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In a recent blog post, Waging War on Higher Education, I wrote about the need to encourage students to think critically. The piece triggered a flurry of comments from Huffington Post readers. Most of the comments took on a populist, no-nonsense tone that I found all too familiar. Even so, I found some of the comments disconcerting. My discomfort stemmed not from the critical nature of the comments, but from their widespread disdain for critical thinking. Many of the commentators suggested that critical thinking was a kind of pie in the sky activity, a luxury we can no longer afford. In this sociocultural orientation to the world, thinking about fine points of philosophy, art or anthropology is often seen as a waste of time. In this narrative, if you go to college, which these days is a major investment of money, you do so to acquire the set of skills to get a good paying job -- end of story. Indeed, the root of my discomfort came from the fact that Ive been hearing these anti-intellectual narratives my whole life.在最近的博客文章《向高等教育宣战》中，我写了鼓励学生们有必要进行批判性思考。文章在赫芬顿邮报读者中间掀起轩然大波。大多数评论用了一种平民主义的严肃论调，我已经屡见不鲜。尽管如此，有些评论令我困惑。我的困惑主要并非源自评论的批判性本质，而是他们普遍不屑于批判性思考。很多评论者认为批判性思考是一种“天上掉馅饼”，是我们无法承受的奢侈。在这种世界观的社会文化定位之下，思考哲学、艺术或人类学，以得出正确观点总被视为浪费时间。在这种观点之下，如果你上大学，当然这是时下一种主要投资手段，你上学，获得一些技能，找到好工作，故事便结束了。事实上，我困惑的根源在于我这辈子真听了不少这种反智主义的话。 | 
