A ship's
crew which does not understand that the art of navigation demands knowledge of
the stars will stigmatize a properly qualified pilot as a star-gazing idiot,
and will prevent him from navigating. These words written circa 380 BC by Plato
in The Republic are singularly
relevant to our society today.
Plato’s
words ring true because we now live in a society where critical, thoughtful
intellectual engagement is frowned upon as distractive, idle theory. Public
discourse and policy decisions and even action is often unbridled by sound
knowledge or evidence.
Anti-reason
stretches from the pubs to pop culture and to the pseudo intellectual universe
of university lecture theatres. The dominant cultural momentum in our society
is at odds with reason and evidence. Moreover, the bewildering materialist
culture of a neo-liberal economy gone awry has made everything intangible and
beautiful, such as knowledge and intellectualism, unworthy. Just show me the money.
Contempt
for thought evidence and reflection defines the ubiquitous lassitude buttressed
by clumsy broadcast and print journalism, mediocre exam-centric public
education, which has bred an inexhaustible reservoir of a slothful and ignorant
public, and most of all, a dearth incisive of public intellectuals.
The
dearth of public intellectuals is exemplified by fact that ours is a society
where issues of great moment are framed and led by a bellicose political class.
Our so-called intellectual class, the kind that inhabits digital and print
media lives not by prodding but by pandering or placating political or ethnic
interests.
In the
words of Plato these mercenary intellectuals trick themselves out as
philosophers. I use the word intellectual to mean someone who lives for ideas,
which suggests that he or she is dedicated to the life of the mind. Few
academics and almost no politician in our country today could qualify as
intellectuals by this construction.
The
surge of unreason is at odds not only with rationalism but also with what I
think are the fundamental tenets of liberty. The flight from reason and
fact-based action is capable of inflicting vastly greater damage to freedom and
democracy, the essential foundations upon which to build equitable and sustainable
economic growth.
The 2017
campaigns will most likely be dominated by tyranny of unreason, characterized
by single-minded men and women of parochial persuasion, who peddle innuendo and
prey on the ignorance of our fellow citizens. In a letter to Colonel Charles Yancey in January 1816, Thomas
Jefferson wrote, “ If a nation expects to be ignorant and free, in a state of
civilization, it expects what never was and what will never be”.
There
has never been a more critical moment for us to harness, in addition to other
tools, our collective intellectual resources to confront the reality of our
most urgent challenges, including deep and worsening ethnic division, a
ponderous constitution, unbridled corruption and moral decadence, poverty and
rising inequality, mediocre public education and deterioration of state
capability. Disdain for reason and critical thought comes at a colossal
cost. And posterity will judge us
harshly.
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