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The Problem With Intellectuals
The American Thinker ^ | February 21, 2012 | Richard F. Miniter

Posted on 02/21/2012 2:07:45 AM PST by Cincinatus' Wife

[SNIP]

...So all in all, what choice do we have other than to go after the one individual whose horrible vulnerability Orwell pointed out? The one individual upon whom the entire Left-Wing Liberal movement depends, and must depend for its galvanic power -- the liberal intellectual?

And what is an intellectual?

Well, the dictionary definition is one thing, but what we commonly mean by the term isn't a Ph.D. in physics. And neither do we so call those highly educated in such disciplines such as engineering, math, chemistry, quantum mechanics, metallurgy, and medicine intellectuals. Instead, we usually hang the label on those really, really smart people who pursue advanced degrees in social work. Or, for that matter, art history, leftist helpless economics, women's studies, community studies, and education (I'm leaving a lot out here). Although it should be pointed out that David Mamet throws the net much wider with his "increasingly affluent and confused" definition, and "confused" is often a dead giveaway. However, with Jean-Paul Sartre, the famous French intellectual, once describing human history as "a long and arduous road which led to me," perhaps confusion accompanied by an exorbitant sense of self-importance might be a better rule of thumb.

Be that all as it may, almost the first thing we learn about intellectuals when we examine them a bit more closely is that they are not historically important. They didn't for example fight the American Revolution or write the Constitution. They also had little or maybe nothing at all to do with the Industrial Revolution or with English Common Law (except recently in its corruption). Left-Wing Liberal intellectuals didn't write Shakespeare, paint the ceiling of the Sistine Chapel, or teach us how to can peas....

[SNIP]

(Excerpt) Read more at americanthinker.com ...


TOPICS: Crime/Corruption; Culture/Society; Editorial; Philosophy
KEYWORDS: intellectuals; lenin; liberals; marx; onempty; progressives
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What a terrific piece (and he ends it with a list of bumper stickers you'll like). The article below also deals with this topic; written by a man who was one and now exposes them, David Horowitz:

Progressive Narcissism .................................................."And that is why they hate conservatives. They hate you because you are killers of their dream. You are defenders of a Constitution that thwarts their cause. They hate you because your “reactionary” commitment to individual rights, to a single standard and to a neutral and limited state obstructs their progressive designs. They hate you because you are believers in property and its rights as the cornerstones of prosperity and human freedom; because you do not see the market economy as a mere instrument for acquiring personal wealth and stocking political war chests, but as both means and end.

Conservatives who think progressives are misinformed idealists will always be blind-sided by the sheer malice of the left -- by the cynicism of those who pride themselves on their principles; by the viciousness of those who champion sensitivity; by the intolerance of those who call themselves liberal; and by the ruthless disregard for the well-being of the poor on the part of those who preen themselves as their champions.

Conservatives are surprised because they see progressives as merely misguided, when they are, in fact, morally – and ontologically -- misdirected. They are the messianists of a false religious faith. Since the redeemed future that justifies their existence and rationalizes their hypocrisy can never be realized, what really motivates progressives is a modern idolatry: their limitless passion for the continuance of Them."

1 posted on 02/21/2012 2:07:55 AM PST by Cincinatus' Wife
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To: Cincinatus' Wife
Karl Marx...A liberal intellectual

Thomas Sowell..a conservative intellectual

2 posted on 02/21/2012 2:18:26 AM PST by Bobalu (It is not obama we are fighting, it is the media.)
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To: Bobalu

Exactly!

It has become clear that the GOP-E is now infected with intellectuals (described so well in this column) who feel it’s their right and their place, as our betters, to install “Mitt Romneys” as our leaders.


3 posted on 02/21/2012 2:29:20 AM PST by Cincinatus' Wife
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To: Cincinatus' Wife
I'm making my own bumper sticker (see tagline).


4 posted on 02/21/2012 2:36:46 AM PST by Berlin_Freeper (Cometh the hour, cometh the man. NEWT GINGRICH 2012)
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To: Berlin_Freeper
Newt certainly knows how to puncture their pomposity!

Newt Battles Mush From the Wimps ..........As it happens, Ronald Reagan himself -- but of course -- long ago addressed just this issue. On December 16, 1976, barely over a month after Gerald Ford rang up yet another loss by a moderate Republican presidential candidate, Reagan -- not happy -- was interviewed by the New York Times. Said Reagan:

"We are simply saying, 'What does our party stand for?' If the great majority agrees with the philosophy, and some say it's a philosophy they can't go along with, that's a decision for every individual to make. A political party is not a fraternal order. A party is something where people are bound by a shared philosophy."

