Reply #33: I absolutely agree that an expensive education [View All]

doesn't make one right, but at the same time there is nothing inherently ennobling about blue collar labor either (which is the other great myth.)

I've worked both ends of the great divide- factory labor and academia and I met a hell of a lot more Pat Buchanan supporters in the factories and retail jobs. People tend to romanticize that kind of labor as part of a generalized anti-intellectual trend when in fact many people work in factories because they dropped out of high school and hate reading and thinking and resent anyone who doesn't.

At least in academia you have some responsibility for backing up your opinions. You are trained to look for, listen to, and consider many possible answers, know how to research and verify sources, and have better reading comprehension. (I taught comp for years and have seen what passes for reading comprehension among 18 year old college freshman- it scares the shit out of me to think what passes for it among the majority of the non-college educated.)

Is academia the only way to learn these things? Absolutely not. But I think the values and "rules" of academic discourse are crucial to any serious discussion of issues and I admit that I have difficulty taking seriously someone who won't play by them. I will listen to them, of course, but am I really supposed to be persuaded by "Well that's my opinion and it's a valuable as yours" nevermind how much evidence is presented to show that person A's opinion is ignorant?

I am not an elitist- I don't believe that certain types of people are inherently better than certain other types of people. I do believe, however, that certain types of arguments are inherently better than others and I get a bit annoyed at being accused of being an elitist because of it.

/end rant/