the hubris of intelligence gets you>>18509709I agree to an extent but they flooded the universities with French bullshit regardless
>>18509749except >>18509750 is kind of correct, everyone is paranoid to an extent of those wish destruction upon their institutions. Hofstadter was a progressive who had a one-sided stilted view of things because academics lean progressive and are unable to self-reflect. You had literal queers in the 80s claim that Reagan was actively undermining the AIDS effort when it was more or less a problem of ignorance (not in the hateful way, but real ignorance built on unknowing). Back in Reagan's day most actors in the closet simply stayed that way and I think homophobia was actually a net positive as it discouraged open displays of brazen sexual escapades. the 60s unfortunately swung the door open to the closet which made AIDS a thing in the first place. back in Reagan's time, the amount of restrictions on homosexual behavior prevented the wide spread of venereal diseases among the gays. So it wasn't Reagan himself, but wider society that was less pervasive in his time. if anyone wants to blame for the rise of AIDS, it should be the hippie movement.>>18509775shame it was Pol Pot who first realized this. about time the west took notice.>>18509785you act as if other ideologies aren't capable of being killed by what they represent which is a wholly one sided view of things likely spurned by deep-seated anti-western sentiment. Russian peasant culture was killed by Soviet new man ideology.>>18509830>Notice how there was NEVER a single media that depicts the Japanese Emperor?>This is because half of Japan still treats the Emperor as a god and it is scandalous for him to be seen outside of religious ceremoniessounds kind of delusional in age of mass media and globalization. the supernatural doesn't exist (not to say it shouldn't). Surely we wouldn't all be honored to have some things that are above idols (Islam and Muhammad are another example here) but as the boundary between the sacred and profane will diminish through technology and mass media over time.
>>18511259>But in the American context farming is a form of scholarship.No it fucking isn't
>>18511342https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_agricultural_universities_and_colleges#United_States
>>18511274>Europeans have the biggest case of unwarranted self-importance on Earth.I don't know anon, seem like Euros have some serious competition with Canadians like this retard >>18511311
>>18511432why so mad and pissy, bud? i've already described how i'm an essentially Americanized person far more than i'm not. quit screaming into your pillow about europoors hating america like a teenage girl after getting bullied at a slumber party.
>>18509643The United States government has been fully Machiavellian (having a benign, toothless figurehead/set of figureheads while the real power is free to move unimpeded) since at least Abraham Lincoln's presidency. Lincoln was beholden to many industrial and money powers beyond general public understanding.
>>18509879> This post consists of empty platitudes which I think you wrote for the sole reason of satisfying yourself emotionally.isn't philosophy basically that minus the empty part?
>>18510211
>>18511508why Lincoln of all people?
>>18509910there's really no need for it honestly, as travel is very expensive for us and the entire country takes a week to travel across, sometimes even two weeks. you fail to understand how large the country is, plus the immense wealth disparity which keeps international travel out of reach for 80% of the population.
Harvard 1759: we have been tracking this comet for 50 years and we are pretty sure it is supposed to cross the firmament over Christmas. It is going to be so cool! Let's dress up like Romans and go have fun on a hill when it approaches. I believe that a time of great change and upheaval is upon us. this halley comet is a sign from the heavens. Harvard 1859: I can't believe they have not released the negroes down south yet. America will come to blood over this. We have had nearly a century to forgive ourselves of this greatest sin against the pagan Roman Republic goddess of Liberty we so praise. God forgive us if we do not release the slaves now. Harvard 1959: we can probably make space ships and colonies on mars within a century. Our current expectation for reaching the moon is within the decade. Our negro computer wizards deserve a day off to go watch Martin Luther King speak. Harvard 2059: everyone is dead. you killed all of the men who wanted to go to mars. you are so dumb. even an astronomer from 1759 is smarter than you.
>>18510211/threadIf you want to discover a true intellectual ask them something controversial yet true. Ask a black man what is the average IQ of black and white people and the cause of this. Ask a woman whose fault it is if someone leaves the car door open and something gets stolen, then ask whose fault it is if a woman goes to the ghetto at night and gets raped. Ask a Muslim how old Aisha was. Ask a homosexual why gay men are more at risk of AIDS and why lesbian couples are more violent. Ask a transsexual what is a woman.If they can put aside their ego and accept the truth you are talking to a genuine intellectual, there are such people, but they are rare.