Reagan's message was plain. It was the same as it was when he said this at the Conservative Political Action Conference in 1975: "And if there are those who cannot subscribe to these principles, then let them go their way." So what do we have here?

The very same problem Thomas E. Dewey was discussing 63 years ago and that Gerald Ford was talking about 32 years ago. The difference is that neither man, running on an Establishment GOP platform, ever won the presidency.

Ronald Reagan, running flat out as a conservative, won it twice. In two landslides that changed America and changed world history.

The attacks on Newt Gingrich by the Establishment Romneyites are not about Newt Gingrich at all. They are attacks on conservatives. By the Republican Party Establishment.

Or, as the saying might go after all these years: still more mush from the wimps.".....

5 posted on 02/21/2012 2:51:05 AM PST by Cincinatus' Wife
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To: Cincinatus' Wife

Outstanding article. Thanks for posting.


6 posted on 02/21/2012 3:21:06 AM PST by Texas Eagle (If it wasn't for double-standards, Liberals would have no standards at all -- Texas Eagle)
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To: Cincinatus' Wife

Well golly gee. I’m not sure men would know how to live without the intellectuals telling us what to do.

It’s a great article.

Bastiat also said it well. Start here for his discussion on socialists. It is excellent:

http://bastiat.org/en/the_law.html#SECTION_G036

The Influence of Socialist Writers
The Socialists Wish to Play God
The Socialists Despise Mankind


7 posted on 02/21/2012 3:39:28 AM PST by No One Special
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To: Cincinatus' Wife

Bump for later. Thanks!


8 posted on 02/21/2012 3:47:43 AM PST by beef (Who Killed Kennewick Man?)
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To: Cincinatus' Wife

“They hate you because you are killers of their dream. You are defenders of a Constitution that thwarts their cause. They hate you because your “reactionary” commitment to individual rights, to a single standard and to a neutral and limited state obstructs their progressive designs. They hate you because you are believers in property and its rights as the cornerstones of prosperity and human freedom; because you do not see the market economy as a mere instrument for acquiring personal wealth and stocking political war chests, but as both means and end.”

Because I was talking to another person about why I hope Obama doesn’t get re-elected, an early 20-something petite female-of-color (Mexican) bartender wearing one of those Castro-style revolutionary hats walked past and said to me “Don’t hate, participate”. So I said back to her, “Forget that and get me another beer, okay?”, which she did and it was obvious that she was none too happy about it.


9 posted on 02/21/2012 3:48:11 AM PST by equaviator
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To: Cincinatus' Wife
One more suggested bumper sticker:

HOW'S THAT HOPEY-CHANGEY THING WORKING FOR YOU?

10 posted on 02/21/2012 3:52:32 AM PST by Texas Eagle (If it wasn't for double-standards, Liberals would have no standards at all -- Texas Eagle)
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To: No One Special

Socialism is the product of two things, ego and envy.

Marx, for the slothful idiot that he was, had a huge ego - as do most of ‘societal transformation’ types of intellectuals. At the top of any social movement that promises to ‘transform’ society are always small groups of narcissistic people who have decided that politics and/or social activism is their best path to personal greatness and becoming ‘special’. The ego part is almost always the driving force, with few exceptions.

The envy part is what gives the egoists at the top their power. Envy is what they tap into when they say things like ‘pay their fair share’, or ‘health care is a right’. Envy gave us the Cultural Revolution in China, probably contributed significantly to the Kristallnacht in Germany, helped Hugo Chavez to power, and is polarizing American politics.

What’s the solution? I certainly don’t know, but I really wish that someone had punched Marx in the face when he threatened ‘I will annihilate you’.


11 posted on 02/21/2012 4:07:00 AM PST by pieceofthepuzzle
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To: equaviator

LOL Good one


12 posted on 02/21/2012 4:16:03 AM PST by wastedyears (Signature for sale.)
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To: Cincinatus' Wife

They all think that some fancy education is a replacement for common sense and real intelligence. Education teaches someone a skill, it doesn’t make that person smart. That’s what they don’t understand.

I’m pretty sure I could argue people in my age group to another galaxy.


