When I wrote the comment to which Dr. O'Malley replied I didn't realise that
words like "slacker," "idiot," "fool," "birdbrain" were used primarily by
intellectuals. Certainly on a research vessel you are much more likely to
hear the boatswain call a crew member a slacker or an idiot than you are to
hear one of the scientists use these terms. And when a scientist does call
someone an idiot, it is most likely to be another scientist!
I don't think that we are returning to a medieval mindframe or that the
schism is growing. It has been there all along. The attitudes her children
are encountering today are no worse than what I encountered in the 1940s (as
for a falling out over religion, I quite literally fell out of a tree on
Easter Sunday when I was pushed by classmates who were angry at a Jewish kid
who didn't believe that the dead could rise again).
The follies that we are exchanging postings about are not the cause of our
problems, they are symptoms of a deep-seated inability to deal with the
reality of the world we live in. The sinking of the Titanic should have been
a huge message to mankind that we cannot flout the laws of nature, but
despite this and many further lessons we refuse to learn -- when they made a
movie about the Titanic, they missed the message entirely and turned it into
a cheap love story. People just don't want to believe that they cannot do
the impossible.
Just look at the economic issues in the current campaign. Voters want
mortgage relief. They want the coming recession warded off by huge
government bail-outs. They want health care. They want jobs even though the
markets are crashing. But they don't want to pay taxes, and both candidates
are unwilling to say how they will pay for everything they plan to do. This
refusal to face reality is a basic aspect of human culture, and it goes much
deeper than just a shortage of genetics courses.
Bill Silvert
----- Original Message -----
From: "Dr. Rachel O'Malley" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
To: <ECOLOG-L@LISTSERV.UMD.EDU>
Sent: Tuesday, October 28, 2008 9:14 PM
Subject: Re: [ECOLOG-L] EDUCATION Solution and Problem Re: [ECOLOG-L]
Acceptance of basic research, even with fruit flies]
Anti-intellectualism and name calling are a problem all around
(unfortunately, we are also to blame: negative words like "slacker,"
"idiot," "fool," "birdbrain" come easily to my mind...).
My 8th-grader came home yesterday saying:
"I think it would be better if the school didn't post lists of who is on
the honor roll. Other people are jealous and make fun of them, and say
things like 'they are abnormally smart,' so kids who want to be liked stop
trying to do well." (At least for now she says that kind of thing doesn't
bother _her_...)
My 3rd grader had a falling-out with two classmates because she told them
she didn't believe in god, and they took great offense.
This is in Santa Cruz, CA, not the heartland.
We are at some risk of returning to the medieval mindframe. The schism
has grown between the educated and the undereducated, the wealthy and the
struggling, the elite and the many, of late.
We can take some solace in the possibility that the current presidential
race may shift the popular current toward support for education and social
justice, but we all have to work really hard in the next 7 days. The
bigger the win, the better for us all.
-------- Original Message --------
Subject: Re: [ECOLOG-L] EDUCATION Solution and Problem Re: [ECOLOG-L]
Acceptance of basic research, even with fruit flies
Date: Tue, 28 Oct 2008 19:39:48 -0000
From: William Silvert <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
The Joe I referred to was Joe six-pack the plumber who seems to be the
main voter in the current US election. I do not think that
anti-intellectual
snobbery is mainly or even largely due to intellectual elitism. Almost all
the scientists and academics I know are either passive with regard to the
general public or are actively interested in getting their message across.
Just look at language. There are tons of words that imply negative
attitudes or downright hostility towards intellectuals, but I have trouble
thinking of any in the opposite direction. Egghead, smart-ass, longhair,
etc. Aside from condescending references to "elevator music" I think that
most of the people I know are simply ready to say "I don't like
hip-hop/country/R&B" rather than putting it down.
Anti-intellectualism is a basic part of our culture, and many others as
well. Totalitarian regimes usually kill off or imprison the academics,
students and and anyone else capable of thinking critically. It is much
more fundamental than simply rejection of snotty professors.
Unfortunately trying to reach out to and communicate with the general
public often backfires. Telling people that we study genetics with fruit
flies is an example. Can you imagine Palin geting a laugh out of telling
people that funding was going to something called Drosophila?
Bill Silvert
----- Original Message -----
From: "Wayne" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
To: "William Silvert" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>; <ECOLOG-L@LISTSERV.UMD.EDU>
Sent: Tuesday, October 28, 2008 7:14 PM
Subject: EDUCATION Solution and Problem Re: [ECOLOG-L] Acceptance of basic
research, even with fruit flies
I admit an imperfect knowledge, and one perhaps somewhat biased by USA
provincialism, but it seems that part of this phenomenon must be laid to
the researchers themselves, and to a great extent to the academic
community at large. I do not suggest that any given professor can
single-handedly create more than a ripple where a tsunami is required, but
then we can't cast them all, innocent and guilty, into the sea
simultaenously, eh?
But seriously, folks, how hard a look has been given at the complex of
phenomena which have given rise to, shall we say, "anti-intellectualism?"
Let's face it, academia is a GUILD. It is, by definition, an ELITE group.
And the more it hardens the line between itself and the outsiders, the
more the outsiders harden their side of the line. "Joe," in this case, is
a thinly-veiled insult to those outsiders. Academics should, then, expect
support?
WT
----- Original Message -----
From: "William Silvert" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
To: <ECOLOG-L@LISTSERV.UMD.EDU>
Sent: Monday, October 27, 2008 8:22 AM
Subject: [ECOLOG-L] Acceptance of basic research, even with fruit flies
It isn't just the public Joes that pose a problem. Governments too tend
to dump basic research when funding gets tight, failing to realise that
this is the resource on which all our scientific advances are based. The
past few decades have seen drastic cuts in research funding around the
globe, with only the most obvious applied projects being funded.
