Elvin T. Lim
- Published in print:
- 2008
- Published Online:
- October 2011
- ISBN:
- 9780195342642
- eISBN:
- 9780199851843
- Item type:
- book
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780195342642.001.0001
- Subject:
- Political Science, American Politics
Why has it been so long since an American president has effectively and consistently presented well-crafted, intellectually substantive arguments to the American public? Why have presidential ...
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Why has it been so long since an American president has effectively and consistently presented well-crafted, intellectually substantive arguments to the American public? Why have presidential utterances fallen from the rousing speeches of Lincoln, Teddy Roosevelt, Wilson, and FDR to a series of robotic repetitions of talking points and 60-second soundbites, largely designed to obfuscate rather than illuminate? This book draws on interviews with more than 40 presidential speechwriters to investigate this relentless qualitative decline, over the course of 200 years, in our presidents' ability to communicate with the public. The book argues that the ever-increasing pressure for presidents to manage public opinion and perception has created a “pathology of vacuous rhetoric and imagery” where gesture and appearance matter more than accomplishment and fact. The book tracks the campaign to simplify presidential discourse through presidential and speechwriting decisions made from the Truman to the present administration, explaining how and why presidents have embraced anti-intellectualism and vague platitudes as a public relations strategy. The book sees this anti-intellectual stance as a deliberate choice rather than a reflection of presidents' intellectual limitations. Only the smart, it suggests, know how to dumb down. The result, it shows, is a dangerous debasement of our political discourse and a quality of rhetoric which has been described, charitably, as “a linguistic struggle” and, perhaps more accurately, as “dogs barking idiotically through endless nights.”Less
Why has it been so long since an American president has effectively and consistently presented well-crafted, intellectually substantive arguments to the American public? Why have presidential utterances fallen from the rousing speeches of Lincoln, Teddy Roosevelt, Wilson, and FDR to a series of robotic repetitions of talking points and 60-second soundbites, largely designed to obfuscate rather than illuminate? This book draws on interviews with more than 40 presidential speechwriters to investigate this relentless qualitative decline, over the course of 200 years, in our presidents' ability to communicate with the public. The book argues that the ever-increasing pressure for presidents to manage public opinion and perception has created a “pathology of vacuous rhetoric and imagery” where gesture and appearance matter more than accomplishment and fact. The book tracks the campaign to simplify presidential discourse through presidential and speechwriting decisions made from the Truman to the present administration, explaining how and why presidents have embraced anti-intellectualism and vague platitudes as a public relations strategy. The book sees this anti-intellectual stance as a deliberate choice rather than a reflection of presidents' intellectual limitations. Only the smart, it suggests, know how to dumb down. The result, it shows, is a dangerous debasement of our political discourse and a quality of rhetoric which has been described, charitably, as “a linguistic struggle” and, perhaps more accurately, as “dogs barking idiotically through endless nights.”
James Davison Hunter
- Published in print:
- 2010
- Published Online:
- May 2010
- ISBN:
- 9780199730803
- eISBN:
- 9780199777082
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780199730803.003.0006
- Subject:
- Religion, Religion and Society
The actual vitality of American Christianity’s cultural capital today resides almost exclusively among average people in the pew rather than those in leadership, on the periphery not the center of ...
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The actual vitality of American Christianity’s cultural capital today resides almost exclusively among average people in the pew rather than those in leadership, on the periphery not the center of cultural production, in tastes that run to the popular rather than the exceptional, the middle brow rather than the high brow, and almost always toward the practical as opposed to the theoretical or the imaginative. The collective impact of the Christian community of the nature and direction of the culture itself is negligible. They have been absent from the arenas in which the greatest influence in culture is exerted.Less
The actual vitality of American Christianity’s cultural capital today resides almost exclusively among average people in the pew rather than those in leadership, on the periphery not the center of cultural production, in tastes that run to the popular rather than the exceptional, the middle brow rather than the high brow, and almost always toward the practical as opposed to the theoretical or the imaginative. The collective impact of the Christian community of the nature and direction of the culture itself is negligible. They have been absent from the arenas in which the greatest influence in culture is exerted.
Ángel Pinillos
- Published in print:
- 2012
- Published Online:
- September 2012
- ISBN:
- 9780199693702
- eISBN:
- 9780191741265
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780199693702.003.0009
- Subject:
- Philosophy, Philosophy of Language, Metaphysics/Epistemology
The chapter describes some new experimental techniques and results that shed light on our ordinary use of ‘knowledge’. The results presented can be elegantly explained by adopting an interest ...
