Fear and Loathing of the “Intello”

A few years ago while living in Paris I was confronted with an American cultural value I hold that, upon closer inspection, is counter intuitive. I was listening to a radio program and heard the guest speaker describing himself as “an intello.” I was left repulsed and revolted by the statement. He was calling himself an intellectual! After my anger at this unknown “intello’s” self-importance calmed down, I had time to evaluate my reaction. His arrogance deeply bothered me. I don’t feel the same anger when faced with a self-described “laborer.” So what was so horrifying about someone identifying himself as a thinker?

In the US, we are nursed by a culture that fears and loathes pretension and elitism. This intello dude represented both. In the US, you should be educated, but should refrain from dangling your knowledge over others in quotes, figures and, most importantly, unfamiliar words. You should be rich, but you have to earn it through hard work and street smarts; the harder you work for your fortune, the better. In the US, it is almost as detestable to be a moneyed pedantic as an unemployed alcoholic. At least the alcoholic is helplessly dependent. The academic has the choice to stop quoting Shakespeare ad nauseum!

Anyone who is too eloquent, too knowledgeable and too polished is considered a threat to the hardworking, straight-talking American. Such traits must mean this person is conniving and capable of malicious activity, not the next-door neighbor type that you can sit down and have a beer with after a long day of work (bring a six-pack and Governor Palin might come along ta chat with ya!)

In France, the “I’m an intellectual” comment is not exactly common either and verges on arrogance. However, there isn’t the same resistance here to looking to writers, academics or philosophers for insight and answers. Being an intellectual in France doesn’t diminish the value of your opinions and doesn’t necessarily place you out of touch with real life and real problems. In fact, being an intellectual might mean you can think questions through thoroughly, contemplate nuances and communicate ideas coherently.

American resistance to public displays of knowledge might account for the past 8 years of jumbled English coming directly from the White House. W. doesn’t sound like the elite he comes from, and we Americans like that. But then of course, he doesn’t speak as well as your average middle-school child, and that is a bit more difficult to swallow.

I’m going to let Maureen Dowd wail away at the speaking style of Pappa Bush, son W. and newcomer maverick speaker, Sarah Palin. But after you stop admiring just how exquisite Dowd's English is and your laughter (or anger) at her cutting jabs at Republicans has calmed, you might consider where our anti-intellectual values lead us. Is this path really the best road for the pragmatic American to take? Eloquence doesn’t necessarily make a good president, but then again, neither does your next door neighbor. Even if she does enjoy a six-pack.

A French Cultural Lens Turned on the US

Picture taken from "Le Monde"

From the French perspective, “Americans are reckless optimists, incurably blind to the tragedy of life, to the weary convolutions of history and thus to the need for lengthy August vacations and financial regulations.” So reads “The New York Time’s” “Memo from Paris” from earlier this week.

This article, titled “Gazing at America, the French Still See a Wild Frontier,” gives an interesting and funny counterpoint to an American point of view. We Americans all know how to pick out the French: they are the well dressed snobs, smoking away in the corner of the world party as they philosophize about the grandeur of their (lost?) Culture.

Seeing ourselves from their eyes is more difficult. This “Memo from Paris” helps Americans turn the cultural lens on ourselves. We thought we were hardworking, practical, honest and energetic. But we emerge from French scrutiny looking like boorish, over confident and under knowledgeable upstarts from the backwoods. Add our perceived ignorance and our superficial capitalism, and the French aren’t surprised by the current economic crisis in the US. Hey, it might even teach us a lesson.

The “Memo from Paris” also illustrates the French interest in US elections. Let’s not confuse this with an affection for the good 'ol US of A and especially not our government. There isn’t any. But that being said, news about the US is constantly playing on the radio, printed in the newspapers and sprinkled in French conversations. The French know what is going on in the US, though news is inevitably written from a French point of view.

As the representative American, I am constantly asked the question, “Who will it be, McCain or Obama?” Often my interlocutor has two things to say after I posit the response that I think it will be Obama. First, Obama will not be elected, the US is too racist. Second, it is a shame that Obama won’t be elected. He would have been a good president. I have not spoken with a single French person that is excited about "McCain the maverick."

French pessimism for Obama’s possible ascension to the presidency shows a little something about French optimism. Don’t they know that one of the Obama themes is “Hope”? It also helps show how influenced people are by their culture. The cultural lens through which we understand the world is large and strong, and most people have a hard time seeing without it.