Does the Right Glorify Stupidity? Wrong Question.

Someone on my Facebook is claiming — who hasn’t heard this one before? — that the Tea Party and the populist right are glorifying stupidity and turning anti-intellectualism into a virtue. My initial response:

Insular, dogmatic, myopic thought is a human feature, not a partisan one.

Let’s not be blind to your side’s glorification of mediocrity, backwardness, and stupidity: the goal of egalitarianism is, in itself, a rejection of merit and education as distinctive traits. The glamorization of the poor and the downtrodden is ridiculous and crossed the line from sympathy to glorification long ago. The multiculturalist dogma pervading the left — that no one culture or idea is better than any other — is horrifying. And let me state that no one — no one! — on the right glorifies Native American culture, Islam, or the Palestinian cause like those on the left do, which is the peak of the glorification of backwardness.

And many Tea Party faves — George Will, Charles Krauthammer, Thomas Sowell — are brilliant public intellectuals with a distinguished body of work behind them.

“Stupid” usually means “disagrees with me.”

But even my response misses the point. This entire exchange was prompted by someone who had mocked Sarah Palin for having attending five different schools, claiming that this was evidence of her stupidity or aimlessness. While I tend to agree that Palin is stupid and aimless, her having attended X number of institutions has nothing to do with this.

The right does glorify stupidity, yes. But this is the wrong question to be asking — it’s rather like my saying that I hate black people. Well, yes, I suppose I do — but I hate everyone, so such a statement is more than a little misleading. The heart of the problem is that most people glorify schooling and conflate it with being a well-rounded, educated person. People prove the totality of their brainwashedness when they conflate schooling with education. The purpose of schooling is assimilation to social mores. It takes place at an institution and you won’t get very far by asking difficult questions or rocking the boat. It has its purpose. But quality education transcends social mores and equips the individual with the philosophic tools necessary to think for himself; to live life on his own terms.

Today, association with the Ivy League or any other ‘prestigious’ institution tends to say more about status and power than it does about a person’s intellectual aptitude. Ask Larry Summers if you need proof of that.