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The chapter describes some new experimental techniques and results that shed light on our ordinary use of ‘knowledge’. The results presented can be elegantly explained by adopting an interest relative or ‘anti-intellectual’ understanding of knowledge, a new idea that has been gaining currency in philosophy.Less
The chapter describes some new experimental techniques and results that shed light on our ordinary use of ‘knowledge’. The results presented can be elegantly explained by adopting an interest relative or ‘anti-intellectual’ understanding of knowledge, a new idea that has been gaining currency in philosophy.
Mugambi Jouet
- Published in print:
- 2017
- Published Online:
- September 2017
- ISBN:
- 9780520293298
- eISBN:
- 9780520966468
- Item type:
- book
- Publisher:
- University of California Press
- DOI:
- 10.1525/california/9780520293298.001.0001
- Subject:
- Political Science, American Politics
Americans are far more divided than other Westerners over basic issues, including wealth inequality, health care, climate change, evolution, the literal truth of the Bible, apocalyptical prophecies, ...
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Americans are far more divided than other Westerners over basic issues, including wealth inequality, health care, climate change, evolution, the literal truth of the Bible, apocalyptical prophecies, gender roles, abortion, gay rights, sexual education, gun control, mass incarceration, the death penalty, torture, human rights, and war. The intense polarization of U.S. conservatives and liberals has become a key dimension of American exceptionalism—an idea widely misunderstood as American superiority. It is rather what makes America an exception, for better or worse. While exceptionalism once was largely a source of strength, it may now spell decline, as unique features of U.S. history, politics, law, culture, religion, and race relations foster grave conflicts and injustices. They also shed light on the peculiar ideological evolution of American conservatism, which long predated Trumpism. Anti-intellectualism, conspiracy-mongering, radical anti-governmentalism, and Christian fundamentalism are far more common in America than Europe, Canada, Australia, and New Zealand. Drawing inspiration from Alexis de Tocqueville, Mugambi Jouet explores American exceptionalism’s intriguing roots as a multicultural outsider-insider. Raised in Paris by a French mother and Kenyan father, he then lived throughout America, from the Bible Belt to New York, California, and beyond. His articles have notably been featured in The New Republic, Slate, The San Francisco Chronicle, The Huffington Post, and Le Monde. He teaches at Stanford Law School.Less
Americans are far more divided than other Westerners over basic issues, including wealth inequality, health care, climate change, evolution, the literal truth of the Bible, apocalyptical prophecies, gender roles, abortion, gay rights, sexual education, gun control, mass incarceration, the death penalty, torture, human rights, and war. The intense polarization of U.S. conservatives and liberals has become a key dimension of American exceptionalism—an idea widely misunderstood as American superiority. It is rather what makes America an exception, for better or worse. While exceptionalism once was largely a source of strength, it may now spell decline, as unique features of U.S. history, politics, law, culture, religion, and race relations foster grave conflicts and injustices. They also shed light on the peculiar ideological evolution of American conservatism, which long predated Trumpism. Anti-intellectualism, conspiracy-mongering, radical anti-governmentalism, and Christian fundamentalism are far more common in America than Europe, Canada, Australia, and New Zealand. Drawing inspiration from Alexis de Tocqueville, Mugambi Jouet explores American exceptionalism’s intriguing roots as a multicultural outsider-insider. Raised in Paris by a French mother and Kenyan father, he then lived throughout America, from the Bible Belt to New York, California, and beyond. His articles have notably been featured in The New Republic, Slate, The San Francisco Chronicle, The Huffington Post, and Le Monde. He teaches at Stanford Law School.
Anthony Quinton
- Published in print:
- 2011
- Published Online:
- January 2012
- ISBN:
- 9780199694556
- eISBN:
- 9780191731938
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780199694556.003.0010
- Subject:
- Philosophy, History of Philosophy
This chapter discusses Dewey's theory of knowledge. The intellectualist sees knowledge as something absolutely certain, which is contemplatively seen, by a mind that is at most contingently embodied, ...
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This chapter discusses Dewey's theory of knowledge. The intellectualist sees knowledge as something absolutely certain, which is contemplatively seen, by a mind that is at most contingently embodied, working on its own. For Dewey's anti-intellectualism what is sought is rational and corrigibly fallible belief, actively achieved, even made or constructed, and with the aid of conceptual instruments of human design, by an intelligent but embodied organism that is a natural part of the world it seeks to know, engaged on this undertaking as a collaborating member of a society of intelligent organisms of the same kind.Less
This chapter discusses Dewey's theory of knowledge. The intellectualist sees knowledge as something absolutely certain, which is contemplatively seen, by a mind that is at most contingently embodied, working on its own. For Dewey's anti-intellectualism what is sought is rational and corrigibly fallible belief, actively achieved, even made or constructed, and with the aid of conceptual instruments of human design, by an intelligent but embodied organism that is a natural part of the world it seeks to know, engaged on this undertaking as a collaborating member of a society of intelligent organisms of the same kind.
