Give that man a see-gar. The proud moron seems to be a peculiarly American phenomenon. Wasn't it H. L. Mencken who coined the term "booboisie" to refer to the (huge) segment of the population Doug describes? And later Richard Hofstader wrote a book called Anti-Intellectualism in American Life, which goes pretty much at the same population and attitudes, less entertainingly than Mencken, but with great depth. We appear to be the only modern nation that has put the Rube, Boob, and Stupe on pedestals.
In the same way Sarah Palin made a virtue of professing stupidity, so Barack Obama is the first President in years who seems not to go out of his way to hide his education and intellectual abilities. Clinton made his accent work for him to convince people of his booboisie credentials. Ford really was a boob. And Bush the younger, despite the bought-and-paid-for degrees, appears to have gotten through high school only via the charity of his senior year teachers.
Knowledge seems sinister. Right, I'm thinking of Dick Cheney, who comes across as godawful bright while he projects (deliberately, I believe) being the most calculating sonofabitch on the North American continent. He has learned the value of the concept that it's better to be feared than loved.
Ken
-------------- Original message --------------
From: Douglas Barbour <[log in to unmask]>
> Given the way the two presidential hopefuls ran their races, the real
> divide in the US seems not so much to be that of race any more but
> that between those who seek intelligent, curious, learned leadership &
> those who take pride in their ignorance. That it remains such a close
> race between those two Americas is still rather frightening. Palin's
> proud ignorance of what fruit fly experimentation has meant for 80
> years or so is truly shocking. And she was continually applauded for
> such a stance.
>
> Obama steps into a political Augeian Stable and it will take a long
> time for even the best person to clean up such a mess. We can only
> wish him the best. That he has a real version of Jesse Jackson's
> Rainbow Coalition behind him gives one hope (& did you watch Jackson
> in the crowd as Obama spoke?)
>
> Doug
> On 5-Nov-08, at 12:29 PM, Roger Day wrote:
>
> > I was watching the round-up interviews tonight and Spike Lee said
> > something interesting: if you look at the audiences for Palin &
> > McCain, they're all white, but for Obama they're mixed. Sure enough, I
> > watched Obama's speech - and boy can he speak - and the audience was
> > mixed. I then watched McCain's resignation speech - which was quite
> > graceful btb and at odds with his campaign invective that I've seen in
> > the 100 x 150 square - and sure enough, a white audience throughout.
> > It was almost a different planet.
>
> Douglas Barbour
> [log in to unmask]
>
> http://www.ualberta.ca/~dbarbour/
>
> Latest books:
> Continuations (with Sheila E Murphy)
> http://www.uap.ualberta.ca/UAP.asp?LID=41&bookID=664
> Wednesdays'
> http://abovegroundpress.blogspot.com/2008/03/new-from-aboveground-press_10.html
>
> We now know that 95 per cent of the universe is made of the something
> other than those 12 particles. And we have very little idea what the
> other 95 per cent is, which is kind of embarrassing.
>
> Brian Cox
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