Someone has to stand up to the ignorant

Yesterday, Don McLeroy lost his re-election bid for the Texas State Board of Education. This was in the Republican primary - well, it is Texas, after all - and apparently even Republicans, even Texas Republicans, get tired of being a laughing-stock to the rest of the country.

Of course, this doesn't mean that sanity has suddenly struck down there. Many of the other board members are nearly as bad. But McLeroy is the right-wing lunatic who famously stated that "someone has to stand up to the experts," as he was busy trying to turn Texas schools - and our own - back to the Dark Ages.

Admittedly, this has its humorous side, since McLeroy is a dentist. Would he agree then that, when it comes to dental problems, we should listen to Joe Bob, our uneducated slob of a neighbor, rather than going to one of those elitist dentists? Unfortunately, this has its tragic side, too, since Texas is a huge market for textbooks, a market than no publisher can afford to ignore, so what these ignorant, superstitious bumpkins decide is likely to damage education throughout America.

But this anti-elitism sentiment is not McLeroy's alone. This faux populism, this feeling that "my ignorance is better than your knowledge, you egghead," seems to be a growing movement in America. Maybe, to some extent, it's an inevitable consequence of democracy. Since we each get an equal say in elections, that probably translates to "my opinion is as good as your opinion," which is a very egalitarian point of view. There's nothing particularly wrong about that, in most circumstances.

But it does not mean that I know as much, about their particular specialty, as scientists who are highly-educated professionals in that specialty. Obviously, people wouldn't spend years going through dental school if it didn't make any difference, right, Don?  Likewise, biologists know more than laymen about biology, climatologists know more than laymen about climate science, etc.  How could it be otherwise?

I say "scientists," because this is particularly the case with professionals trained in the scientific method. But it applies to other fields, too. In general, historians are going to know more about history - at least in their specialties - than us laymen, lawyers are going to know more about the law, and plumbers are going to know more about plumbing. It's a good thing to be well-educated and highly trained. Except, perhaps, on Fox News.

In the Glenn Beck, Sarah Palin, fundamentalist and tea-bagger world of the far right - which increasingly dominates the entire Republican Party - education is suspect and knowledge is considered elitist. Barack Obama, a product of a biracial marriage (in 1961, no less!) and a broken home, raised by his mother and his grandparents in very modest circumstances, is considered elitist because he got a good education (working hard and taking advantage of scholarship opportunities) in some great American universities. Yeah, that's certainly not the American dream, is it?

In the past, his determination, intelligence, and hard work would have been considered a good thing (well, maybe not in a black man). The fact that he's a constitutional scholar, a real expert, would have been a benefit for high public office. But no, these days intelligence is suspect. If you're intelligent, if you're well-educated, that just shows that you're "not one of us" (which the color of his skin just emphasizes to these people). We real people have to stand up to those smarty-pants experts with their fancy diplomas and clear-headed thinking, right?

The funny thing is that a guy born into wealth and privilege, whose powerful family connections kept him out of a war they all supported, and who got into an elite college because of who his father was,... well, he was just an average Joe, right? I mean, it was clear that he didn't know any more than the rest of us, and we certainly don't want anyone elite in the White House!

For some reason, an aristocracy of birth, of wealth and political power, is just fine. George W. Bush and Paris Hilton are the ideals, these days. But you can't trust people who are, you know, smart. And well-educated. We certainly don't want to listen to intelligent, skilled professionals, do we? People who actually know what they're talking about are elitists. We can't have that. We Marching Morons must stand up to the experts!

I don't understand any of this. Have we become so cowardly as a people that we're just giving up on trying to be the best? We used to have the best educational system in the world, bar none. Now, all too many of us don't respect education at all. We don't respect knowledge. We don't respect expertise. "My ignorance is just as good as your knowledge." But it isn't, that's the thing. Ignorance is never as good as knowledge, not even close.