(Note:I am still working on the audio recording for this essay. I believe I'll have it done later today, and I'll post it this afternoon or early tomorrow morning. In the meantime, I wanted to at least get the essay up for those who'd rather read than listen. Thank you!)
Despite all its claims that its concerns are of deep human relevance, there is an air of stale remoteness to much of philosophy that makes people believe it is something that only those who do not have anything of "real importance" (or any "real work") can indulge in.
Ah, but so many of the population at large will be (and in some places already is) in that hopeless surplus category I mentioned above. They are scrambling to find any work, let alone decent work.
The jobs which are left over for them do not tend to afford much leisure time. They tend to be hourly service jobs, which...despite foolish notions to the contrary...are physically and psychologically exhausting.
But the experience of two different sorts of clinics can serve as an example of two fundamentally different experiences of life. On the one hand, there is the life that benefits from all the productivity of our society. This life gets nice, clean doctor's offices. Along with that, it gets good education, protection by the police, legal assistance when necessary, and access to healthy food. This life has a job that affords it the respect and the time for leisure pursuits, including things like philosophy.
On the other hand, there is the life that didn't get that part of the deal. This life works the low-end jobs that keep the gears turning smoothly for that other life's little indulgences. This life gets dirty clinics, minimal education, and can only afford cheap and unhealthy food. This life has a job (or multiple jobs) that do not afford it the respect and time off for leisure pursuits like philosophy. In fact, a life lived like this is physically, emotionally, and mentally exhausting, so that even if the low-end jobs were generous with their time off, such a person would likely still not have the energy left for things like philosophy.
I fundamentally believe that the shallow, ridiculous culture we have right now is a culture that thrives upon being tired. People are too tired to seek out entertainment that isn't shallow and easy. They are tired from having to worry about their status in life, and whether or not a flat tire or minor injury will leave them financially ruined. They are tired from having access to unhealthy food, which slowly poisons the body. They are tired from having to fake a smile to customer after customer after customer after customer after....
So when we, the self-proclaimed philosophers, want to criticize American society, we should be smart enough to look beneath the obvious faults of the teeming masses and ask ourselves what sort of underlying structural problems give rise to societies that are pathological enough to breed a demand for things like "Keeping up with the Kardashians" or the "Minions" movies.
I suspect that what we will find is that it is not so much the case that Americans are uniquely disposed to anti-intellectualism in and of themselves, but rather that over time American social structures have evolved to predispose their human constituents to be anti-intellectual out of sheer exhaustion.
None of this means we cannot or should not criticize the decisions of our fellow citizens, or continue to advocate that people make time to pursue intellectualism and critical thinking. These things are no less important despite the tragedy of life that is the case for so many poor working class people.
But our criticism needs to be wise. It needs to be deep, and not shallow. It needs to sniff out the million little causes that lurk beneath the singular effect of American anti-intellectualism.
So what are we going to do about it? I do not know. But if there is anything to be done about it, it will need to come from our taking the time to direct our criticism and our philosophizing at the root problems of American anti-philosophical attitudes and not at merely scoffing at the masses.
Socrates said that the unexamined life is not worth living. I fundamentally agree with him. Most philosophers, be they professional or hobbiest, do. Yet we would do well to tack on that examining the life is best done in a state of leisure, and that if we wish to see a world full of better, examined lives, then we must be committed to a world that has better material conditions which are conducive to such examination.
The Problem
I may be mistaken, but it seems to me that quite a few people are of the opinion that philosophy is a privileged waste of time. An activity for "soft" people without the hard-nosed common sense to tackle the world, or a concern only for those who can afford to spend time thinking about things that have no impact on their lives.Despite all its claims that its concerns are of deep human relevance, there is an air of stale remoteness to much of philosophy that makes people believe it is something that only those who do not have anything of "real importance" (or any "real work") can indulge in.
To an extent, I can sympathize with this view. There are many dead-ends in philosophy. The dead-ends are not only those philosophies that eventually fell short of providing a final explanation for the world (which is to say all of them), but also those which have gone passed being right or wrong at all. These would be philosophical arguments that have exited almost the whole sphere of human concerns. Some elements of philosophy have become so niche that only two people in the world can understand their aims...and, often, only one of them really even cares.
