I was listening to a philosophy podcast the other day, and in the middle of the episode the host apologized for boring the listeners with too much theory. It was a weird thing to say on a podcast where theory is the point. But it speaks to the trend that has been permeating our culture for a while now; people apologizing for their intelligence.
Historically, this is a new phenomenon. Throughout the history of humanity intelligence was prized. Knowledge drove progress, lack thereof drove regress. No civilization saw as much progress as the European one after the ideas of Enlightenment finally defeated the ignorance of the clergy and the aristocracy (to be sure, plenty of evil still occurred along the way). We needed this progress to create a better world, and it was largely understood that intellectual uplift was a central tenet of human betterment.
The forces of ignorance have always pushed back against intelligence, earlier in Europe, and later in America. The American anti-intellectual streak is well-documented, and is tied to its mind-boggling levels of poverty and religiosity. As Fran Lebowitz noted, “When people say they hate the elites, they don’t mean the rich, they mean smart people.”
She is not alone in noticing that America’s central tenet, buttressed by the mythology that anyone can make it here, is money and not intelligence, which results in a mass of the self-hating poor. In his novel Slaughterhouse-Five, Kurt Vonnegut meditated on the relationship between American poverty and ignorance, “It is in fact a crime for an American to be poor, even though America is a nation of poor. Every other nation has folk traditions of men who were poor but extremely wise and virtuous, and therefore more estimable than anyone with power and gold. No such tales are told by the American poor. They mock themselves and glorify their betters. The meanest eating or drinking establishment, owned by a man who is himself poor, is very likely to have a sign on its wall asking this cruel question: 'if you’re so smart, why ain’t you rich?'”
Vonnegut was right – America manufactures poverty and ignorance, its ugly twin. My first culture shock upon immigrating to America was entering the appalling American system of public education. My fifteen-year old self could not grasp how a country so advanced could be built on the back of such terrible schools. (I later learned all about technocracy.)
American hatred of intelligence is also well-documented in its pop culture, where the nerds are low in their social standing and the jocks are high. (Note how “nerd” is a necessarily pejorative term, but “jock” isn’t one really) In American colleges, where I last checked intelligence is supposed to be prized, the real heroes are the football and basketball players.
Our current anti-intellectual / money-worship streak takes on a new form because so many ignoramuses are publicly visible and have become the country’s role models. Donald Trump and Elon Musk can spout the most objectionable nonsense, and they are hailed as heroes. Since the 1980s American CEOs have been held up as geniuses, even though thorough management practices research consistently shows that the overwhelming majority of CEOs don’t make a difference – they are simply lucky to be appointed at the helm of good companies. (The fact that businesspeople can be national heroes is also historically insane. A hundred years ago no one in their right mind would hold up a businessman as a national role model – people like Andrew Carnegie and J.P. Morgan were envied but also despised.)
But in terms of American worship, today’s CEOs don’t hold a candle to entertainers. And I don’t need to get into the level of quality of our entertainment. Actually, the lower the grade of our culture the better, because they show America what it wants to see in the mirror – its philistine self on top. Many of our celebrities have no talent at all and are famous for being famous, and are now being praised for what else – building successful business empires.
I am not saying that these people, and certainly those in the management structures that surround them, are not smart, shrewd, or hard nosed. But they are not intelligent. And how could they be in a country where a college degree is seen not as the most direct path to forging citizenry that is imbued with the spirit of critical inquiry, but merely as a tool for starting a career.
It has become hard to explain to people the formerly self-evident fact that lack of intelligence leads to a shittier world. Intelligence is not simply a tool for exchanging esoteric philosophical and literary ideas at cocktail parties. Intelligence is instrumental in fostering a wiser, more compassionate, more empathetic world. And intelligence seems to be gone from everywhere, including our elite college campuses and the most highly esteemed professions. A hundred years ago a town doctor was also its preeminent intellectual, well-versed in philosophy and literature. It made him an empathetic, wise elder. Today, a doctor is more likely than not a heartless specialist who hasn’t read a book that was not work-related since high school, and whose level of human empathy is akin to that of an amoeba.
Pushing back against ignorance used to be one of the sacred duties of the intellectual class. At the beginning of the 20th Century, writers like H.L. Mencken derided American ignorance on the pages of the Baltimore Sun with righteous anger and furious skill. That tradition died when Christopher Hitchens passed away from cancer in 2011, and has been replaced with some misguided notion of democracy. No intellectual today will dare call out people out on their ignorance, because it is somehow seen as undemocratic. People truly have the power, as do their viciously philistine leaders.
And what’s worse, somehow being intelligent has become embarrassing. My third* culture shock related to American education was at the omnipresent deprecation my extremely intelligent fellow students displayed in my Masters program in Liberal Studies. I, with my crappy Brooklyn high school and a mediocre undergrad degree, could not afford such an attitude.
Intelligence is a gift and a skill that can be nurtured. It is high time we stopped apologizing for it. It is not embarrassing to read literature, it is not embarrassing to want to know the history of ideas or be interested in science. These are the most admirable human endeavors. Own them.
*My second culture shock was at undergrad college, when I realized that I entered a for-profit business where education was not a priority, but cranking out degrees was. As my old-school (meaning, intelligent) finance professor said during a heart-to-heart, “You don’t come here for an education. What this is is a social contract, where you show the society that you are a good boy who can sit on his ass for four years, and in exchange you will get an office job.” My heart went out to the poor humanities professors who were quietly tearing their hair out trying to teach the thick-headed students who came to get a business degree so they could become cogs in the Wall Street machine.
One of the more intriguing parts about you is your Wall Street background. Any chance we could get a blog post on exactly what you were doing on Wall Street and any memorable moments from it? You hinted at it in 1Granary but would love a writeup on this. Admittedly, I'm in finance and also have one foot out the door (see one of my posts) so your perspectives would be appreciated
What is the name of the philosophy podcast?