Elvin T. Lim
- Published in print:
- 2008
- Published Online:
- October 2011
- ISBN:
- 9780195342642
- eISBN:
- 9780199851843
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780195342642.003.0001
- Subject:
- Political Science, American Politics
This chapter addresses presidential anti-intellectualism as the problem itself. It begins with the characterization of presidential rhetorical trends as manifestations of the anti-intellectual ...
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This chapter addresses presidential anti-intellectualism as the problem itself. It begins with the characterization of presidential rhetorical trends as manifestations of the anti-intellectual presidency. This presented insight has advanced the understanding of the processes of institutional change—which are often incomplete and layered—it has distracted from a proper diagnosis of the pathologies of presidential rhetoric. In addition, presidential rhetoric must be analyzed in order to advance the understanding of the rhetorical presidency.Less
This chapter addresses presidential anti-intellectualism as the problem itself. It begins with the characterization of presidential rhetorical trends as manifestations of the anti-intellectual presidency. This presented insight has advanced the understanding of the processes of institutional change—which are often incomplete and layered—it has distracted from a proper diagnosis of the pathologies of presidential rhetoric. In addition, presidential rhetoric must be analyzed in order to advance the understanding of the rhetorical presidency.
Elvin T. Lim
- Published in print:
- 2008
- Published Online:
- October 2011
- ISBN:
- 9780195342642
- eISBN:
- 9780199851843
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780195342642.003.0002
- Subject:
- Political Science, American Politics
This chapter proposes anti-intellectualism as the unifying critique of the contemporary presidency and begins a debate on how to redirect the attention toward the quality, rather than just the ...
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This chapter proposes anti-intellectualism as the unifying critique of the contemporary presidency and begins a debate on how to redirect the attention toward the quality, rather than just the quantity, of presidential rhetoric. Then, it presents evidence of the transformed—syntactically truncated and semantically shortened—structure of presidential rhetoric. It specifically reports the evidence of the relentless linguistic (syntactic and semantic) simplification of presidential rhetoric that occurred between 1789 and 2006. In addition, it takes off from the less ambitious proposition that there can be no plausible case for a thoroughgoing anti-intellectualism, which is operationally defined for this chapter as the relentless semantic and syntactic simplification of presidential rhetoric, because at some point simplification becomes oversimplification, and the drastically truncated structure of such language will fail to convey the minimum amount of information required as the basis for competent civic judgments. It can be concluded that the presidential rhetorical simplification across the last two centuries is real and demonstrable, and it cannot endorse the virtue of rhetorical simplicity indefinitely, because at some point simplification becomes oversimplification.Less
This chapter proposes anti-intellectualism as the unifying critique of the contemporary presidency and begins a debate on how to redirect the attention toward the quality, rather than just the quantity, of presidential rhetoric. Then, it presents evidence of the transformed—syntactically truncated and semantically shortened—structure of presidential rhetoric. It specifically reports the evidence of the relentless linguistic (syntactic and semantic) simplification of presidential rhetoric that occurred between 1789 and 2006. In addition, it takes off from the less ambitious proposition that there can be no plausible case for a thoroughgoing anti-intellectualism, which is operationally defined for this chapter as the relentless semantic and syntactic simplification of presidential rhetoric, because at some point simplification becomes oversimplification, and the drastically truncated structure of such language will fail to convey the minimum amount of information required as the basis for competent civic judgments. It can be concluded that the presidential rhetorical simplification across the last two centuries is real and demonstrable, and it cannot endorse the virtue of rhetorical simplicity indefinitely, because at some point simplification becomes oversimplification.
Elvin T. Lim
- Published in print:
- 2008
- Published Online:
- October 2011
- ISBN:
- 9780195342642
- eISBN:
- 9780199851843
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780195342642.003.0003
- Subject:
- Political Science, American Politics
This chapter demonstrates the unanimity of opinion among speechwriters that simplicity is always preferred to complexity and justifies the operationalized link between a cult of rhetorical simplicity ...
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This chapter demonstrates the unanimity of opinion among speechwriters that simplicity is always preferred to complexity and justifies the operationalized link between a cult of rhetorical simplicity and operationalized anti-intellectualism. In particular, it reveals that the presidents' and speechwriters' exceptionless and deliberate drive to simplify presidential rhetoric since the mid-twentieth century has been the linguistic underpinning of the anti-intellectual presidency. It concludes by modeling the accumulation of several discrete decisions to go anti-intellectual as a classic tyranny of small decisions. In doing so, it provides an explanation to the puzzle of how such a radical institutional transformation as the anti-intellectual presidency crept up.Less
This chapter demonstrates the unanimity of opinion among speechwriters that simplicity is always preferred to complexity and justifies the operationalized link between a cult of rhetorical simplicity and operationalized anti-intellectualism. In particular, it reveals that the presidents' and speechwriters' exceptionless and deliberate drive to simplify presidential rhetoric since the mid-twentieth century has been the linguistic underpinning of the anti-intellectual presidency. It concludes by modeling the accumulation of several discrete decisions to go anti-intellectual as a classic tyranny of small decisions. In doing so, it provides an explanation to the puzzle of how such a radical institutional transformation as the anti-intellectual presidency crept up.