However, I fundamentally believe that philosophy, as an activity, is a net good for anyone who does it. Moreover, I think that more people should practice philosophy in one form or another; that it is a problem, a bad thing, that fewer people take an interest in philosophy. This "practicing philosophy" can be in terms of reading, writing, getting together to discuss, or finding online resources and classes.
The art of thinking, appreciating nuance, entertaining ideas that you don't immediately reject or accept, and appreciating a good argument are vital to living what I would recognize as a good life. Furthermore, they are beyond vital to having a functioning democratic or republican form of government. If we're going to have a system where lots of people can vote or hold office, then we need lots of people who understand how to think critically and argue fairly and reasonably. I simply do not see any field of human activity that increases these skills better than well-done philosophical exercise.
The art of thinking, appreciating nuance, entertaining ideas that you don't immediately reject or accept, and appreciating a good argument are vital to living what I would recognize as a good life. Furthermore, they are beyond vital to having a functioning democratic or republican form of government. If we're going to have a system where lots of people can vote or hold office, then we need lots of people who understand how to think critically and argue fairly and reasonably. I simply do not see any field of human activity that increases these skills better than well-done philosophical exercise.
But all that being said, I also believe that there is a severe problem with how we, the self-proclaimed philosophers of the world, approach this lack of philosophy in society.
Much of the time, we attempt to discuss this problem by scolding people for accepting less-than-stellar intellectual standards and spending their time on shallow matters. People are chastised for being caught up in fleeting drama and distractions, in flashy games and movies, and (above all else) in pop culture. Reality TV shows and gossip programs like "Keeping up with the Kardashians" are always trotted out as proof that people are wasting their time and cognitive energy on cheap, shallow garbage instead of teaching themselves philosophy.
Much of the time, we attempt to discuss this problem by scolding people for accepting less-than-stellar intellectual standards and spending their time on shallow matters. People are chastised for being caught up in fleeting drama and distractions, in flashy games and movies, and (above all else) in pop culture. Reality TV shows and gossip programs like "Keeping up with the Kardashians" are always trotted out as proof that people are wasting their time and cognitive energy on cheap, shallow garbage instead of teaching themselves philosophy.
Oh, the stupid masses.
Now, I'm no friend of the masses. I say that with a giant, proud, aloof sneer on my face and an elitist nature that goes to my very core. However, I think that we...the self-proclaimed philosophers...are approaching the issue entirely wrong.
Yes, there is room, or more than enough room, to criticize the habits of the average American, ourselves included. As a people, we tend towards acting shallow, loud, and arguing over matters of appearance over matters of substance.
However, we tend to want to keep the analysis only at the level of those criticisms. The thing is, it is obvious and trivially true that people like trivial bullshit and are bad at taking the time to educate themselves or think critically.
In fact, most people will...if taken out of the constant stream of nonsense that consumes much of our lives...look around and shake their head at what they and others are guilty of enjoying. Few people are actually so shallow and uncritical that they can't see much of modern America's culture for the problematic mess that it is. Also, very few are not worried about the anti-intellectual attitude that grips the nation.
The real question thus not "Why do people think that these silly things are important and worth all their time!". Rather, it is "Why do people keep consuming silly things despite the fact that they know aren't important and aren't worth all their time?"
However, we tend to want to keep the analysis only at the level of those criticisms. The thing is, it is obvious and trivially true that people like trivial bullshit and are bad at taking the time to educate themselves or think critically.
In fact, most people will...if taken out of the constant stream of nonsense that consumes much of our lives...look around and shake their head at what they and others are guilty of enjoying. Few people are actually so shallow and uncritical that they can't see much of modern America's culture for the problematic mess that it is. Also, very few are not worried about the anti-intellectual attitude that grips the nation.
The real question thus not "Why do people think that these silly things are important and worth all their time!". Rather, it is "Why do people keep consuming silly things despite the fact that they know aren't important and aren't worth all their time?"
Its is too easy (and intellectually shallow) to stop our inquiry as to why philosophy and other humanities are of such little public interest at the level of a disapproving "tsk tsk tsk". If we are really going to live up to the ideals of philosophy, then those of us with a love for the subject have to pull back the surface problem of shallowness in American society and find out why so many millions have seemingly abandoned the project of developing a highly attuned mind. This is more difficult than simply trash talking pop-culture.
The Deeper Problem...
To unveil what we, the self-proclaimed philosophers, should really be discussing and analyzing, I'd like to tell a quick story.
