Ignorance is Bliss: The Cost of Anti-Intellectualism in America

I was around 13 years of age when I first read “Fahrenheit 451” by Ray Bradbury. Being that I did not understand the point to Bradbury’s story at that age, I just viewed it as another book I had to read for AR points. Around eight years later, I am considering reading it all over again. I am considering it not because it is a wonderful story (which it is), but because of how many similarities I can trace between a society in which books are banned and intellectualism is frowned upon, and the society in which parents raise the future presidents, doctors, and lawyers of America.
I awoke this morning to a story on my news feed which discussed Presidential candidate Ben Carson’s opinion on the topic of evolution. Carson referred to human and biological evolution as a “fairy tale,” and questioned its validity, asking, “how does something come out of nothing.”
As a person who has taken only a few science classes in his collegiate career, I have only a limited amount of knowledge pertaining to the concept of evolution. However, there is one thing I know very well without question: evolution is a real thing. While I was sitting at my desk, reading these quotes, I became intrigued…
I noticed that several individuals (some of whom were my peers) were quite perturbed at the level of ignorance displayed by a licensed brain surgeon. Comments ranging from, “he can’t be serious! Everyone knows evolution is a thing,” to “he needs his surgical license revoked, stat! I would never want someone like that operating on me.” I realized that I did not find myself so appalled at Carson’s declaration, as I was intrigued that he would stoop to such a level of blatant intellectual dishonesty.
Then, it hit me: Carson was not making these comments as a confident declaration of his own beliefs, but as a rallying cry for those who held the positions he was claiming for himself as legitimate and logically sound.
He was doing it for fundamentalist Christians.
Before I move further, I want to take the time to acknowledge the reality that not all Christians are what I would refer to as anti-science. My Christian friends are very intelligent, and I honestly do not think that there is a link between “mainstream” Christianity and the vehement disdain for science that is so prevalent in the States.
The problem that continues to become more and more common is that fundamentalist Christianity and its adherents are not concerned with reconciling science with religion. The reason this is so seems to be found when examining the differences between the sometimes overwhelmingly difficult nature of different disciplines of science, such as Biology, Chemistry, and Physics, and the over-simplified and much more tangible answers produced by fundamentalist religion and its dogma.
Ben Carson may be a lot of things, but to be someone who graduated with a Bachelor’s in Psychology from Yale, he’s far from stupid. In doing what he did, Carson allowed himself to gain notoriety and popularity that would overshadow his future political opponents in the 2016 Republican Primary. From my vantage point, this was Carson’s goal. It may not seem as obvious to others, but this was obviously a political move. The problem I have is that it actually worked. Why did it work? Anti-intellectualism, that’s why.
Let’s face it: Biological Anthropology and the concept of Evolution can be quite tricky; for some, even too tricky. Evolution can be so tricky that people become frustrated when trying to comprehend it, and simply give up.
Enter: Creationism.
Carson knows that there are these people who, because of their lack of proper post-secondary scientific education, can not adequately grasp these difficult concepts. This, of course, is through no fault of their own; it’s simply because of socioeconomic factors that play into the formation of their beliefs (i.e. level of parental education, annual income, their upbringing relative to their birthplace, their own education or lack thereof, etc.) that these misconceptions exist.
Nevertheless, Carson is eager and happy to dumb down his intellect; not because he believes what comes out of his mouth, but because he knows that votes will appear out of think air for his hard work. It alarms me that he can actually get away with that degree of intellectual dishonesty, but I can look past it and see it for what it really is: an ingenious strategy.
“Fahrenheit 51” gave a very interesting anecdotal example of the dangers of what Bradbury recognized as societal issues concerning the lack of critical and independent thinking, all the way back in the year 1953, when it was first published. I often question myself as to whether or not that Bradbury would be disheartened when faced with present-day issues that we face regarding the anti-intellectual nature of American society, specifically American politics. If there were a real-life Guy Montag in the year 2015, I fear that he would be viewed as a cult of personality, as he might think outside the box a little bit too much for both Republicans and Democrats. To be honest, I think that is what we really need more than anything.