They're With Stupid

prospect.org — At a time when no one can seem to figure out how to fix the economy, it's easy to conclude that there's not much point in being smart. As Ronald Reagan used to say, complex problems may not have easy answers, but they do have simple answers. You don't need book learning to find them; you just need the right beliefs. This is hardly a new story. In his classic 1963 book Anti-Intellectualism In American Life, Richard Hofstadter argued that the American tradition of scorn for the intellect predated the Revolution and had three roots: religion, particularly the more enthusiastic forms of Protestantism; business, with its focus on practicality; and populism. It sounds a lot like the sources of Republican political success in contemporary America.

more »