I recently changed health care providers. My new coverage happened to start when I was perilously close to needing a refill of one of my medications, so I had to hurry up and see a doctor in the new system so I could transfer my prescriptions and get a refill ordered. To that end, I took the first opening I could find in my new coverage system. I left work early that day and headed off, guided by Google Maps, to my new clinic.
When I arrived, I found myself confronted by something I'd not seen for a while: real poverty. You see, I'm not wealthy. I've not problem admitting that. However, I am extremely fortunate in many other regards. I have a great job; an office with three monitors and a comfortable chair. I have a strong relationship and, through that, added financial support and stability. We live in a wonderful home. I can afford to set aside money to save up and buy nice computers and, eventually, a new car. I can afford my medications and I can afford to buy good, healthy food. I can afford to buy nice clothing and dress decently. I can afford to sit in an air conditioned environment. Furthermore, I have a financially strong family whom I could fall back on if things got really bad. On top of all that, I'm in good health and I have a good education.
In other words, I am in a good position and I have a strong safety net.
In other words, I am in a good position and I have a strong safety net.
However, what I saw in that clinic was real, true, unbridled, absolute poverty. I saw desperation. I've been in quite a few doctor's offices and hospitals, and I'm used to that sterile smell and the pristine grey-and-white-or-blue color schemes. When I've been in newer hospitals and doctor's offices, they've been all clean steel beams with lots of big glass panes.
But this clinic? It was filthy. The floors were scuffed and...stained. The walls had scratches and scuff marks. The paint had been clearly haphazardly thrown on, with speckles all over the place. There was dust and grime on many surfaces, including on some of the medical equipment in the exam room. The closets were banged up, dirty, and sparsely filled with what looked like knock-off brand medical equipment. While I waited for the doctor, I saw an elderly woman whose face was covered in what looked to be tumors, crying. She wasn't crying for herself; she was crying because there was a homeless man with a broken leg whom she was trying to help, and the staff was telling her that (for some legal reason) they couldn't treat him. She was crying because she didn't have the money or transportation to get him to a clinic that could.
But this clinic? It was filthy. The floors were scuffed and...stained. The walls had scratches and scuff marks. The paint had been clearly haphazardly thrown on, with speckles all over the place. There was dust and grime on many surfaces, including on some of the medical equipment in the exam room. The closets were banged up, dirty, and sparsely filled with what looked like knock-off brand medical equipment. While I waited for the doctor, I saw an elderly woman whose face was covered in what looked to be tumors, crying. She wasn't crying for herself; she was crying because there was a homeless man with a broken leg whom she was trying to help, and the staff was telling her that (for some legal reason) they couldn't treat him. She was crying because she didn't have the money or transportation to get him to a clinic that could.
In short, I came face to face with the nasty underbelly of the American economic system.
My experience is not unique. I'm already planning on seeing a different doctor; one nearer to my home. But I have that luxury. I am affluent enough to choose to leave Hell after a little pit-stop. I can read well, argue for myself, exert a bit of power if I have to do so. I can save some money and go elsewhere. But the people I saw there? They certainly didn't seem to have that option.
Now, how many other morbidly dirty and depressing clinics are there in this nation? How many inner city and rural doctor's offices where people go as a last resort, knowing they'll be financially hurt getting even the cheapest meds?
Furthermore, what sorts of grocery stores do you think you'll find in those areas? Markets with fresh produce and good meat? Or places with over-processed foods, where most people can afford to simply stock up on the cheapest (and least healthy) carbohydrate-laden snacks possible.
What sort of access to legal help do you think you'll find in these places, be they inner-city or rural?
What sort of relationship to education will you find there? Will there even be time for education, or will there be time for nothing but work?
What kinds of jobs will be available to those communities?
Bear with me, please, because I want to address the problem of American philosophical poverty by first looking at actual poverty...
What kinds of jobs will be available to those communities?
Bear with me, please, because I want to address the problem of American philosophical poverty by first looking at actual poverty...
The Brutal Economy of It All
Most Americans are not getting richer. Sure, some of us are. Maybe even I am, in time. But the wage gap between Americans is growing, not shrinking. Right now, we have a government that seems to be perfectly fine letting the infrastructure and common resources of our society rot so long as the rich get even better tax deals and even less regulations. To add to this, decent jobs seem to be vanishing from much of America. Why?
