Several of the sessions I attended reached the same disconcerted conclusion that left academic with the feeling of, “God, what have we done?”
We have insisted for so long that all hierarchies are bad, that knowledge is a tool of imperialist and capitalist domination, that experts are evil, that professors should listen humbly to the illiterate, that the worst thing to be is a snob, that worshipping inclusivity means never telling anybody they are unqualified to join any discussion, that pole-dancers are as capable of offering valuable insights into organic chemistry or post-structuralism as people who publish academic volumes on the subject, that of course all opinions are equally valid.
And now we are seeing the results of all this. As we have all noticed by now, the results are not good. But there’s nothing we can say because it’s what we advocated for since forever. Or at least since 1982.
Clarissa's Blog 
Read Hofstadter’s Anti-intellectualism in American Life. Read it now. You are ready.
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Let’s hold the condescension, shall we?
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Sorry, that wasn’t meant as condescension. I just meant that in your current state of disgust with modern attitudes on intellect you will absolutely love Hofstadter’s book.
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What happened in 1982?
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What happened in 1982?
“Physical” By Olivia Newton-John was the number 1 song. “E. T.” was the top movie.
It was all downhill from there.
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It’s just a symbolic date of when theory started going all crazy.
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We have the same problem (it’s even worse, because it’s almost unkonwn) in Statistics.
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Acknowledging the reality of individuality would be an obvious stepping stone in counteracting this sort of well-intended but misguided and unrealistic ideology.
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