Chris Rock had a joke about black anti-intellectualism that roughly went"those people are keeping it real. Yeah, real stupid!" One can't help butthink these days there is a creeping anti-intellectualism in some segmentsof white America. The nation was originally founded on the aspirations ofhigher achievement. The dream that each generation would attain more thanthe last. Recall when people said with pride "I'm the first of my family togo to college."
Seemingly, no longer from the fringes of white society. Faced with the riseof minority intelligence -- be it on the left or the right -- the "blamecrowd" has no way to fight back other than to turn elitism into apejorative. As though striving to be the best is in fact the worst ofattributes. Delaware GOP-by-way-of-the-Tea-Party Senate nominee ChristineO'Donnell spent her 17 minutes of speaking time at the "Values" VotersSummit attacking the ruling-class elites and the small elite and the beltwayelite but came of sounding more like the angry kid not bright enough to makeit as a Mathlete.
And, seemingly, she's not smart enough to do a better job of covering hertracks with alleged campaign fund malfeasance.
But O'Donnell is more the victim of the fringes' infatuation withwitlessness.
Witness the inexplicably increasing adoration for Newt Gingrich whosegreatest achievement was quitting as Speaker of the House.
Sarah Palin -- whose greatest achievement was quitting as Governor of Alaska-- bounced around five colleges in as many years before earning a Bachelor'sdegree in communications... so that she could rail against the "elite media."
The quintessence of the... I guess subpar media... being Glenn Beck.
Need I say more?
I would like to be very clear that I don't offer any of this as an impliedindictment of either whites or conservatives. I personally know many veryintelligent white folks and some quite bright conservatives and some who areeven both. However I would be very hypocritical, after hectoring people ofcolor to embrace intellectualism, to not do the same with those on the palermargins who believe that settling for sub-standard is somehow acceptable. Iwould not seek council from a doctor who advertised in the Penny Saver orhire a lawyer who took coupons. Regular and spectacular aren't mutuallyexclusive. Have we had a more accomplished president than theup-from-humble-beginnings Abe Lincoln?
Wasn't President Bush quite privileged?
C'mon fringe. Don't get bitter. Get better.