Well, it is possible for people and politicians to pretend that immigrants are "taking jobs". It is possible to repeat this mantra over and over, until many people believe it. And as we have seen, such pretending can lead to ghastly and morally repulsive situations like the separation and caging of children at our boarders.
It is also possible (and far more accurate) to cite outsourcing as a prime loss of American jobs, as more and more corporations move operations abroad to take advantage of what could charitably be called "lax labor laws" in other parts of the world.
But the real job killer for blue-color style work is not the immigrant or the foreigner, but rather the machine. A machine that never tires, that needs no pay, that makes no demands, and that can work twenty-four hours a day, seven days a week. A machine that no politician is going to take a stand against, because the wealthy who see such machines as a way to increase profits will always keep a grip on the politician via money.
The full list of reasons that poverty is growing is complicated, but one which is subtly driving a large amount of the growing poverty in our nation is automation. Automation is going to do away with more and more service and manual labor jobs that don't require what we might call critical thinking (and eventually maybe even some jobs that do, as A.I. gets better). It already has removed the need for many workers simply by making the processes involved easier and more efficient. Automation does not always look like a machine doing what a person once did; it can also be a machine allowing one person to do what ten people once did.
So even as people rant and rave about the need for border security, for bringing jobs back from overseas, or even for more education or technical schools, the real source of increasing job-scarcity and poverty will keep growing as automation gets more and more efficient. This will, in turn, lead to furthering wealth inequality as erases jobs and breaks the back of laborers' ability to negotiate for better pay and job security.
Well, it is possible for people and politicians to pretend that immigrants are "taking jobs". It is possible to repeat this mantra over and over, until many people believe it. And as we have seen, such pretending can lead to ghastly and morally repulsive situations like the separation and caging of children at our boarders.
It is also possible (and far more accurate) to cite outsourcing as a prime loss of American jobs, as more and more corporations move operations abroad to take advantage of what could charitably be called "lax labor laws" in other parts of the world.
But the real job killer for blue-color style work is not the immigrant or the foreigner, but rather the machine. A machine that never tires, that needs no pay, that makes no demands, and that can work twenty-four hours a day, seven days a week. A machine that no politician is going to take a stand against, because the wealthy who see such machines as a way to increase profits will always keep a grip on the politician via money.
The full list of reasons that poverty is growing is complicated, but one which is subtly driving a large amount of the growing poverty in our nation is automation. Automation is going to do away with more and more service and manual labor jobs that don't require what we might call critical thinking (and eventually maybe even some jobs that do, as A.I. gets better). It already has removed the need for many workers simply by making the processes involved easier and more efficient. Automation does not always look like a machine doing what a person once did; it can also be a machine allowing one person to do what ten people once did.
So even as people rant and rave about the need for border security, for bringing jobs back from overseas, or even for more education or technical schools, the real source of increasing job-scarcity and poverty will keep growing as automation gets more and more efficient. This will, in turn, lead to furthering wealth inequality as erases jobs and breaks the back of laborers' ability to negotiate for better pay and job security.
Education and Leisure
As wealth inequality grows, access to the decent perks of civilization will become more and more difficult. This will start (or, rather, increase, sense it has already gone well past starting) in those rural and inner city areas I discussed above. Access to those things in life that smooth out the rougher edges (things like clean clinics, decent food, and the time and energy to devote to education and leisure pursuits) will become more and more scarce.
Education in general...and philosophy especially...is a leisure activity. That is to say, you do not get university systems from subsistence agriculture. Societies in which the work of living is constant and all consuming have no time for education beyond merely passing down methods of work. Only once there is sufficient productivity to grant some people a little bit of leisure time do things like philosophy (and the rest of what we call the humanities, such as art, detailed history, literature, theater, and music) begin to appear.
Our species' history bears this out. Only once we did the brutal work of civilizing ourselves with walled cities and efficient divisions of labor and agriculture did we get the extra resources to spare so that a few guys could sit around and think about whether or not numbers are real, or what the ontological basis for morality is.
The reason for this is quite simple: we are material beings. Everything that we do is done with some organ, and each organ needs energy. Once all its energy has been used up, it has to rest. Just as you cannot do push-ups indefinitely, you cannot think indefinitely; just as you cannot do push-ups if you are starving and physically exhausted, you cannot think if you are starving and physically exhausted. So when people are busy spending all of their waking hours doing materially productive work (like producing food, material goods, buildings, etc.) they are physiologically less able to devote time and energy to intellectual pursuits.
