The Intellectual Shackle

Yes, yet another blog about the last presidential debate. But- before you shrug off my blog as just another political manifesto, know this- I'm not blogging about the candidates’ platforms or how they did. My goal is to explore a phenomenon I observed among my peers watching the debate with me.

Their behavior was a little disconcerting, as I noticed my fellow college students exhibiting signs of an “intellectual shackle.” What I mean is, they had brought their preconceived notions to the debate, and were therefore extremely closed-minded when it came to responding to the candidates' (usually John McCain’s) ideas. They based their opinions of the debate upon existing stereotypes rather than using their intellect to freely explore new ideas- hence the term, "intellectual shackle."

Not surprisingly, this being a college and all, the vast majority of the students who attended the debate watching party were Obama supporters, and it was his supporters who demonstrated the greatest degree of intellectual shackling. No, my purpose here is not to discredit Obama, but it just so happened that most of the closed-minded students at the debate were supposedly open-minded, liberal Obama supporters.

Here are some examples of what I mean:

Immediately after the debate began, the students began snickering and openly ridiculing John McCain's use of a sharpie marker to write notes. The way they acted, you'd have thought that using a sharpie proved that you couldn't be president- and that's a little, well, stupid. Obviously, the use of a sharpie is not a significant indicator of one's political ability. One student even pointed out the sharpie in class the next day- she thought it was a legitimate reason not to vote for him. Needless to say, I don’t place much validity on what that girl thinks anymore.

A second instance of baseless criticisms of McCain came whenever he stumbled on a word. Obviously, Obama did this too (which the students ignored), but stumbling or stuttering during speech is no indicator of lack of intelligence, or anything else for that matter. The students who jeered and snickered as McCain spoke were simply desperate for any reason to make fun of him. Rather than listening openly to what he had to say, they closed their minds and refused to listen, preferring to make fun of his face or hair. To be honest, it scares me that people who think like this are going to vote this fall.

The last good example of intellectual shackling that I can recall occurred whenever McCain reacted to one of Obama's points. People laughed outright whenever Obama made a point, because they thought McCain looked "surprised" by what he had just said, thus (in their minds) proving Obama's ingenuity. I don't think that's accurate- these people are just bringing in their already established hatred of McCain and are having their thoughts dictated by their prejudices. To me, I think McCain’s reactions were not due to surprise, but were intended to be discrediting- he wanted to make Obama look foolish by making a bemused face whenever he spoke. Obama also does this- the broad smile he flashes whenever McCain attacks him is not a "happy" expression, it's supposed to give the message, "That’s not true- it’s so ridiculous that I’m laughing.” Thanks to the intellectual shackle afflicting my peers, they perceived Obama’s facial expressions as wise and condescending, but McCain’s as surprised and foolish- even though the expressions were actually the same.

To be fair, I should admit that my intellect had also been shackled during the debate, but fortunately, I was able to recognize that I was judging Obama based on previously established prejudices, not what he was actually saying. For example, when Obama started speaking about his health plan, I groaned, thinking, "Here comes the socialism." Although this may be an accurate sentiment for many other Democrats' health plans (like Hillary's), I realized Obama's was not nearly as socialistic as stereotypes would suggest. I overcame my preconceived notions and judged Obama on his ideas, not what other people told me about him. Unfortunately, it seemed that the majority of the Obama supporters in the room did not. They were victims of the intellectual shackle- they were stubbornly closed-minded, and refused to even listen to McCain in the first place. Well, at least that overturns another long standing stereotype of liberals- that they're open minded. The actions of my peers last night proved that utterly false.

Of course, this intellectual shackle doesn’t only apply to the presidential debate- I was just using that as an illustration. We all do it all the time. Rather than approach a new idea objectively and fairly, we base our opinions upon subjective prejudices and preconceived notions. It happens to everyone- not just liberals or Democrats. I was just using them as an example. Conservatives do it too, as when they base their hatred of Obama on the (completely erroneous) fact that he’s a terrorist or a Muslim. Our minds are chained and shackled by our stereotypes, and the key is objective, open-minded logic.

So, here's my message: unlock your intellects, America.