Elvin T. Lim
- Published in print:
- 2008
- Published Online:
- October 2011
- ISBN:
- 9780195342642
- eISBN:
- 9780199851843
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780195342642.003.0004
- Subject:
- Political Science, American Politics
This chapter examines the substantive impoverishment of presidential rhetoric. Specifically, it provides the evidence of linguistic simplification with evidence of substantive anti-intellectualism. ...
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This chapter examines the substantive impoverishment of presidential rhetoric. Specifically, it provides the evidence of linguistic simplification with evidence of substantive anti-intellectualism. As presidents have taken the rhetorical path of least resistance by serving up simplistic sentences to citizens, they have correspondingly offered an easily digestible substantive menu devoid of argument and infused with inspirational platitudes, partisan punchlines, and emotional and human interest appeals. Moreover, it shows that presidential rhetoric today is short on logos, disingenuous on ethos, and long on pathos.Less
This chapter examines the substantive impoverishment of presidential rhetoric. Specifically, it provides the evidence of linguistic simplification with evidence of substantive anti-intellectualism. As presidents have taken the rhetorical path of least resistance by serving up simplistic sentences to citizens, they have correspondingly offered an easily digestible substantive menu devoid of argument and infused with inspirational platitudes, partisan punchlines, and emotional and human interest appeals. Moreover, it shows that presidential rhetoric today is short on logos, disingenuous on ethos, and long on pathos.
Elvin T. Lim
- Published in print:
- 2008
- Published Online:
- October 2011
- ISBN:
- 9780195342642
- eISBN:
- 9780199851843
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780195342642.003.0006
- Subject:
- Political Science, American Politics
This chapter tackles the normative justifications of anti-intellectualism to explain its political seductiveness and, in rejecting them, explicates why anti-intellectualism damages democracy. In ...
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This chapter tackles the normative justifications of anti-intellectualism to explain its political seductiveness and, in rejecting them, explicates why anti-intellectualism damages democracy. In particular, it illustrates why presidential anti-intellectualism is a threat to democracy. The first two arguments presented are active justifications: the argument against elitism and the argument for participation. The third and fourth arguments are passive defenses of anti-intellectualism: the argument of inconsequentialism and the argument from necessity. It is stated that anti-intellectual rhetoric is a poor surrogate for genuine democratic responsiveness.Less
This chapter tackles the normative justifications of anti-intellectualism to explain its political seductiveness and, in rejecting them, explicates why anti-intellectualism damages democracy. In particular, it illustrates why presidential anti-intellectualism is a threat to democracy. The first two arguments presented are active justifications: the argument against elitism and the argument for participation. The third and fourth arguments are passive defenses of anti-intellectualism: the argument of inconsequentialism and the argument from necessity. It is stated that anti-intellectual rhetoric is a poor surrogate for genuine democratic responsiveness.
Elvin T. Lim
- Published in print:
- 2008
- Published Online:
- October 2011
- ISBN:
- 9780195342642
- eISBN:
- 9780199851843
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780195342642.003.0007
- Subject:
- Political Science, American Politics
This chapter proposes a corrective account of rhetorical leadership premised on pedagogy, rather than demagogy. It also provides these tentative thoughts as an invitation to start, rather than to ...
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This chapter proposes a corrective account of rhetorical leadership premised on pedagogy, rather than demagogy. It also provides these tentative thoughts as an invitation to start, rather than to conclude, a new debate about the substance of presidential rhetoric rather than its quantity. Then, it closes with a solution to the problem of presidential anti-intellectualism by articulating the pedagogical purpose of rhetoric as theorized and practiced by the founding rhetorical presidents, Theodore Roosevelt, Woodrow Wilson, and Franklin Roosevelt, and as implied in scholarly criticisms of the contemporary presidency. There is a need to attend to the substance of presidential rhetoric precisely because presidents are responsible for the lion's share of what transpires in the American public sphere.Less
This chapter proposes a corrective account of rhetorical leadership premised on pedagogy, rather than demagogy. It also provides these tentative thoughts as an invitation to start, rather than to conclude, a new debate about the substance of presidential rhetoric rather than its quantity. Then, it closes with a solution to the problem of presidential anti-intellectualism by articulating the pedagogical purpose of rhetoric as theorized and practiced by the founding rhetorical presidents, Theodore Roosevelt, Woodrow Wilson, and Franklin Roosevelt, and as implied in scholarly criticisms of the contemporary presidency. There is a need to attend to the substance of presidential rhetoric precisely because presidents are responsible for the lion's share of what transpires in the American public sphere.
