Knowledge is the Foundation

"There is a cult of ignorance in the United States, and there always has been. The strain of anti-intellectualism has been a constant thread winding its way through our political and cultural life, nurtured by the false notion that democracy means that 'my ignorance is just as good as your knowledge'."

Harsh? Maybe. But true nonetheless. That paragraph is a key excerpt from an essay penned by famed science fiction author Isaac Asimov. Published in a 1980 edition of Newsweek magazine, Asimov was expressing his disgust at the growing lack of respect for education in America. Then, just as now, a...