Our species' history bears this out. Only once we did the brutal work of civilizing ourselves with walled cities and efficient divisions of labor and agriculture did we get the extra resources to spare so that a few guys could sit around and think about whether or not numbers are real, or what the ontological basis for morality is.
The reason for this is quite simple: we are material beings. Everything that we do is done with some organ, and each organ needs energy. Once all its energy has been used up, it has to rest. Just as you cannot do push-ups indefinitely, you cannot think indefinitely; just as you cannot do push-ups if you are starving and physically exhausted, you cannot think if you are starving and physically exhausted. So when people are busy spending all of their waking hours doing materially productive work (like producing food, material goods, buildings, etc.) they are physiologically less able to devote time and energy to intellectual pursuits.
Only by means of amazing scientific and technological advancement have we reached an age where we extract enough production out of a relatively small amount of labor and land to feed enough people to produce our amazingly complicated society; a society that can support millions of "extra" people who can then afford to spend time working on non-immediate problems.
From within those millions of splendidly lucky minds, we get a sub-set that can work on non-life-essential non-immediate problems. From this sub-set, we get our philosophers and, ironically, our labor-theorists and economists.
From within those millions of splendidly lucky minds, we get a sub-set that can work on non-life-essential non-immediate problems. From this sub-set, we get our philosophers and, ironically, our labor-theorists and economists.
The Ouroboros
So intellectualism...as a material possibility and as an actual activity...was a byproduct of the stabilizing effects of culture and increasing productivity. As our species was more able to sustain itself and a larger population of non-work-essential people were created, we could afford (literally) to carve out some time and space for some of these people to pursue learning and, more importantly, thinking. Society benefited from having a stock of people who had the time and energy to teach others how to do stuff, as well as think about and research ever more complicated and efficient ways to ramp up society's productive power. Of course, from this stock of privileged people we also got some of our greatest cultural advancements in realms like art and philosophy.
In time, the university grew into its own and became a vital and powerful element of the more complicated social structures we produced. Now to keep the gears running nationally and internationally, you needed the thinkers. Those who were once surplus workers now became vital minds who put out a product all their own: knowledge.
However, over time the pursuit of philosophical wisdom (and a more-or-less universal answer to the nature of humanity and the "good life") was replaced by the simpler and more profitable pursuit and generation of technical know-how. Sure, philosophers could write some fun books and make some interesting points, but engineers could build highways and factories. Business majors could plan more efficient corporate organizations and logistics; biologists and chemists could produce better and more expensive medicines and miracle cures. Public relations students could, of course, learn how to better peddle all these things, regardless of how truly necessary or noble some of them were.
In this climate, the university has begun to eat itself alive like the ancient ouroboros: the snake devouring its own tail. Now the humanities are becoming, in the eyes of efficiency and profit-oriented administrators, unnecessary costs. We are, in a sense, reverting back to more primitive times where pure intellectualism was seen as a waste: who needs a bunch of thinky-ol' nerds sitting around pondering when we have real work to do!
Ah, but there's the catch, for we must remember that we don't really have all this work to do.
As I said above, automation is taking over much of our labor-work within the next ten to twenty years. We will thus soon have the largest surplus generation in human history on our doorstep , and with nothing vital for them to do, we are almost certainly on the cusp of an explosion in poverty as these "extra" people are forced settle for the meager jobs that form like schools of little fish around the sharks.
People like this don't get Whole Foods and nice, shiny hospitals. They don't get sleek, well trained and well funded police forces or access to legal help. They don't get access to respectable, well-paying careers. They don't get access to fine education. The especially don't get access to the precious by-product of productivity: leisure.
No, instead, the poor get dirty streets. They get shoddy clinics and cheap, unhealthy food. They get just enough education to be able to work in petty service jobs. They get policed, rather than getting a fine police force to help them.
As I said above, automation is taking over much of our labor-work within the next ten to twenty years. We will thus soon have the largest surplus generation in human history on our doorstep , and with nothing vital for them to do, we are almost certainly on the cusp of an explosion in poverty as these "extra" people are forced settle for the meager jobs that form like schools of little fish around the sharks.
People like this don't get Whole Foods and nice, shiny hospitals. They don't get sleek, well trained and well funded police forces or access to legal help. They don't get access to respectable, well-paying careers. They don't get access to fine education. The especially don't get access to the precious by-product of productivity: leisure.