John Bengson and Marc A. Moffett
- Published in print:
- 2012
- Published Online:
- May 2012
- ISBN:
- 9780195389364
- eISBN:
- 9780199932368
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780195389364.003.0007
- Subject:
- Philosophy, General, Metaphysics/Epistemology
The question of the grounds of knowledge how can be distinguished from the question of the nature of knowledge how. We defend an intellectualist answer to the former question and an objectualist ...
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The question of the grounds of knowledge how can be distinguished from the question of the nature of knowledge how. We defend an intellectualist answer to the former question and an objectualist (nonpropositionalist, nondispositionalist) answer to the latter question. The central idea is that to know how to A is to stand in an objectual understanding relation to a way of A-ing. We propose a theory of the relevant type of understanding in terms of conceptions of ways of acting, grounded in propositional attitudes. The resulting view—an objectualist intellectualism—preserves all three of the following attractive theses: (1) knowing how is not merely a kind of knowing that, (2) knowing how is practical (it bears a substantive connection to action), and (3) knowing how is a cognitive achievement (it is a form of practical knowledge).Less
The question of the grounds of knowledge how can be distinguished from the question of the nature of knowledge how. We defend an intellectualist answer to the former question and an objectualist (nonpropositionalist, nondispositionalist) answer to the latter question. The central idea is that to know how to A is to stand in an objectual understanding relation to a way of A-ing. We propose a theory of the relevant type of understanding in terms of conceptions of ways of acting, grounded in propositional attitudes. The resulting view—an objectualist intellectualism—preserves all three of the following attractive theses: (1) knowing how is not merely a kind of knowing that, (2) knowing how is practical (it bears a substantive connection to action), and (3) knowing how is a cognitive achievement (it is a form of practical knowledge).
Jonathan Ginzburg
- Published in print:
- 2012
- Published Online:
- May 2012
- ISBN:
- 9780195389364
- eISBN:
- 9780199932368
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780195389364.003.0009
- Subject:
- Philosophy, General, Metaphysics/Epistemology
It is argued that intellectualism is incompatible with the facts about complementation in a variety of languages. It is also argued that one of the main empirical bases for anti-intellectualism (the ...
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It is argued that intellectualism is incompatible with the facts about complementation in a variety of languages. It is also argued that one of the main empirical bases for anti-intellectualism (the alleged existence of ability-denoting ‘how to’ clauses) does not survive close scrutiny. At the same time, the chapter demonstrates the need to have abilities in the ontology of abstract entities that serve as arguments of attitude predicates; exemplifies the existence of epistemically oriented attitude predicates that select for both facts and abilities; sketches an ontology formalized in type theory with records for events, propositions, questions, outcomes, and abilities; indicates how a single verb can select for factive, resolutive, and ability-denoting infinitives without assuming lexical ambiguity; and shows how a semantic account of resolutive complementation (interrogatives embedded by predicates such as know, learn, and understand) extends to ‘how to’ clauses without introducing any additional mechanisms.Less
It is argued that intellectualism is incompatible with the facts about complementation in a variety of languages. It is also argued that one of the main empirical bases for anti-intellectualism (the alleged existence of ability-denoting ‘how to’ clauses) does not survive close scrutiny. At the same time, the chapter demonstrates the need to have abilities in the ontology of abstract entities that serve as arguments of attitude predicates; exemplifies the existence of epistemically oriented attitude predicates that select for both facts and abilities; sketches an ontology formalized in type theory with records for events, propositions, questions, outcomes, and abilities; indicates how a single verb can select for factive, resolutive, and ability-denoting infinitives without assuming lexical ambiguity; and shows how a semantic account of resolutive complementation (interrogatives embedded by predicates such as know, learn, and understand) extends to ‘how to’ clauses without introducing any additional mechanisms.
Karla Pollmann
- Published in print:
- 2017
- Published Online:
- March 2017
- ISBN:
- 9780198726487
- eISBN:
- 9780191793295
- Item type:
- book
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780198726487.001.0001
- Subject:
- Religion, Early Christian Studies, Religion and Literature
With the rise of Christianity in the Roman Empire, increasing numbers of educated people converted to this new belief. As Christianity did not have its own educational institutions, the issue of how ...
