Americans are no more or less scientific than any other people; the USA has contributed more than its share to science but American culture has always had a strong anti-intellectual streak. It mistrusts “smart people” and views all intellectuals, not just scientists, as being conceited, cowardly, atheistic, effeminate, and even subversive. Just look at all the examples from popular culture; the movie mad scientist, the high school science nerd, the evil genius bent on world domination. At best, the science guy is always depicted as socially inept, emotionally stunted, physically clumsy and as having “no common sense”. That very insult tells us loads, as if common sense (whatever the hell that is) were somehow different from logic, critical thinking, and skeptical analysis. The science guy may be the useful sidekick, but he never gets the girl and is useless in a fight. And he too often wears the red shirt.

I think America got this way in colonial times when the common people were given a chance to rise in society without being an aristocrat. Anyone could own land, or be a merchant, or enter a profession and it was possible to rise in society on your own merit and not because of how much land your family had inherited from medieval times. This is all good but it also led to an innate mistrust of the education that had always been considered the hallmark of the upper classes. By the time of the American Revolution the colonies already had their land-owning aristocracy based on plantation agriculture in the South and manufacturing and commerce in the North. Although this new nobility was not hereditary, it was highly educated. Look at the founding fathers, formidable men of action all; soldiers, businessmen, lawyers, planters but men of high intellectual achievement, culture and advanced formal education as well. The rich and the bosses were always the smarty-pants–or their sons…. The rest of the population had to see them as different and apart, not to be trusted. It gave them the excuse they needed for being both poor and stupid.

The “brain” has always been distrusted, if not despised, in the high school pecking order where we are indoctrinated in our social and class roles and where they are defined and reinforced. The kids who are smart learn to hide it so they can fit it. Later on, popular culture continues to drive the message home. Intelligence is admired when it is used in business, or in sports, or on the street, but not in school, or in government, or in science. That’s all for sissies.

We’re all science nerds here. You know this to be true.