No, instead, the poor get dirty streets. They get shoddy clinics and cheap, unhealthy food. They get just enough education to be able to work in petty service jobs. They get policed, rather than getting a fine police force to help them.
And what of philosophy? Our beloved philosophy? Won't it also be seen as superfluous and non-productive? Hasn't it already been declared as much? And with more and more people stuck in more and more desperate economic, material conditions, won't philosophy be shoved to the wayside? Has it not already?
There are not a ton of philosophy jobs out there now. I do not suspect that this will change. While automation may skip over the philosopher's job, it will in the end still erase it. Instead of replacing philosophers with machines, though, the machines (and the hyper-productive yet impoverished society they might produce) will simply make philosophy appear even more irrelevant.
Tying it back to the Populace and Philosophy...
You may well be thinking "What the hell does this sloppy pseudo-history/sociology lesson have to do with the original point?"
I understand; please pardon my rambling nature.
The original point was that we, the self-proclaimed philosophers, are quick to point out that the masses of ordinary American society are intellectually slovenly and fail to cultivate their own minds and critical thinking abilities.
So, how does my rambling about the economic condition of our society tie in with the bad intellectual habits of millions?
Well, firstly, I want to make it clear that I believe that if philosophy has a future in the United States, it will need to be outside of the university. Universities are still in the grip of the efficiency-minded administrators looking to produce more money, not more scholars. In this atmosphere, there is not going to be a lot of tolerance for people to be paid to just "sit around and think". There will be even less tolerance for that privileged thinking to be at all critical of a system that already eyes it with barely disguised disdain (when it eyes it at all). We are already seeing this play out in that fewer tenure-track professorships are available, and universities are relying more upon over-worked and under-paid adjuncts.
My own Alma Mater is, last I heard, actually going to be dissolving its arts and humanities programs.
I understand; please pardon my rambling nature.
The original point was that we, the self-proclaimed philosophers, are quick to point out that the masses of ordinary American society are intellectually slovenly and fail to cultivate their own minds and critical thinking abilities.
So, how does my rambling about the economic condition of our society tie in with the bad intellectual habits of millions?
Well, firstly, I want to make it clear that I believe that if philosophy has a future in the United States, it will need to be outside of the university. Universities are still in the grip of the efficiency-minded administrators looking to produce more money, not more scholars. In this atmosphere, there is not going to be a lot of tolerance for people to be paid to just "sit around and think". There will be even less tolerance for that privileged thinking to be at all critical of a system that already eyes it with barely disguised disdain (when it eyes it at all). We are already seeing this play out in that fewer tenure-track professorships are available, and universities are relying more upon over-worked and under-paid adjuncts.
My own Alma Mater is, last I heard, actually going to be dissolving its arts and humanities programs.
If philosophy is going to flourish, then, it will need to be hobby philosophers, who emerge from within the masses, which take up the mantle of thinking. These are people who have a "day job" and still like to do philosophy in the evenings and weekends. People who publish their essays on blogs (LIKE THIS ONE!!!!) and other online publications. People who form their own little philosophy clubs and conferences, and who keep the tradition going while the official humanities departments get axed.
Ah, but so many of the population at large will be (and in some places already is) in that hopeless surplus category I mentioned above. They are scrambling to find any work, let alone decent work.
The jobs which are left over for them do not tend to afford much leisure time. They tend to be hourly service jobs, which...despite foolish notions to the contrary...are physically and psychologically exhausting.
Now, I want you to think of the cognitive drain of those types of jobs, and of the economic condition they leave you in. If you had to spend a whole day (let alone a hot, St. Louis summer day) navigating city transportation to access grimy clinics and be casually disregarded by the over-worked personnel therein, are you going to be in the mood to do philosophy when you get home?
If your trip to the grocery store is fraught with crushing self-loathing as you make the calculations between which foods you're going to go without this paycheck, are you going to be in the mood to do philosophy when you get home?
If you have to settle for hourly work at service jobs...jobs that likely will force you to conform to their schedule of odd hours built around pleasing more privileged customers...will you really have the energy to go home and, in your few hours before bed, do philosophy?
When so much of your time is devoted to merely subsisting...to scraping by enough hours (at physically, emotionally, and psychologically demanding jobs) to pay for the absolute basics...will you really have it in you at the end of the day to tackle some tough analytic philosophy? To appreciate the finer points of existentialist literature? To have a nuanced debate about the nature of human motivation?