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With the rise of Christianity in the Roman Empire, increasing numbers of educated people converted to this new belief. As Christianity did not have its own educational institutions, the issue of how to harmonize pagan education and Christian convictions became increasingly pressing. Especially classical poetry, the staple diet of pagan education, was considered morally corrupting (because of its deceitful mythological content) and damaging for the salvation of the soul (because of the false gods it advocated). But Christianity recoiled from an unqualified anti-intellectual attitude, while at the same time the experiment of creating an idiosyncratic form of genuinely Christian poetry failed (the sole exception being the poet Commodianus). This book argues that, instead, Christian poets made creative use of the classical literary tradition, and—in addition to blending it with Judaeo-Christian biblical exegesis—exploited poetry’s special ability of enhancing the effectiveness of communication through aesthetic means. It seeks to explore these strategies through a close analysis of a wide range of Christian, and for comparison partly also pagan, writers mainly from the fourth to sixth centuries. The book reveals that early Christianity was not a hermetically sealed uniform body, but displays a rich spectrum of possibilities in dealing with the past and a willingness to engage with and adapt the surrounding culture(s), thereby developing diverse and changing responses to historical challenges. By demonstrating throughout that authority is a key in understanding the long denigrated and misunderstood early Christian poets, this book reaches the ground-breaking conclusion that early Christian poetry is an art form that gains its justification by adding cultural authority to Christianity. Thus, in a wider sense this book engages with the recently emerged scholarly interest in aspects of religion as cultural phenomena.Less
With the rise of Christianity in the Roman Empire, increasing numbers of educated people converted to this new belief. As Christianity did not have its own educational institutions, the issue of how to harmonize pagan education and Christian convictions became increasingly pressing. Especially classical poetry, the staple diet of pagan education, was considered morally corrupting (because of its deceitful mythological content) and damaging for the salvation of the soul (because of the false gods it advocated). But Christianity recoiled from an unqualified anti-intellectual attitude, while at the same time the experiment of creating an idiosyncratic form of genuinely Christian poetry failed (the sole exception being the poet Commodianus). This book argues that, instead, Christian poets made creative use of the classical literary tradition, and—in addition to blending it with Judaeo-Christian biblical exegesis—exploited poetry’s special ability of enhancing the effectiveness of communication through aesthetic means. It seeks to explore these strategies through a close analysis of a wide range of Christian, and for comparison partly also pagan, writers mainly from the fourth to sixth centuries. The book reveals that early Christianity was not a hermetically sealed uniform body, but displays a rich spectrum of possibilities in dealing with the past and a willingness to engage with and adapt the surrounding culture(s), thereby developing diverse and changing responses to historical challenges. By demonstrating throughout that authority is a key in understanding the long denigrated and misunderstood early Christian poets, this book reaches the ground-breaking conclusion that early Christian poetry is an art form that gains its justification by adding cultural authority to Christianity. Thus, in a wider sense this book engages with the recently emerged scholarly interest in aspects of religion as cultural phenomena.
Deidre Helen Crumbley
- Published in print:
- 2012
- Published Online:
- September 2012
- ISBN:
- 9780813039848
- eISBN:
- 9780813043791
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- University Press of Florida
- DOI:
- 10.5744/florida/9780813039848.003.0006
- Subject:
- History, History of Religion
In the call and response tradition of African American churches, the concluding chapter reflects on ways in which this book responds to calls for serious scholarship in religious ethnography. As part ...
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In the call and response tradition of African American churches, the concluding chapter reflects on ways in which this book responds to calls for serious scholarship in religious ethnography. As part of that response, it highlights several new perspectives and directions for future research suggested by the current findings: (1) the creative ways in which gender and age may be configured in grass roots institution-building; (2) the position of Sanctified churches, not as bastions of anti-intellectualism but as venues of communal intellectual activity where academic achievement is valued and promoted; (3) the twin dimensions of charismatic leadership that also demonstrates bureaucratic acumen; and (4) the workings of a spirit-grounded “Hermeneutics of Suspicion” that promotes social critique and activism.Less
In the call and response tradition of African American churches, the concluding chapter reflects on ways in which this book responds to calls for serious scholarship in religious ethnography. As part of that response, it highlights several new perspectives and directions for future research suggested by the current findings: (1) the creative ways in which gender and age may be configured in grass roots institution-building; (2) the position of Sanctified churches, not as bastions of anti-intellectualism but as venues of communal intellectual activity where academic achievement is valued and promoted; (3) the twin dimensions of charismatic leadership that also demonstrates bureaucratic acumen; and (4) the workings of a spirit-grounded “Hermeneutics of Suspicion” that promotes social critique and activism.
Michael McDevitt
- Published in print:
- 2020
- Published Online:
- June 2020
- ISBN:
- 9780190869953
- eISBN:
- 9780197519448
- Item type:
- book
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/oso/9780190869953.001.0001
- Subject:
- Political Science, American Politics
Where Ideas Go to Die explores the troubled relationship of US journalism and intellect. A defender of common sense, the press is irked at intellect yet often dependent on its critical autonomy. A ...
