Category Archives: Intellectualism

Conservative Cretinism

Conservatism, Intellectualism, Intelligence, Media, Republicans

There’s a reservoirs of piss-poor conservative commentary on the Internet. (People lap it up.) Trust Lawrence Auster to point out what few others do: “So much of the conservative part of the Web is unintelligent, incoherent partisan trash. Mondo Frazier’s article at Big Journalism about the Gore sex assault charge is an example. I saw it because it is listed in the ‘must-reads’ at Lucianne.com.”

Andrew Breitbart’s “Big this; big that,” ever-mutating websites exemplify what Auster terms “low-grade conservative media.”

Updated: ‘Don’t Ask Don’t Tell’ For Hets and Homos

Feminism, Gender, Homosexuality, Intellectualism, Military, Morality, Uncategorized

The excerpt is from my new WND.COM column, “‘Don’t Ask Don’t Tell’ For Hets and Homos”:

“Sodomy and oral sex: these will be the topics the nation’s military brass will be studying—not-too-closely, we hope—between now and December.

The priapic preoccupation of some very senior soldiers is part of a new Pentagon study aimed at reviewing the 17-year-old military legal code related to ‘don’t ask, don’t tell,’ including rules on buggery and related practices. …

The trouble with the military, however—besides its imperial reach and bloated size—is not gays. It is, rather, that the ranks these days are either rutting furiously, or supporting the right to rut, and now, scrutinizing the mating habits of grunts.

The military is soaked in sex. The presence of women has helped this state of affairs. Throw together young men and willing women — and you’ve created an undisciplined, sexually charged atmosphere. Coupled with enabling laws, this combustible admixture is bound to yield bumper crops of unmarried moms and (poor) baby bastards. ” …

Read “‘Don’t Ask Don’t Tell’ For Hets and Homos” for my answer to the facile DADT debate.

And do read my libertarian manifesto, Broad Sides: One Woman’s Clash With A Corrupt Society.

The Second Edition features bonus material. Get your copy (or copies) now!

Update (March 5): The Honorable Judge Reavis: As you well know, even though a classical liberal, I’m not really a “you types” kind of a thinker. So what does this classical liberal fear most?

An inversion of morality and rationality is what I fear and dread; a world where the bad, the banal, and the stupid are rewarded and lauded, sought and celebrated; a world where those with the gift of truth and reason are hounded and shunned; where men of (so-called) integrity huddle in atrophying intellectual attics enforcing party lines and other consensus, instead of being courageous. That world, in my experience, is upon us and has come to pass.

The afterlife? G-d ? I’m probably too shallow or practical or both to bother about those.

Update II: Writing In The Age Of The Idiot

Ancient History, Democracy, Education, Ilana Mercer, Intellectualism, Intelligence, Pop-Culture, Psychology & Pop-Psychology, The Zeitgeist

Excerpted from “Writing In The Age Of The Idiot,” this week’s WND.COM column:

“The reasons for addressing readers’ responses to last week’s column, “Paleoconservative Hypocrisy” [not my title], lie not in an exaggerated sense of self-importance, but in a sense of urgency. For some particularly jarring retorts (these have become ubiquitous over the years) are emblematic of the triumph of twiddle dumb and twiddle dumber in American culture and politics. And that’s a problem.

Super smart sorts still predominate in the few professional niches in which advanced skill and aptitude are necessary if bridges are to keep from falling, airplanes to remain airborne, and their human cargo pacified with electronic gadgets. Otherwise, an intellectual underclass has risen to dominate America in almost every field of endeavor.

Once upon-a-time simpletons sought self-improvement. No longer; in the Age of the Idiot they are groomed to be oblivious to their shortcomings—and will proceed loudly and aggressively against those who fail to mirror their mindset. … On encountering someone he might learn from, he unfurls an “untamed Id” and an inflated Ego in all their fury.

So it was that Ivan Poulter wrote to inform me that … although he meant no insult, he nevertheless needed to inform me that I ‘also appear as some kind of dumb-ass in [my] exaggerated intelligence.'”

Believe it or not, but one Founding Founders forewarned of the “Idiocracy,” although not quite in those words. More in the column “Writing In The Age Of The Idiot,” which can be read on the weekends on Taki’s too.

Update I (Oct. 9): George Pal’s comment hereunder about the association between democratic mass society and mass stupidity is an important one. I wanted to include this observation, plus a reference from a “dumb-ass with an exaggerated intelligence”—can’t recall if it was Hoppe or Huntington—but I dropped the idea. Too many ideas in one column might have caused a riot.

