The stupidity in our scholars, like stupidity and arrogance everywhere, follows a model. The model presented here was developed by Anticommerical University Professor William Mason. It applies in general to stupidity at any level of intensity. It has 5 stages.1. Mimetic ArroganceOne party identifies themselves as an authority on a subject and other parties imitate that arrogance.
Examples of things scholars and professors are arrogant about: science, literature, art, sociology, psychology, philosophy. Whatever the culture tells us is a difficult subject, that's what scholars decide is worth being arrogant about.2. Mimetic Use of the Word MimeticNow the parties begin competing for the object of arrogance: jargon. Whatever big, fancy words emerge, others copy them. Since they all use the same words in different ways, any hope of finding concrete definitions of them vanishes. To win, you only need to get more exclusivity of words such as 'exclusivity.' If the word becomes ubiquitous, then you make up even more complex words that have simple meanings, such as 'ubiquitous.' If this doesn't work, then you must resort to using neojargon or pseudojargon or neopseudojargon or neopseudoneojargon.
Examples of these forms of jargon are the prefixes 'neo' and 'pseudo.'3. GraikosGraikos is a Greek word that means "Greek." It's the root of much stupidity found in scholarly discursions. In the rivalry for respect, if one side finds an inferior usage of jargon, they are caught in the temptation of Graikos and feel compelled to retaliate by literally speaking a whole new language. Thus begins a "jargon" war, fought on the battlefield of the dictionary.
Graikos is what makes it so hard to read their professional journals, so hard to feel like you have any grasp whatsoever on vocabulary. It's so easy to feel intellectually inferior to such unjustified usage of language. The gap between scholar and layman escalates.4. IntimidationEventually one side crosses some arbitrary threshold of concern where the supervising authorities feel compelled to intervene. It's essentially random which side is considered the "supervising authority" since they both consider the other as worthless scum, but often it's the faction with more college degrees, which uses more venomous attacks to maintain parity. Whichever side is considered the "supervising authority" becomes the intimidator of the layman and the others who kept their ego below threshold are victims, doomed to low self-esteem and feelings of worthlessness.5.
Authorized, Sanctioned and Sacred StupidityTo appease the scholars, the authorities determine guilt and visit sanctions and punishment on the intimidated.
In the book Du Bois creates two very famous terms in academia. The terms he created are “double consciousness” and “the Veil". “Double consciousness" is a belief that Afric...
In “Hidden Intellectualism,” Gerald Graff pens an impressive argument wrought from personal experience, wisdom and heart. In his essay, Graff argues that street smarts have intellectual potential. A simple gem of wisdom, yet one that remains hidden beneath a sea of academic tradition. However, Graff navigates the reader through this ponderous sea with near perfection.
Malesic, Johnathan. “How Dumb Do They Think We Are?” Writing from Sources Ed. Brenda Spatt. 8th ed. Boston: Bedford/St. Martin’s, 2011. 85-87. Print.
Totalitarian rulers often control the thoughts and beliefs of people as well. The citizens of the community are forbidden to question or explore things that are unknown to other citizens. By doing this, the government emphasizes that they know everything and have ...
“There is a fine line between genius and insanity. I have erased this line” (“Oscar Levant Quotes”).
William Lutz in “the world of doublespeak” states that jargon is the specialized language of a trade, profession, or similar group, such as that used by doctors, lawyers, engineers, or educators” (391). Also to someone not associated with a specific group and their language jargon will not make sense. It is often used by individuals who wish to sound more intelligent or important. As mentioned in “the world of doublespeak” by Lutz that “jargon as doublespeak often makes the simple sound complex” (391). For example, when the news says intruders instead of bad people or execution instead of killing or when lawyers use the term “involuntary conversion” of property when discussing the loss or destruction of property that is considered using jargon. Lutz finds mainly doctors, lawyers and high educators that are responsible for the spread of jargon
The word intellectual used thus far does not absolve us, common people, from this dilemma and does not allow us to be devoted to the belief that we do not have any influence on the course of history.
I firmly agree with many points that Kinsley brings up in this article. Many times, people with speak strongly on topics in which they are not properly informed. Other people tend to follow these misinformed ideas and then the actually facts are harder to be discovered. This seems to be a huge issue in today’s society. There are so many controversial topics dealing with politics, science, religion and more. It is extremely important that we are properly educated on these topics so we can have a solid base to build our opinions
Spinoza, Benedictus De, Samuel Shirley, and Seymour Feldman. The Ethics ; Treatise on the Emendation of the Intellect ; Selected Letters. Indianapolis: Hackett Pub., 1992. Print.
American culture has evolved, and Society tends to ostracize people for their intelligence, and our culture has been giving these intellectuals derogatory names like nerd and geek. Leonid Fridman believes that these anti- intellectual values that pervade our society must be fought and should stop for the sake of America. The author supports this position in the passage “America Needs It’s Nerds” through the use of rhetoric by giving definitions of terms such as geek, offering comparisons through juxtaposition, adding a tone shift, and posing rhetorical questions to the reader.
This kind of social issue is more evident when episodes with violence are trending topics. For example, during and after the September 11th’s attack in New York, many Arabs, Muslims, and South Asians, were subject to revisions and detentions because authorities had no clue about how those mentioned attacks were perpetrated and who did them. It was not just a matter concerning authorities, society in general condemned hardly to the entire eastern community, even though many of that people stopped, detained, and questioned, did not have any linkage with this terrorist event.
Graff takes a logical approach to defending his opinion on the age old battle of “street smarts versus book smarts” in the article “Hidden Intellectualism”. Through several historical and personal examples, he strongly delivers an argument that schools have been discounting students who may not think academically. In reality the students who can relate articles from sources like Vouge and Sports Illustrated to life may be the ones who will truly be successful. Throughout his writing, he uses many devices to sway the audience’s opinions in the direction of his. Through Graff’s rhetorical writing strategies, he opens reader’s eyes to the fact that any subject can be intellectual when observed “through academic eyes”.
Human intelligence is an eel-like subject: slippery, difficult to grasp, and almost impossible to get straight [3]. Many scientist and psychologist have made numerous attempts to come up with an explanation for the development of human intelligence. For many years, there has been much controversy over what intelligence is and whether it is hereditary or nurtured by the environment. Webster's dictionary defines intelligence as "the ability to acquire and apply knowledge; which includes a sensing an environment and reaching conclusions about the state of that environment [7]. In this paper I am going to examine the factors, which make up ones intelligence. I will be investigating whether or not intelligence is fostered by genetic heritance or nurtured by ones environment.
Human beings are clever creatures. This is proven in everyday life, but they also have a horrible side. People aren’t necessarily evil by choice, but rather are, whether they want to be or not. Certain traits can cause this change in other people. Without these traits, humans wouldn’t be as bad as they are now, but because these traits do exist, humans behave without truly thinking of the long-term effects, or of the affect they have on other people’s lives.
Moreover, Fairclough has highlighted the fact that language is highly manipulative in nature as it is used as an agent of hegemony. By hegemony, the sub-ordinate class is made to think that the dominant group has all the rights to rule over them and to deal them as per their choice and interests. Such mindset is shaped by using several ideological means. Gramsci (1996) opines that the ruling