Andrew (paraphrasing Thomas Frank): "...[journalists have] become the professional class, the adults in the room. They know that they’re the smart ones, the ones with the college degrees..."
I just wonder about that. Make no mistake, universities still habour genuine scholars who belong in academic environments and write wonderfully per…
Andrew (paraphrasing Thomas Frank): "...[journalists have] become the professional class, the adults in the room. They know that they’re the smart ones, the ones with the college degrees..."
I just wonder about that. Make no mistake, universities still habour genuine scholars who belong in academic environments and write wonderfully perceptive, painstakingly researched books worth reading. But by far the larger number of Americans (including, one would suppose, those who end up as journalists) emerge from their prohibitively expensive university experience no wiser or more 'adult' than before, and no better informed in most areas than readers of Wikipedia; and all too often they're full of resentment for those who haven't come by their ignorance the hard way. The motivation of graduates in a position to seize bully pulpits and tell others what to think and do may owe more to credentialism, and an aggrieved sense of what their entitlements ought to be, than to any real confidence in their intellectual gifts or competence.
The bona fide competence of plumbers and other tradesmen tends to unnerve these not-quite elite 'professionals,' and the truly smart among them realize their caricatures of the denizens of Montana and other 'flyover' states are cardboard cut-out stereotypes. Yet to the extent such stereotypes help fortify pretensions and perpetuate class divides that narrative spinners are desperate to believe they're on the right side of, they cynically, diligently reaffirm and patrol the borders.
Andrew (paraphrasing Thomas Frank): "...[journalists have] become the professional class, the adults in the room. They know that they’re the smart ones, the ones with the college degrees..."
I just wonder about that. Make no mistake, universities still habour genuine scholars who belong in academic environments and write wonderfully perceptive, painstakingly researched books worth reading. But by far the larger number of Americans (including, one would suppose, those who end up as journalists) emerge from their prohibitively expensive university experience no wiser or more 'adult' than before, and no better informed in most areas than readers of Wikipedia; and all too often they're full of resentment for those who haven't come by their ignorance the hard way. The motivation of graduates in a position to seize bully pulpits and tell others what to think and do may owe more to credentialism, and an aggrieved sense of what their entitlements ought to be, than to any real confidence in their intellectual gifts or competence.
The bona fide competence of plumbers and other tradesmen tends to unnerve these not-quite elite 'professionals,' and the truly smart among them realize their caricatures of the denizens of Montana and other 'flyover' states are cardboard cut-out stereotypes. Yet to the extent such stereotypes help fortify pretensions and perpetuate class divides that narrative spinners are desperate to believe they're on the right side of, they cynically, diligently reaffirm and patrol the borders.