Update II: Regarding Clay Shirky (whoever he may be, posted by anon): the man belongs to the postmodern tradition—a “tradition” that has managed to almost completely dismantle one of the greatest achievements of Western Civilization: the intellectual discipline. (Hint: this is why you “study” so-called “social sciences” o “cultural studies” in secondary and tertiary schools and not history.)

“Intellectual disciplines were founded in ancient Greece and gained considerable impetus from the work of Aristotle who identified and organized a range of subjects into orderly bodies of learning. … The history of Western knowledge shows the decisive importance of the structuring of disciplines. This structuring allowed the West to benefit from two key innovations: the systematization of research methods, which produced an accretion of consistent findings; and the organization of effective teaching, which permitted a large and accumulating body of knowledge to be transmitted from one generation to the next.” (The Killing of History, Keith Windschuttle, Encounter, pp. 247-250)

The concept of the intellectual discipline is inseparable from Western canon and curriculum.

Update II: Dumb Down, You Uppity (Intelligent) Bitch!

Human Accomplishment, Ilana Mercer, Individualism Vs. Collectivism, Intellectualism, Intelligence, Israel, Paleoconservatism, The West, The Zeitgeist

No, “Dumb Down, You Uppity (Intelligent) Bitch!” is not the title of my new WND column, now on Taki’s, but a reaction to it. In the Age of the Idiot people take pride in their ignorance, and seek to shame and humiliate those who do not reflect their own impoverished state-of-being. On encountering someone they might learn from, they recoil, and out come the Id and the Ego all in one ball of fury.

Personally, on encountering my betters, I seek to learn from them. In fact, I actively seek out my intellectual betters. But not the average member of the Idiocracy. If the Little Woman makes him feel bad, he lashes out in an attempt to take her down a notch or two, and salvage his own ugly, aggressive emptiness.

I urge you: Rather than lash out at someone for using her gifts, at the very least examine yourself first: Ask yourself why you are behaving in such a transparent, disgraceful manner. Get onto yourself. And then work hard to submerge your demands for replicas of yourself.

The letter that prompted these thoughts arrived in response to the not-quite-new, originally titled “Paleos Must Defend the West…And That Means Israel Too.” A version of the essay was first published on VDARE.COM. Barely A Blog readers had discussed the topic extensively, so I did not post it again.

OVER TO IVAN The Terrible (and proud of it):

From: Ivan Poulter
Sent: Friday, October 02, 2009 12:40 AM
To: imercer@wnd.com
Subject: Re: Paleo….:Dumb Down

Ilana,

Compared to you, I’m a total ignoramus. I’d admit to lacking your intellectual quotient. Not meaning to be insulting, you also appear as some kind of dumb-ass in your exaggerated intelligence.

You’re far too clever for you own good. Or better still, you far, far exceed the ability of most you write to. I am constantly accused of being too intellectual, and in my ‘intellectualism’ speaking or writing way above people’s heads. However, Ilana, you take that award away from me, hands down. If you want to reach a few more people, for heaven’s sake, dumb yourself down a little. Then, even as I write that to you, I’ll attempt to remember my own advice. Except, I’m very dangerously down there, too close to the ranks of stupidity, sometimes. You certainly could afford to dumb down just a little, as least in your attempts to communicate to all of us. Unless, of course, you have a very limited target market. Then do as you please!

Ivan Poulter

[Ivan: cheer up, there is no chance of you being too intellectual. Absolutely none. I’m glad you did not live back in the days of our Founders. The Federalist Papers would have driven you to distraction. Or worse.]

Update II (Oct. 3): Young Brett is right about the dumb-down shtick being an insult to our readers. First, I write as I think. I can’t change that. I don’t know how to. Second, the reason I won’t make a concerted effort to parrot O’Reilly’s erroneous, ugly prose is that I have respect for my readers. It’s patronizing to talk down to people. Yes, it is inevitable that I will enjoy fewer readers than the other crowd pleasers becasue, for the most, people wish their views confirmed. However, those who want to be challenged and have minds that seek interest and humor; something extra—they will find their way here. I hope.

To follow the medical profession’s recommendations, Mercer columns can help ward off Alzhemier’s later in life. Staying within your comfort zone mentally will do nothing to force those dendrites and synaptic connections in the brain to branch out well into old age. The brain is very plastic; but if you don’t use it, you’ll lose it. I know of what I speak; I once awoke in a sweat mumbling: “Oh, my G-d, I think I made a circular argument in my last column.” Yeah, I often argue my case in my dreams. You want to stay alert well into old age, so stick around, boys and girls. Let the other lazy minds atrophy and fill-up with plaque, the hallmark of senility.

Anyhoo, read “Athens & Jerusalem,” and the rest of the intellectual gymnastics on Taki’s.