[NewMusic] robots

[George Cremaschi]

> but presumably if people are "choosing" ignorance, they
> somehow value that ignorance or do not value intellectual curiosity (for
> lack of a better term). Where does that value system come from?

Well I guess we could go all the way back to the Puritans, who did highly value
education, but almost exclusively to be used in the service of religion.
Philosophical types tended to be persecuted as heretics. The rest was
neatly summed up by French historian Alexis de Tocqueville in his 
"Democracy in America" in 1835. From Wikipedia:

  More than just imploding any traces of old-world aristocracy, ordinary Americans also 
  refused to defer to those possessing, as Tocqueville put it, superior talent and intelligence. 
  These natural elites, who Tocqueville asserted were the lone virtuous members of American 
  society, could not enjoy much share in the political sphere as a result. Ordinary Americans 
  enjoyed too much power, claimed too great a voice in the public sphere, to defer to intellectual 
  superiors. This culture promoted a relatively pronounced equality, Tocqueville argued, but the 
  same mores and opinions that ensured such equality also promoted, as he put it, a middling 
  mediocrity. Those who possessed true virtue and talent would be left with limited choices, choices 
  which many have suggested shed light on American society today. Those with the most education 
  and intelligence would either, Tocqueville prognosticated, join limited intellectual circles to explore 
  the weighty and complex problems facing society which have today become the academic or 
  contemplative realms, or use their superior talents to take advantage of America's growing 
  obsession with money-making and amass vast fortunes in the private sector.

Brilliant, and right on the money, still. 

-George



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