Examples Of Anti-Intellectualism In America

In his passage about anti-intellectualism in America, Leonid Fridman assesses that the suppression of intellectuals is liable to keep the country from advancing beyond its constrictions of science, technology and education. Fridman intends to persuade the audience to re-evaluate their view of intellectuals, as well as express his distaste for the plethora of social stigma surrounding said intellectuals, by providing examples of anti-intellectualism in American language, in American education, and with comparisons to other societies. Fridman expands on many examples of anti-intellectualism in our society throughout his passage in order to showcase the stigma. One particular instance of his many examples that seemed notably important was how, in the Webster’s New World English Dictionary, it says that the definition of geek is a “Street performer who shocks the public by biting off the heads of live chickens”. With this example, Fridman illustrates the level on which we suppress intellectuals. In Fridman’s words “it is a telling fact about our language and our culture” that we connotate the word geek with intellectualism. This exposition
The first and quite possibly most important example of this is within Ivy League education institutions. Fridman states that, even at Harvard, anti-intellectualism is “rampant”. The reason Harvard’s problem stands out as a prime example more than other institutions is because of its historical intellectual prestige. To close his paragraph, Fridman states “Nerds are ostracized while athletes are idolized.” This statement is significant in the fact that it puts the issue into perspective on a scale that most people, if they thought about it, would realize how deeply entrenched it is, beyond Harvard, into American society and media. It also functions to foreshadow many points made throughout the rest of the