"smug anti-intellectualism"

More than anything else, I think this really is a problem. There's an increasing tendency to dismiss informed opinions on anything and everything. I think it has something to do with the sheer volume of opinions out there on tv, on the internet, everywhere else. I try to teach my sons to look at things from a rationalist, weigh-both-sides perspective. Religious conservatives naturally want to fall back on SOMETHING that seems solid. For Christians, that means the Bible, but then they are subject to the spin of their particular interpretations.

Anti-intellectualism is on both sides to an extent, but I think it's worse on the right as they have a more vested interest in status quo. Intellectuals have a tendency to challenge status quo, almost like playing a sport. And I don't think nearly so many aspects of status quo are so bad as those on the left would have us believe.

But everything moves in cycles. I think this wave is sort of a sine curve opposite (and a predictable one) of the almost-anything-goes intellectual cul-de-sacs of the 1960's.

I get the impression that you see the country on a hell bent road to oblivion, but I'm of the opinion that just when you think it's about to go too far . . . that's when the seeds of a change in direction will take root. That's happening now, and as the baby boom echo generation gets older and begins to gain power . . .

If you look at rates of religious conversion, the fundamentalists have already peaked, and the population is still becoming less religious on the whole. Naturally, the holdouts will take this kicking and screaming, but I think the tide has already turned. These next few years will be interesting. As that theoretical sine curve gets near zero on it's y-axis, both sides will be jockeying from roughly equal positions of strength. There's bound to be some fallout.

OK, I'm rambling now . . .