The excellent book “Anti-Intellectualism in American Life” by Richard Hofstadter contains the following quote: “…the national distaste for intellect appeared to be not just a disgrace but a hazard to survival.” A simple glance into a slice of modern American life will not leave you scrambling for evidence – the Republican nominees stand as an entity onto themselves, combined with the dirge of reality-tv trash, celebrity culture filth, and the seemingly accepted prerogative to be as outrageously rude as possible, for it will only be rewarded. The thing about Hofstadter’s book is that it received the Pulitzer Prize – in 1964. Nearly 50 years into the future, and Hofstadter’s manifesto for the thinking American has come to encapsulate an entire zeitgeist of acceptable apathy, celebrated stupidity, and dismissal of dissenters.

My full thoughts here – http://embryons.wordpress.com/2012/04/07/god-bless-america-goldthwait-2011/