A Victory for Smart People

Great opinion piece about Obama and intellectualism from Kristof in yesterday’s NY Times.

Kristof, Friedman, Brooks, and the rest of the NY Times group have been talking about American anti-intellectualism ever since I can remember.  It’s an American Catch-22–we have complex problems that require complex solutions, but we as a culture tend to prefer leaders who can relate rather than solve, and so we often elect people who may not be intellectually up to the job.  Kristof points to Kennedy as our last openly intellectual president.  I don’t know enough about the others to compare, but I’ve read Kennedy’s speeches, and it was amazing how he would talk about Greek history and American policy in the same breath.  Kennedy was definitely not ashamed of his intelligence.

My favorite NY Times Op-Ed of all time is Lunch Period Poli Sci by David Brooks, which talks about how the world is composed of jocks and nerds and how the jocks take the lead and the nerds do the thinking.  We’re never going to get a true nerd in the White House–as Brooks astutely points out, people know better than to do that–but this is the first time in my lifetime that we will have someone who is unabashedly both a nerd and a jock in the White House.  As mentioned in the Kristof article, Clinton was smart but hid his smartness by trying to project hickishness.  Gore’s nerdiness lost him the election to the jock-ish and anti-intellectual Bush.

I may have overloooked something big with the upcoming Obama presidency.  Not only is this a sea-change for minorities and liberals, but it may also be a sea-change for smart people as well.  Perhaps this will inspire the next generation to see that being smart is cool.  Perhaps an Obama presidency will inspire more people to read and think.  There is so much potential in the symbolism and leadership of the upcoming administration that I’d be surprised if we’ve even scratched the surface of all the country will be able to do.

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