Are Americans hostile toward knowledge?

I'm there for you, Pall.

Lets go listen to some Night Ranger and drive cross-country to Seattle.

 

I would likely drive off a bridge somewhere around Iowa if I had to listen to Night Ranger on such a journey.

But don't worry, YOU can still rock in America.

 

:'(

 

Well, pallister, if your definition of "intellectual" is what you wrote above, then it's understandable that you consider the term an epithet.

Of course, your definition isn't correct, but don't let that stop you from embracing an irrational dislike for people who think that thinking about things is a worthwhile endeavor in and of itself.

Just don't be surprised when someone points out that just such attitudes are a huge part of the dumbing down of our country. Intelligence and intellectualism or intellectual curiosity aren't the same thing, and don't really have much, either, to do with what people do for a living or whether they are trained in any specific academy. So, in large part, you and I agree.

But instead of embracing ugly stereotypes, let's just define the terms more precisely. People I know are intellectually curious about baseball, about woodworking, about politics, about pop culture, about cooking, about history. The subject matter isn't so much the point as is the pursuit. And the pursuit is important only so much as it differs from consumption. And that's really the difference.

 

I'm consuming a biography about Townes Van Zandt; I'll get back to you when I'm done.

 

See, there you go. Try not to drool too much on the pages, and we'll all expect a full deconstruction later in the evening.

 

What's it called and who wrote it? Townes is in my pantheon of greats.

 

"To Live's To Fly: The Ballad of the Late, Great Townes Van Zandt," by John Kruth

Next up is Gram Parsons' bio by Ben Fong-Torres.

 

I'll have to check it out. I'm almost hesitant to, since I have a suspicion that Townes was a tool in real life. There's a lot of lurking misogynist drunk asshole in his lyrics. But I'll always be grateful for his songs, which are genius.

 

When I was in high school in the late 90s, one history teacher included a U.S. map on the midterm exam and each state was worth half a point. If you got any wrong, you had to the map over and over and over again after school until you got it right. He called it "The Rand McNally Club,"

 

A European-born journalist working in the United States recently asked if Ireland is a country, so ignorance is a world-wide phenomenom that apparently has no bounds.