Bill Buckley used to say "I'd rather entrust the government of the United States to the first 400 people listed in the Boston telephone directory than to the faculty of Harvard University."
Isn't it interesting that anti-intellectualism shows up on all edges of the political spectrum? The far right in America today expresses a lot of the same attitudes toward intellectuals that you see from communist leaders like Pol Pot and Mao during their "cultural revolutions". Particularly when you consider the current popularity of the helicopter ride meme.
Look at it this way. Is the Society of Engineers ever going to rate America's infrastructure a B+ or an A? No. They are too self interested to do so. A group of the world's supposedly smartest people, Harvard Faculty, will look after themselves first, naturally, because they will think that their self interest is most important.
It's actually an old idea, as far back as Athenian democracy, where they understood that those with power should be rotated out of office, forced to live under the laws they created, and that power should be distributed. In short, while Athenian democracy had problems, they also knew that the common man knows what's best for himself.
Bill Buckley used to say "I'd rather entrust the government of the United States to the first 400 people listed in the Boston telephone directory than to the faculty of Harvard University."
Isn't it interesting that anti-intellectualism shows up on all edges of the political spectrum? The far right in America today expresses a lot of the same attitudes toward intellectuals that you see from communist leaders like Pol Pot and Mao during their "cultural revolutions". Particularly when you consider the current popularity of the helicopter ride meme.
Look at it this way. Is the Society of Engineers ever going to rate America's infrastructure a B+ or an A? No. They are too self interested to do so. A group of the world's supposedly smartest people, Harvard Faculty, will look after themselves first, naturally, because they will think that their self interest is most important.
It's actually an old idea, as far back as Athenian democracy, where they understood that those with power should be rotated out of office, forced to live under the laws they created, and that power should be distributed. In short, while Athenian democracy had problems, they also knew that the common man knows what's best for himself.