Perhaps this will explain … http://www.edge.org/3rd_culture/haidt08/haidt08_index.html
I still don’t know what to think about this. I’ll have to digest it more before I write up my thoughts. Stay tuned.
Edit: Here’s another piece of the puzzle; an opinion piece in the NY Times by David Brooks titled “The Class War Before Palin”.
This country must naturally be made up of very different people; educated, uneducated, poor, rich, etc. But when we two political parties have a lock on the system so that they are the only two parties it is a travesty for them to become the party of the educated vs the party of the uneducated.
Don’t we deserve better than that? Just take a look at the other times in history when the uneducated have overwhelmed the educated in social and political realms: the 1960′s Chinese Cultural Revolution
and the 1970′s Iranian Revolution.
Both events began with a political/social figure grasping for power by utilizing the easily inflamed prejudices and intolerances of the uneducated masses. But what was once a “base” soon just became an angry mob and the results were great cultures brought low. Only now, 30 to 40 years later are bot cultures starting to recover.