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Where Ideas Go to Die explores the troubled relationship of US journalism and intellect. A defender of common sense, the press is irked at intellect yet often dependent on its critical autonomy. A postwar observation from Richard Hofstadter applies to contemporary journalists: “Men do not rise in the morning, grin at themselves in their mirrors, and say: ‘Ah, today I shall torment an intellectual and strangle an idea!’ ” The book nevertheless documents the prowess of news media in policing intellect. Control extends beyond suppression of ideas and ways of thinking to the aggressive rendering of dissent into deviance. The social control of intellect by journalism is accompanied by social control of journalism in newsrooms and in classrooms where norms are cultivated. Anti-intellectualism consequently operates like dark matter in media, a presence inferred by its effects rather than directly observed or acknowledged. When journalists anticipate a punitive public, the reified resentment is no more real than the fiction of omnipotent citizens in democratic theory, yet the audience imagined compels how intellect is rendered in the news as nuisance, deviance, or object of ridicule. Journalism’s contribution to the social control of ideas is poignantly democratic: audiences are cast in consequential roles that affirm their wisdom in a closed, self-referential system. The book concludes with a discussion about what intellectual journalism would look like. Interviews with 25 “dangerous professors” demonstrate how alliances in the academic-media nexus can seed intellect in newswork.Less
Where Ideas Go to Die explores the troubled relationship of US journalism and intellect. A defender of common sense, the press is irked at intellect yet often dependent on its critical autonomy. A postwar observation from Richard Hofstadter applies to contemporary journalists: “Men do not rise in the morning, grin at themselves in their mirrors, and say: ‘Ah, today I shall torment an intellectual and strangle an idea!’ ” The book nevertheless documents the prowess of news media in policing intellect. Control extends beyond suppression of ideas and ways of thinking to the aggressive rendering of dissent into deviance. The social control of intellect by journalism is accompanied by social control of journalism in newsrooms and in classrooms where norms are cultivated. Anti-intellectualism consequently operates like dark matter in media, a presence inferred by its effects rather than directly observed or acknowledged. When journalists anticipate a punitive public, the reified resentment is no more real than the fiction of omnipotent citizens in democratic theory, yet the audience imagined compels how intellect is rendered in the news as nuisance, deviance, or object of ridicule. Journalism’s contribution to the social control of ideas is poignantly democratic: audiences are cast in consequential roles that affirm their wisdom in a closed, self-referential system. The book concludes with a discussion about what intellectual journalism would look like. Interviews with 25 “dangerous professors” demonstrate how alliances in the academic-media nexus can seed intellect in newswork.
Oz Almog
- Published in print:
- 2000
- Published Online:
- May 2012
- ISBN:
- 9780520216426
- eISBN:
- 9780520921979
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- University of California Press
- DOI:
- 10.1525/california/9780520216426.003.0004
- Subject:
- Religion, Judaism
This chapter begins with a discussion of the training of farmers and fighters, covering the idealization of manual labor and training the younger generation for battle and heroism. The discussion ...
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This chapter begins with a discussion of the training of farmers and fighters, covering the idealization of manual labor and training the younger generation for battle and heroism. The discussion then turns to anti-intellectualism in Sabra culture, and the Sabra's cultural and spiritual horizons.Less
This chapter begins with a discussion of the training of farmers and fighters, covering the idealization of manual labor and training the younger generation for battle and heroism. The discussion then turns to anti-intellectualism in Sabra culture, and the Sabra's cultural and spiritual horizons.
Mugambi Jouet
- Published in print:
- 2017
- Published Online:
- September 2017
- ISBN:
- 9780520293298
- eISBN:
- 9780520966468
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- University of California Press
- DOI:
- 10.1525/california/9780520293298.003.0003
- Subject:
- Political Science, American Politics
Millions of Americans are extraordinarily uninformed. This problem is often blamed on the poor quality of public schools, yet it largely stems from a peculiar conception of education rooted in ...
