Understanding the "anti-intellectual" behavior of the West

When you see the title, your first impression may be that Sanyuan is going to start attacking imperialism. Obviously not. Sanyuan will analyze the actual logic behind this and let everyone judge for themselves the fundamental nature of this "anti-intellectualism".

It is generally believed in society that the definition of "wisdom" is wisdom, which is the crystallization of human knowledge system and embodies perfect human civilization. "Anti-intellectual" means being anti-intellectual and doing things that go against the good development of society. Recently, the most obvious thing that people in China have noticed is that people in the West have criticized Gates and Hinkie, are disgusted with wearing masks, destroyed base stations, wandered around during the epidemic, etc. If Sanyuan takes the United States as an example, you will find that this is just a law of social development and a universal phenomenon.

When it comes to wisdom, education is inseparable. Compared with the well-known Chinese education system, the United States appears fragmented. Someone on the Internet compared the United States to an apartment building, with Mr. Chuan as the apartment manager and the states in the United States as residents. Everyone is doing their own thing, I'm doing my thing, you can't control it, and I'm too lazy to care about you. As soon as something goes wrong, he starts scolding the administrator. Then they will continue to do their own thing, continue to scold the administrator, and the administrator will continue to shirk responsibility.

The education system in the United States is diversified and there is no unified management, unlike China, which unifies the high school entrance examination and college entrance examination every year. Public and private schools in every state in the United States have great autonomy. Subjects and textbooks are all written by themselves. The SAT test (equivalent to the National College Entrance Examination) is also non-mandatory. Each state can choose whether to take the test or not (they are not very familiar with it). Want to take the exam).

You may ask, doesn’t the United States have a Department of Education? What is it used for? The primary function of the U.S. Department of Education is to allocate funds to public schools. (Knock on the blackboard, I will take the test later) So there are all kinds of education in the United States, including quality education, and of course exam-oriented education. In states where the SAT is taken, there are a lot of SAT test training classes, and of course the schools will also train students to do a lot of questions. .

As for universities, there are not only famous schools like the Ivy League, but also various community colleges and pheasant universities. Many schools run by conservative churches are much more brainwashed than schools in China. Although American law prohibits states from using any religious creed as the basis of education, in conservative states, if you teach students evolution, they are likely to find Less than a teacher's job.

You may not feel anything after seeing this. Apart from each state doing its own education, isn’t the rest also quite scientific? Why is there such "anti-intellectual" behavior? Here comes the most critical point. Although the situation in the United States varies from state to state, overall, the United States is dominated by 20-year-old elites leading 80-year-old pigs.

The main reason for "anti-intellectualism" in the United States is: the isolation of social classes. The concept of social class is familiar to everyone in neighboring India. Although the government has legally abolished the caste system, this is already a deeply rooted concept that cannot be determined by a piece of paper. The same is true for the United States. At this stage of development, it has begun to enter a downward space. Xinhua is less than 100 years old and is on the rise. One additional point here is that from the perspective of history, the development cycle of any country is 200-300 years. At this point in time, it is obvious when you look at the contrast between the West and China. This will also lead to the world economic structure eventually becoming a tripartite confrontation between Europe, the United States and China, rather than the current hegemony of the US dollar.

American classes are mainly divided into three classes: elite class, middle class, and lower class. There are no such people in China today on the Internet who dare to say anything and know only a little about everything (Three Yuan, hahaha), but there are no such people in the United States. In the United States, there is a ruling (elite) class, and these guys receive an elite education that is high, deep, and broad, and is a perfect reflection of human civilization. The next middle class is proficient in professional knowledge, but has little understanding of other areas that are not their major. There is also the lower class of society, which is basically isolated from mainstream society, has basically no professional knowledge, has a narrow vision, and has a low cultural level. People of this class are the complete embodiment of anti-intellectualism.

The three classes are clearly stratified, and it is almost impossible to transcend each class. Do you think that only a handful of celebrities and athletes can change class in the United States every year? And these ways are the easiest ways to change your destiny.

Just like in Japan, it is the dream of many people to marry into one of the four major families, and this is also true. Once the class is finalized, if you want to transcend the class, you only have a success rate of 1 (which seems to be too much). This situation is the same in China.

Going back to the core education we are talking about, the elites have been living in an arranged environment since childhood. Even if they have average IQs (such as a certain CEO in the United States now), they have been surrounded by elites since they were young. People will inherit the family property in the future. Oh, by the way, they don’t have to take college entrance exams. They just need to make a donation to whichever university they want to attend. So you will find that many generations of families come from the same university. When elite children grow up, they help each other (make money): you help me, I help you, and together we kill the lower class people around the world.

The middle class is quite miserable, which is very similar to the current situation in China. Once again, it shows that the progress of time is just a constant repetition of social logic. They got into college through their own efforts, but they have no money, no one, and no resources. What should they do? Go work, the success rate of starting a business is infinitely close to 0 after all. Therefore, they will be very professional in their own fields, but in order to survive, they have no energy to study further and develop further. That is to say, they lack all-round knowledge reserves. People in the elite circle can only accept whatever they say. As long as they survive, they will be fine.

Needless to say too much about the lower class. Even survival is a problem, so why talk about education? To make matters worse, the West pursues social Darwinism, not China’s universal salvation of all sentient beings. As long as it doesn't infringe on the interests of those 20 elites, anything can be done. No one cares about such people. The elites believe that they are the ones who end up like this because of their own incompetence. This is society's choice.

Many Chinese parents are still unclear about the American education system and hastily sent their children to American schools. As a result, they found that their children tended to be assimilated, so they quickly sent them back to their country for exam-oriented education, and then Go to a prestigious American university. At this point, I have to explain the current situation of the American education system.

The knowledge points that Sanyuan just knocked on the blackboard to let everyone remember are now used. The role of the U.S. Department of Education is limited to allocating funds to public universities, and the key point is public universities. Because the United States does not pay attention to public universities, the ruling class is the elite class, who cares about other classes, just don't cause trouble and do things. Therefore, the quality of teachers in public universities in the United States is relatively poor because teachers are not well paid, and the best salaries are in private schools. And private schools are for the little elites. The vast majority of American children can only study in public schools. What should they study? You can study whatever you want, as long as you don't get into trouble. Test scores don't matter, the main thing is to be happy. Of course, this is also the point where domestic children envy foreign children, thinking that they can let themselves go and choose according to their own interests and hobbies. But those little elites are receiving "inhumane" learning. The little elites are also very hardworking because they know the truth about the world.

Now everyone knows why "anti-intellectual" behavior is so common in the West. Looking at China, why not? I am very fortunate that the learning environment created by the Chinese government for the people has basically ensured that everyone has access to books. Even though the employment opportunities for college students are extremely saturated now, enrollment is still expanding, because if enrollment is not expanded, it will be the same as in the West.

But this cannot fundamentally change the class issue. Here is a question for you to consider carefully: How successful are the vast majority of people from poor backgrounds who have been admitted to Tsinghua University and Peking University?

- END -

Ms. Sanyuan

Stay series, explore hotels with Sanyuan

Travel series, travel elegantly with Sanyuan

Talk series, listen to Sanyuan talk about the world