13 posted on 02/21/2012 4:18:20 AM PST by wastedyears (Signature for sale.)
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To: pieceofthepuzzle

Nice exposition of the problem. I think the answer starts right here with education about our heritage of liberty as offered up by the founders. I had what would pass for a good education but it was only after I got on the internet that I started to truly learn about and appreciate this heritage


14 posted on 02/21/2012 4:26:09 AM PST by No One Special
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FREE REPUBLIC WILL BE BETTER THAN EVER!



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15 posted on 02/21/2012 4:34:18 AM PST by deoetdoctrinae (Gun-free zones are playgrounds for felons)
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To: No One Special

I had a pretty poor education in high school, but I feel like the real learning began when I was done with it, and got on here. The explosion in my knowledge and ability to process things amazes me.


16 posted on 02/21/2012 4:37:02 AM PST by wastedyears (Signature for sale.)
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To: Cincinatus' Wife

My definition of “intellectuals.”

Heavy thinkers...little productivity.

All blow and no show.

Intellectually devoid of common sense.

Complete lack of life’s skills.

Professional life-time students.

And the list goes on and on and on.

There is a reason that intellectuals normally can’t be identified in the great inventions of our society and it’s because of their ability to produce absolutely nothing more than heavy thinking.


17 posted on 02/21/2012 4:43:19 AM PST by DH (Once the tainted finger of government touches anything the rot begins)
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To: Texas Eagle

Another great column today!

..........”The way the system actually works is that experts tell leaders what to think, the leaders tell the lobbyists what to think, the lobbyists tell the advisers, who tell the politicians, and then the politicians get up on stage, beam their brightest smile, and tell us what to think. Compared to the absurdity of this pipeline foisting a disastrous philosophy on the world in the name of saving the planet from humanity, discovering that all the banks were playing with imaginary money is positively benign.

Global Warming is not just a failure of a sizable chunk of the scientific establishment to put theory before ideology, it represents a failure of the entire process by which the West has been governed for a frightening number of years. It is a demonstration of how a handful of people in prominent positions can push through otherwise unacceptable measures by manufacturing a crisis and pipelining it through business and government. It’s a hack of our entire system of government.

If you understand the implications of that, then you begin to understand the consequences of it for the progressive technocracy and its mindless elitism that uses opinion leaders to drive actual leaders and has entire agencies dedicated to influencing opinion leaders. If Warmism fails, then it all fails. There will be no mobs in the street or squares filled with protesters, instead the entire infrastructure whose entire purpose is not to look stupid, will suddenly look very stupid.

Stupid leaders might not be too much of a problem in a democracy where people are entitled to elect any idiot they want, but it’s unacceptable in a technocracy where the leaders may win elections, but mostly they win the consensus of the elites. If the elites and their technocracy no longer amount to anything, then the emperor is naked, and suddenly elections might start mattering again.”

http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/2849231/posts


18 posted on 02/21/2012 4:44:28 AM PST by Cincinatus' Wife
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To: wastedyears

I see you’re a young ‘un from your home page. I was in school at a time before whatever is going on there now was happening. I believe that an undertanding of our heritage had been purposely excised from the common educational experience of Americans going back many years. All rhe better to prep us to hate our country.


19 posted on 02/21/2012 4:46:34 AM PST by No One Special
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To: DH

“FORT WORTH, Texas — Between events in Fort Worth and Dallas Tuesday, Texas Gov. Rick Perry called in to conservative pundit Sean Hannity’s radio show, and the host brought up a controversial story published by the online publication Politico this week with the headline “Is Rick Perry Dumb?”

What’s dumb is to oversee an economy that has lost that many millions of jobs ... to downgrade the credit of this country ... to put fiscal policies in place that were a disaster back in the ’30s and try them again in 2000s,” Perry said.

Hannity quickly warned that the thought listeners will take away from the interview could be: “Perry calls Obama policies ’dumb.’”

“Are you ready for that headline?” Hannity asked.

“America is ready for leadership,” Perry said.

Perry continued on the intellect theme, explaining why he thinks it’s a problem that many of Obama’s advisers come from academia.

“They have gone to some great schools and they are intellectually smart, but he does not have wise people around him ... He has listened to smart people but nobody who has real wisdom,” Perry said.”

http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/2771302/posts


20 posted on 02/21/2012 4:57:31 AM PST by Cincinatus' Wife
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