I think that the most dangerous idea in modern America today is this:<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Educated, intelligent, and successful people are unsuited to positions of political power and leadership.<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n This is a meme that could actually take us down, and I think that we need to meet it head on. I could care less about the \u201cdebate\u201d over evolution \u2013 except insofar as it affects school curricula. There is no debate, and we shouldn\u2019t dignify the fringe any more than we dignify flat-earthers and scientologists. With regard to gay marriage and open homosexuals serving in the military, I think that we\u2019re just waiting for (as Dr. King put it), \u201cthe past to die.\u201d The majority of the other big political arguments these days seem to be marketing and smokescreen to me. Nobody is actually arguing in favor of socialism anymore \u2013 so to staple that label on someone is simple schoolyard name calling.<\/p>\n\n\n\n This idea that we should preferentially select leaders who are proud and belligerent in their ignorance \u2013 this one is really dangerous.<\/p>\n\n\n\n This is the distilled and purified form of the \u201cjust another guy,\u201d \u201cone of us,\u201d and \u201clike to have a beer with \u2018im,\u201d genre. It\u2019s the idea that you should elect the good ole boy rather than the college grad. The PTA \/ Hockey mom rather than the lawyer. The dude in the pickup truck rather than the woman with a career of civil service. Oddly enough, this awful idea is being advanced by the party most likely to object strongly to any form of affirmative action over the past few decades.<\/p>\n\n\n\n These ideas are not all bad in their generic strengths. I do<\/strong> support charismatic national and local leaders. I think that if all else were truly equal \u2013 a leader who was unlikable and unpersuasive would be a poor choice. What I\u2019m talking about is the scorn of the football team for the national honor society. \u201cNEEEERDS,\u201d cry the Tea Party, \u201cDWEEEEEBS!\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n Is this really what it comes down to? Churchill said something to the effect that the biggest problem with Democracy is that you get who they pick.<\/p>\n\n\n\n A friend recently described the current political situation as one where, \u201cwe\u2019ve got a guy in the White House capable of more nuance than anyone in recent memory, and a political culture that can\u2019t deal with any nuance at all.\u201d Our current mode of political discourse does not encourage nuance. It\u2019s the sound bite rather than the thought. The thought rather than the argument. The argument rather than the philosophy.<\/p>\n\n\n\n I don\u2019t know what to do \u2013 but if the majority of voters decide to consistently vote against the smart people \u2013 I suspect that we\u2019ll make some seriously bone-headed moves in the next few years.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" I think that the most dangerous idea in modern America today is this: Educated, intelligent, and successful people are unsuited to positions of political power and leadership. This is a meme that could actually take us down, and I think that we need to meet…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1,60,45],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1738","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-blog","category-philosophy","category-politics-blog"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/dwan.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1738","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/dwan.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/dwan.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dwan.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dwan.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1738"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/dwan.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1738\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1739,"href":"https:\/\/dwan.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1738\/revisions\/1739"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/dwan.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1738"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dwan.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1738"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dwan.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1738"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}