"The word 'intellectual' has now almost become a term of abuse."

That statement is a highlight from the best non-fiction book I read last year: What About Me? by Paul Verhaeghe, a professor of psychoanalysis. The author describes how our hyper-capitalist society robs us of our individual identities as we desperately seek to compete and, somewhat contradictorily, fit in.

There are many ways anti-intellectualism is evident in society.

One of those sacrificed identities is the intellectual. Verhaeghe's argument is that being smart is considered less important these days than being rich. He argues that pursuing intellectual interests is, sadly, of little value anymore unless those pursuits have the potential to generate lots of cash.

There are many other ways, too, that anti-intellectualism is evident in society. You can see it in the disregard for climate science. It's also obvious in education, where academics are often seen as out of touch. And it's perhaps most prominent in the arts, resulting in 'cultural cringe', which is when Australians believe artists (of all varieties) are inferior to those elsewhere in the world.