Pre-Writing blog Essay#2

Susan Jacoby argues in her second chapter about how Americans today use rationalism or "Critical Thinking" to make decisions about political standings as well as day to day choices. She argues that "while not all intellectuals are rationalists, nearly all anti-intellectual are anti-rationalists". This means that Americans who are in the category know as anti-intellectual(which means one who is dumb) don't use critical thinking to make choices. The sudden increase of anti-intellectuals today makes society run on the decisions that are not well planned or thought out. This makes for a government that will run our country into the ground. People like Ralph Waldo Emerson want to change the direction to which America is heading. Emerson writes in his speech " The American Scholar", that in order to become a scholar(intellectual) you must be able to make changes. These changes must be applied to your environment, what you read and your actions. If you achieve all this, according to Emerson, you will be considered "man" thinking.Which is an intellectual. This will solve the problem that Jacoby expresses. The causes of this increase in anti-rationalism is the increase of anti-intellectuals. This is brought on by a society that is illiterate. Americans who can't read, can't make critical decisions because they can't comprehend what they are reading. The consequence of this is an American society that just elects governmental officials based on appearance, which is not good. Appearances can be decieving, and just because a canidate up for election looks good, doesn't mean he or she is the correct choice.