Given a picture of an ant, a butterfly, and a spider, and asked to choose which one doesn't belong, a lot of people would say the butterfly. It can fly, the others can't. Until we consider that a spider can anchor its web to a tree branch, launch itself into a breeze, spread its legs, and in essence becomes a tethered kite until it reaches a new destination. Is that flying? ("That's not flying, that's falling...with style!"). We say that we fly kites. So this judgment becomes muddied.
Then we study wee creatures in our world and discover that some insects have six legs, others have eight. In the picture above the ant and the butterfly have six legs and the spider has eight. The spider is the one that doesn't fit. Although it may resemble an ant more than a butterfly on the surface, the spider is in a whole different classification.
The lesson from this, in the style of Sesame Street, Taoism, Buddhism, and many philosophical traditions, is that there is more than one level of understanding. Deeper, more informed understanding is more accurate than superficial judgment.
Shift gears. Why is it that the more tyranical and despotic leaders of history -- into the present day -- always oppose intellectuals? Why do they arrest them, ship them away, or execute them? Why is there less of an emphasis on education and more on militarism? Because intellectuals understand things on a deeper level. They can see through the despot's machinations. They are capable of exposing the truth when the despot is keeping a superfical image to the public but behind the scenes is doing unethical, illegal, inhumane things.
The President, right or wrong. Don't question the President. America, love it or leave it. Either you're with us or you're with the enemy. If the President says it, it's good enough for me. Bush says he reads the Bible / has a Father greater than his earthly father / goes to church, therefore he's a Christian and that's that.
"I am the decider" (if one makes poor decisions, this is worthless). "Terrorists want to kill you" (what proof? Until there is credible science that debunks the Conspiracy Theory of 9-11 this one is up in the air. That our soldiers die in Iraq doesn't prove the statement; it suggests cause and effect, that if people are occupied by a foreign military force and seventy percent of the deaths that result are innocent civilians then they will fight back). Moslem extremists are the biggest problem in the world today (what about Christian extremists?). National security is the preeminent issue of our time (then the underlying problem is insecurity). "These are dangerous times" (stated by nearly all despots throughout history). And so forth.
Intellectuals can see behind the smoke and mirrors. They are a threat. They threaten the status quo, the exposure of deceit, the ill-gotten consolidation and hold on power that despots accumulate. They can't be tolerated, nor can we afford to train up any more. Education isn't as important as bullets and bombs. The liberal thought process, or critical thinking, must be discouraged. Keep the people ignorant and you can play on their emotions, especially fear.
Step into my home
Said the spider to the fly.
I hope that whoever from the Department of Homeland Security is monitoring my blogs has children, and that love for those children is stronger than the dictates of leaders who give an image of strength but underneath harbor the fears that they project onto the public, and don't mind consigning others to death trying to resolve their anxieties.