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Millions of Americans are extraordinarily uninformed. This problem is often blamed on the poor quality of public schools, yet it largely stems from a peculiar conception of education rooted in America’s exceptional history. The birth of modern democracy in America fostered a populist mindset equating education with elitism. Although the Founding Fathers were learned men of the American Enlightenment, many 18th and 19th century Americans became convinced that common sense and folk wisdom were sufficient to succeed. Anti-intellectualism became particularly influential in the South, the nation’s poorest region. Conversely, education has been less associated with elitism in France and other European countries. This helps explain why modern America is sharply polarized, as the U.S. political debate reached astonishing levels of demagogy, propaganda, and disinformation well before Trump’s rise. Spurred by the Tea Party, Republicans routinely made ludicrous claims about Obama’s fake birth certificate and Islamism, “socialized medicine,” “death panels,” the “hoax” of climate change, the federal government’s “tyranny,” and other conspiracy theories. Such political extremism thrives on the ignorance, irrationality, and gullibility promoted by anti-intellectualism. Extremism in contemporary Europe is far less mainstream and more focused on immigration, the main concern of nativist far-right European parties.Less
Millions of Americans are extraordinarily uninformed. This problem is often blamed on the poor quality of public schools, yet it largely stems from a peculiar conception of education rooted in America’s exceptional history. The birth of modern democracy in America fostered a populist mindset equating education with elitism. Although the Founding Fathers were learned men of the American Enlightenment, many 18th and 19th century Americans became convinced that common sense and folk wisdom were sufficient to succeed. Anti-intellectualism became particularly influential in the South, the nation’s poorest region. Conversely, education has been less associated with elitism in France and other European countries. This helps explain why modern America is sharply polarized, as the U.S. political debate reached astonishing levels of demagogy, propaganda, and disinformation well before Trump’s rise. Spurred by the Tea Party, Republicans routinely made ludicrous claims about Obama’s fake birth certificate and Islamism, “socialized medicine,” “death panels,” the “hoax” of climate change, the federal government’s “tyranny,” and other conspiracy theories. Such political extremism thrives on the ignorance, irrationality, and gullibility promoted by anti-intellectualism. Extremism in contemporary Europe is far less mainstream and more focused on immigration, the main concern of nativist far-right European parties.
Mugambi Jouet
- Published in print:
- 2017
- Published Online:
- September 2017
- ISBN:
- 9780520293298
- eISBN:
- 9780520966468
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- University of California Press
- DOI:
- 10.1525/california/9780520293298.003.0007
- Subject:
- Political Science, American Politics
Millions of white working-class and middle-class Americans vote against their own economic interest by defending policies that hurt them while profiting the rich, including the 1% wealthiest ...
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Millions of white working-class and middle-class Americans vote against their own economic interest by defending policies that hurt them while profiting the rich, including the 1% wealthiest Americans. Several factors help explain this peculiar dimension of U.S. politics: myopia fostered by anti-intellectualism; the relationship between religious fundamentalism and free-market fundamentalism; blind faith in the American Dream; and how racism hinders economic solidarity.Less
Millions of white working-class and middle-class Americans vote against their own economic interest by defending policies that hurt them while profiting the rich, including the 1% wealthiest Americans. Several factors help explain this peculiar dimension of U.S. politics: myopia fostered by anti-intellectualism; the relationship between religious fundamentalism and free-market fundamentalism; blind faith in the American Dream; and how racism hinders economic solidarity.
Jordan Cofer
- Published in print:
- 2020
- Published Online:
- May 2021
- ISBN:
- 9781496831798
- eISBN:
- 9781496831842
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- University Press of Mississippi
- DOI:
- 10.14325/mississippi/9781496831798.003.0007
- Subject:
- Literature, American, 20th Century Literature
In dialogue with Eric Bennett and Mark McGurl’s work on the Iowa Writers’ Workshop, as well as Tara Powell’s work on archetypes, Jordan Cofer uses new information from the Emory Archive and The ...
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In dialogue with Eric Bennett and Mark McGurl’s work on the Iowa Writers’ Workshop, as well as Tara Powell’s work on archetypes, Jordan Cofer uses new information from the Emory Archive and The Prayer Journal to contextualize one of O’Connor’s most famous comedic devices: the antagonistic intellectual. Cofer argues that although this device may have roots in southern fiction, O’Connor’s anti-intellectual trope derives from her time in the Iowa Writers’ Workshop. This chapter examines some of O’Connor’s juvenilia, the drafts of Wise Blood she was writing in Iowa (while simultaneously writing in her journal), and some of the short stories she wrote while enrolled at the Workshop. Finally, Cofer reconsiders the origins of O’Connor’s anti-intellectual as a potential outgrowth of her own anxieties during this time.Less
In dialogue with Eric Bennett and Mark McGurl’s work on the Iowa Writers’ Workshop, as well as Tara Powell’s work on archetypes, Jordan Cofer uses new information from the Emory Archive and The Prayer Journal to contextualize one of O’Connor’s most famous comedic devices: the antagonistic intellectual. Cofer argues that although this device may have roots in southern fiction, O’Connor’s anti-intellectual trope derives from her time in the Iowa Writers’ Workshop. This chapter examines some of O’Connor’s juvenilia, the drafts of Wise Blood she was writing in Iowa (while simultaneously writing in her journal), and some of the short stories she wrote while enrolled at the Workshop. Finally, Cofer reconsiders the origins of O’Connor’s anti-intellectual as a potential outgrowth of her own anxieties during this time.