When so much of your time is devoted to merely subsisting...to scraping by enough hours (at physically, emotionally, and psychologically demanding jobs) to pay for the absolute basics...will you really have it in you at the end of the day to tackle some tough analytic philosophy? To appreciate the finer points of existentialist literature? To have a nuanced debate about the nature of human motivation?
To be honest, probably not. To be honest, and frank, I'd catch a whiff of bullshit from anyone who asserted otherwise.
Which, I suppose, means that philosophy will just mostly die out within the United States. We, as a society, simply won't allow ourselves the indulgence of having professional, university level philosophers, and the hobby-philosophers (or at least, the people who would otherwise like to be hobby-philosophers) will be too busy working to make ends meet to carry on the craft.
The Title...
I titled this piece "Two Clinics" instead of "Rambling Ideas on Economics and Leisure". Why?
Because a clinic is a place that you go to (hopefully) get better; it is a place where stress related to the body is alleviated. If you're as lucky and fortunate as I have been, then for you the idea of going to the doctor's office brings to mind clean halls and clean rooms, with professionals who seem competent and eager to help you. It brings to mind efficient, affordable medications that get you back to feeling better.
If you feel sick, you can simply call off work for a day (or two!) and go to the doctor's office. While there, you'll be in a comfortable room with the only real problem being the out-of-date magazines and the waiting time. A friendly nurse will help you to your examination room, and a friendly doctor will explain what's wrong and how they're going to fix it. A few card swipes and friendly smiles later and you're walking out with a prescription, ready to go take some medicine and relax.
When you get home, you pop one of your pills and snuggle up. Being a lover of philosophy, you grab Sartre's "Search for a Method" and start reading yourself to sleep, jotting down some notes for a little essay you plan to write later when you're feeling up to it. After all, you'll have a whole two extra days off from work this week thanks to this head cold, and that's plenty of time to read, to think, and to write!
Ah, but what if you can only afford to go to one of those other clinics?
You beg off from your hourly job, only to have an over-worked and stressed out manager grudgingly agree that you can take half the day off. (After all, it's bad for business if you bleed or sneeze while customers are watching.)
You show up to a poorly built clinic. The floors are dirty, the walls are dirty; everything is somehow dirty. The staff there are too overworked to care. You're surrounded by others who are as forgotten and exhausted as you, all reeking of body odor and fast food. The nurses who tend to you are in a rush...they don't want to be here any more than you. The doctor sees you for a few minutes and sends you on your way with a prescription. You can't really afford the medicine, though, because the $45 it costs equals almost 4.75 hours of work. You only make $9.50 per hour, and you normally only get scheduled for 6 or 7 hours a day. Even if you bust your ass, you probably still won't hit a full 40 this week, or get any overtime. Still, you bite the bullet and buy the pills.
You get home and you are doubly tired. Not only are you tired from feeling sick, but also from feeling dread. You are tired of worrying if your boss is going to get fed up with you and fire you on a whim; tired of having no savings and no safety net. You can't afford good living conditions or good groceries. You take the pill. You lay down and hope that you'll feel at least well enough to go to work for a few hours tomorrow.
You look at a copy of Sartre's "Search for a Method" sitting on your table, and you leave it there.
What's the point?
You click on the TV, and zone out.
Because a clinic is a place that you go to (hopefully) get better; it is a place where stress related to the body is alleviated. If you're as lucky and fortunate as I have been, then for you the idea of going to the doctor's office brings to mind clean halls and clean rooms, with professionals who seem competent and eager to help you. It brings to mind efficient, affordable medications that get you back to feeling better.
If you feel sick, you can simply call off work for a day (or two!) and go to the doctor's office. While there, you'll be in a comfortable room with the only real problem being the out-of-date magazines and the waiting time. A friendly nurse will help you to your examination room, and a friendly doctor will explain what's wrong and how they're going to fix it. A few card swipes and friendly smiles later and you're walking out with a prescription, ready to go take some medicine and relax.
When you get home, you pop one of your pills and snuggle up. Being a lover of philosophy, you grab Sartre's "Search for a Method" and start reading yourself to sleep, jotting down some notes for a little essay you plan to write later when you're feeling up to it. After all, you'll have a whole two extra days off from work this week thanks to this head cold, and that's plenty of time to read, to think, and to write!
