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| reading:anti-intellectualism_in_american_life [2022-08-21 03:14] – [The Revolt against Modernity] added section 3 notes to p. 133 asdf | reading:anti-intellectualism_in_american_life [2023-05-29 21:15] (current) – inline edit asdf | ||
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| ====== Anti-Intellectualism in American Life ====== | ====== Anti-Intellectualism in American Life ====== | ||
| - | Bear in mind while working through this book that Hofstadter was a centrist interested | + | It's amazing to realize |
| + | |||
| + | ===== Questions ===== | ||
| + | * How can we build a highly democratic society without discounting expertise? | ||
| + | * Can we have a church that values learning and discourse | ||
| ===== Chapter notes ===== | ===== Chapter notes ===== | ||
| + | Bear in mind while working through this book that Hofstadter was something of a centrist interested in moving academic discourse away from materialism and toward psychoanalysis. | ||
| + | |||
| ==== Anti-intellectualism in Our Time ==== | ==== Anti-intellectualism in Our Time ==== | ||
| * this work, like others in Hofstadter' | * this work, like others in Hofstadter' | ||
| Line 386: | Line 392: | ||
| * apparently there was little scholarship at the time tracing the links from the Depression to post-Depression right | * apparently there was little scholarship at the time tracing the links from the Depression to post-Depression right | ||
| * many of the right-wing leaders had been preachers, ex-preachers, | * many of the right-wing leaders had been preachers, ex-preachers, | ||
| + | * I'm still struggling to understand the jump from fundie to fashy---were they just so butthurt about " | ||
| * some man associated with Billy Sunday in the mid-30s later turned up as right-wing or quasi-fascist agitators | * some man associated with Billy Sunday in the mid-30s later turned up as right-wing or quasi-fascist agitators | ||
| * Gerald Winrod, Gerald L. K. Smith, J. Frank Norris, Carl McIntire (look these dudes up, they are wild) | * Gerald Winrod, Gerald L. K. Smith, J. Frank Norris, Carl McIntire (look these dudes up, they are wild) | ||
| + | * Gerald Winrod: "the Jayhawk Nazi"; wrote a book defending //The Protocols of the Elders of Zion//; believed that the Depression was the work of Satan, that F.D.R. was an element of the Jewish Communist conspiracy, and that Hitler would save Europe from Communism; his son was later involved with Christian Identity | ||
| + | * Gerald L. K. Smith: started out as a leader of the Share Our Wealth before jumping dick first into Christian nationalism and white supremacy; his organization distributed //The International Jew//; started up the short-lived America First Party in the 40s | ||
| + | * J. Frank Norris: described evolution as " | ||
| + | * Carl McIntire: started two organizations to oppose liberal tendencies in the churches | ||
| * the John Birch Society (which was new at the time) brought the far right' | * the John Birch Society (which was new at the time) brought the far right' | ||
| + | * and we know that the JBS bled into the Patriots and the sovereign citizens and Christian Identity and so on | ||
| * the literature of the extreme right is similarly continuous from Christian fundamentalism to militant nationalism | * the literature of the extreme right is similarly continuous from Christian fundamentalism to militant nationalism | ||
| + | * people like to believe their worldviews are complete, and the fundie mind feels more satisfied when linking religious and political antipathies | ||
| + | * the fundies of the 20s linked issues of WWI with anti-German sentiment; in particular, higher (Biblical) criticism was strongest among German scholarship, | ||
| + | * you know that Eddie Izzard bit about Henry VIII and the origin of the Anglican church? Yeah, Billy Sunday said the exact same thing about the Kaiser and higher criticism, only Sunday was being serious. Yikes. | ||
| + | * again, note the poor reasoning typical of authoritarian followers: " | ||
| + | * OK, Hofstadter mentions what he calls "the generically prejudiced mind" (footnote 3, p. 133), noting a strong correlation between religious orthodoxy and ethnic prejudice; as I've noted previously, I believe he's responding to right-wing authoritarianism as described by Altemeyer (indeed, one of the citations is a book titled //The Authoritarian Mind//) | ||
| + | * he definitely is; the " | ||
| + | * authoritarianism, | ||
| + | * pp. 134--135, he really goes in for the kill: we cannot overlook the essentially theological underpinnings of the right wing; it does not tolerate nuance or scale, and every conflict must be | ||
| + | * hence the derivation: liberal policies = socialist = communism = atheism | ||
| + | * So what can we take from this to apply to today' | ||
| + | * while Protestantism has been the major focus thus far, American Catholicism has also contributed notably to anti-intellectualism | ||
| + | * despite strong anti-Catholic sentiment, it has been growing in size and acceptance | ||
| + | * American Catholicism has focused on Americanizing itself and denouncing the aspects of American life it could not approve | ||
| + | * in other areas where it holds comparable influence, the Church holds some intellectual prestige | ||
| + | * because of the early anti-Catholic sentiment in the US, the Church had to prove its Americanism; | ||
| + | * footnote 5 (p. 137): French Catholics are apparently taught to think through modern problems in Catholic ways rather than through strict courses in apologetics | ||
| + | * the Church also had to expend considerable resources to accommodate a massive influx of immigrants, so that what was left over for higher culture was spent on Catholic culture | ||
| + | * footnote 6 (p. 138): Hofstadter argues that education can serve as a barrier between parents and upwardly-mobile children: " | ||
| + | * Catholicism in the US had more adherents among immigrants; to American Catholics, the true Church seemed to be in Europe | ||
| + | * | ||
| ==== The Decline of the Gentleman ==== | ==== The Decline of the Gentleman ==== | ||
| ==== The Fate of the Reformer ==== | ==== The Fate of the Reformer ==== | ||
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| ===== Related works ===== | ===== Related works ===== | ||
| - | * [[The Civil War as a Theological Crisis]]: should provide additional detail on inter- and intra-denominational schisms, particularly where the issue of slavery was concerned | + | * [[the_civil_war_as_a_theological_crisis|The Civil War as a Theological Crisis]]: should provide additional detail on inter- and intra-denominational schisms, particularly where the issue of slavery was concerned |
| + | * [[: | ||
| + | |||
| + | {{tag> | ||
| ---- struct data ---- | ---- struct data ---- | ||
| + | readinglist.author | ||
| + | readinglist.title | ||
| + | readinglist.summary | ||
| + | readinglist.status | ||
| + | readinglist.subjects : history, politics | ||
| ---- | ---- | ||