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There's some good reasons for this- one of them I'd like to suggest is a manifestation of secularism. What I mean is explained in the first half of http://dongstyle-ltd.livejournal.com/110578.html (whee another self-reference! Sorry people, I'm too lazy to reiterate.)

 

George- the fall of intellectualism, IMO is a good (or at least convenient) way of summing up several problems into one:

1. Tall poppy syndrome- where people can't bear having other people better than themselves because they have to be better than others i.e. the reason I was ostracised in school (until I went from "nerd" to "freak show"- and also to a private school where academic excellence was looked down upon somewhat less).
2. Rationality is a primary value of our society today and from 1) this leads to its perversion for one thing.
3. Future implications- the spoonfeeding of a generation of kids who will learn to exploit but not maintain a system, and an increasing gap between those that can and can't manage the infrastructure of society. To sound ominous- commercialism and popular culture will run our countries into the ground. Because economics is king, I'm not sure I see a way out of this...and this point now relates back to the other thread about the end of democracy.

Either way, the lack of intellectual direction and rigour these days I find extremely bothersome- this in fact relates back to my ranting on about ignorance and hypocrisy in the "Gay marriage" thread, so I think I'll stop there.