please respond to this article by Thomas Sowell on what it means to be an intellectual. just some food for thought as we get the blog started!
Excerpt-
"It would be no feat to fill a big book with all the things on which intellectuals were grossly mistaken, just in the 20th century — far more so than ordinary people.
History fully vindicates the late William F. Buckley’s view that he would rather be ruled by people represented by the first 100 names in the Boston phone book than by the faculty of Harvard.
How have intellectuals managed to be so wrong, so often? By thinking that because they are knowledgeable — or even expert — within some narrow band out of the vast spectrum of human concerns, that makes them wise guides to the masses and to the rulers of the nation.
But the ignorance of Ph.D.s is still ignorance and high-IQ groupthink is still groupthink, which is the antithesis of real thinking."
Girl Groups Changed Pop.
2 hours ago
2 comments:
As someone who counts Sowell's A Conflict of Visions among his favorite books, let me say that Mr Sowell is way off base here. There is an elitism evident in the left, a high-mindedness prevails in PhD circles, sure. To say, though, that intellectuality is a negative characteristic is foolish and, in a way, dangerous. The anti-intellectual movement on the right is best embodied by the current administration. I will take my chances with the unabashedly intellectual constitutional lawyer.
but can the american public relate to a constitutional lawyer? obama, and every other candidate, liked to focus on the ways in which he was just like every other american, not the aspects of his personality that made him "elite." i think he won the majority vote by being someone that even "joe the plumber" could relate to in some way. to focus on his very uniquely intellectual side would have been a bad idea, i think.
in other words, we might dig having an intellectual in the oval office, but he could not have gotten there had "being smart" been one of his major selling points.
Post a Comment