Ah, but what if you can only afford to go to one of those other clinics?
You beg off from your hourly job, only to have an over-worked and stressed out manager grudgingly agree that you can take half the day off. (After all, it's bad for business if you bleed or sneeze while customers are watching.)
You show up to a poorly built clinic. The floors are dirty, the walls are dirty; everything is somehow dirty. The staff there are too overworked to care. You're surrounded by others who are as forgotten and exhausted as you, all reeking of body odor and fast food. The nurses who tend to you are in a rush...they don't want to be here any more than you. The doctor sees you for a few minutes and sends you on your way with a prescription. You can't really afford the medicine, though, because the $45 it costs equals almost 4.75 hours of work. You only make $9.50 per hour, and you normally only get scheduled for 6 or 7 hours a day. Even if you bust your ass, you probably still won't hit a full 40 this week, or get any overtime. Still, you bite the bullet and buy the pills.
You get home and you are doubly tired. Not only are you tired from feeling sick, but also from feeling dread. You are tired of worrying if your boss is going to get fed up with you and fire you on a whim; tired of having no savings and no safety net. You can't afford good living conditions or good groceries. You take the pill. You lay down and hope that you'll feel at least well enough to go to work for a few hours tomorrow.
You look at a copy of Sartre's "Search for a Method" sitting on your table, and you leave it there.
What's the point?
You click on the TV, and zone out.
What's the point?
Perhaps it takes me too long to get to the point in these sorts of things. Yes, I know that the above examples are what-if scenarios (although, full disclosure, both are based on my own personal experiences from different points in my life...and yes, there is a copy of "Search for a Method" sitting on my desk right now.........and yes, I keep putting off reading it).But the experience of two different sorts of clinics can serve as an example of two fundamentally different experiences of life. On the one hand, there is the life that benefits from all the productivity of our society. This life gets nice, clean doctor's offices. Along with that, it gets good education, protection by the police, legal assistance when necessary, and access to healthy food. This life has a job that affords it the respect and the time for leisure pursuits, including things like philosophy.
On the other hand, there is the life that didn't get that part of the deal. This life works the low-end jobs that keep the gears turning smoothly for that other life's little indulgences. This life gets dirty clinics, minimal education, and can only afford cheap and unhealthy food. This life has a job (or multiple jobs) that do not afford it the respect and time off for leisure pursuits like philosophy. In fact, a life lived like this is physically, emotionally, and mentally exhausting, so that even if the low-end jobs were generous with their time off, such a person would likely still not have the energy left for things like philosophy.
I fundamentally believe that the shallow, ridiculous culture we have right now is a culture that thrives upon being tired. People are too tired to seek out entertainment that isn't shallow and easy. They are tired from having to worry about their status in life, and whether or not a flat tire or minor injury will leave them financially ruined. They are tired from having access to unhealthy food, which slowly poisons the body. They are tired from having to fake a smile to customer after customer after customer after customer after....
So when we, the self-proclaimed philosophers, want to criticize American society, we should be smart enough to look beneath the obvious faults of the teeming masses and ask ourselves what sort of underlying structural problems give rise to societies that are pathological enough to breed a demand for things like "Keeping up with the Kardashians" or the "Minions" movies.
I suspect that what we will find is that it is not so much the case that Americans are uniquely disposed to anti-intellectualism in and of themselves, but rather that over time American social structures have evolved to predispose their human constituents to be anti-intellectual out of sheer exhaustion.
None of this means we cannot or should not criticize the decisions of our fellow citizens, or continue to advocate that people make time to pursue intellectualism and critical thinking. These things are no less important despite the tragedy of life that is the case for so many poor working class people.
But our criticism needs to be wise. It needs to be deep, and not shallow. It needs to sniff out the million little causes that lurk beneath the singular effect of American anti-intellectualism.
So what are we going to do about it? I do not know. But if there is anything to be done about it, it will need to come from our taking the time to direct our criticism and our philosophizing at the root problems of American anti-philosophical attitudes and not at merely scoffing at the masses.
Socrates said that the unexamined life is not worth living. I fundamentally agree with him. Most philosophers, be they professional or hobbiest, do. Yet we would do well to tack on that examining the life is best done in a state of leisure, and that if we wish to see a world full of better, examined lives, then we must be committed to a world that has better material conditions which are conducive to such examination.