Madam, - Daniel Sullivan (August 20th) is right to criticise your Editorial's tacit acceptance that science should be somehow ashamed of its geeky image. As our culture becomes more and more Americanised, we are importing America's contempt for education.
This attitude derives in part from the infantilisation of culture by Hollywood and the popular music industry. As such it is difficult to counteract, especially among the young. There is however, a deeper and much more established strain of anti-intellectualism in American thought that stems from its Calvinist past. In the 19th century, as biblical studies cast doubt on the literal truth of the scriptures, fundamentalist American Protestants began to reject all forms of scholarship. In the years after the second World War, this attitude made it easy for great corporations to create that culture of perpetual adolescence that is so evident in today's America.
This anti-intellectual tradition is foreign to us, yet we see it all around us. Every day I pass my old secondary school. There are two flagpoles in the schoolyard. One flies the flag of the FAI, the other that of the Dublin GAA. There is no Tricolour, no European flag and no UN flag. How often do we see actors or sportsmen getting honorary degrees from universities?
What is this saying to young people? Would the GAA ever give an honorary All-Ireland medal to a scientist, a philosopher or a poet? Recently, RTÉ was reported to be making a series on the Meaning of Life. Gay Byrne will interview Bertie Ahern, Colin Farrell and four unnamed others. Who would bet against Twink or Kerry Katona being among them? On past form, they have a better chance than Colm Toibin or Noam Chomsky.
- Yours, etc,
TIM O'HALLORAN, Ferndale Road, Finglas, Dublin 11.