Pros And Cons Of Anti-Intellectualism

In this world you will meet people whom you will never like. It is not them personally, and they should not take it that way, but that person simply rubs you the wrong way. We all know some of those people. For some people this may be what is called an intellect. An intellect is someone who questions, someone who ponders on subjects, or someone who has a higher capacity for thinking and/or acquiring knowledge. Anti-intellectualism refers to the idea of being against intellectuals or fearing them. Many of our recent presidents have been anti-intellectuals including George W. Bush, Ronald Reagan, Bill Clinton, and Dwight Eisenhower. Anti-intellectualism negatively affects our country by slowly regressing education, and allowing important and …show more content…
With that being said, anti-intellectualism is a tool used, like rhetoric, to draw people in. In many cases, it is used to draw in the common man. The history of the common man in politics is definitely traced back to Andrew Jackson but could even be traced to Thomas Jefferson. The “Revolution of 1800” refers to Jefferson coming into office. This represents a shift in power from the elites to the common man. Again another “revolution” with Andrew Jackson being elected as president. These two men symbolize a shift in power, a recognition of the common frontiers men out in the woods shoveling dirt to make a home for his family. Jackson specifically was not from a prominent colonial family like all presidents preceding him. He was a small town boy who climbed up the social ladder and made a name for himself. In that way he obtained a lot of respect from Democratic party, which is what he ran as. The use of anti-intellectualism helps draw in the common man once again. Anti-intellectualism is in other words anti-elitism. In America, intelligence, intellectualism, the diploma from the Ivy League school, is power. With that you can do whatever you want, be whoever you want. You have every chance to make it big and become part of the elite top bracket in your taxes, or the elite socially, however you choose to look at it. Anti-elites are against the few powerful, they do not wish to go back to the aristocratic days where the few rich and powerful ruled the many of much lesser value. However, intellectuals are not entirely elites and can very easily be a common man. People who are intellectuals or people who have been educated at a high ranking school should not be easily grouped as elites. You cannot always judge a book by its