Posted on 11/11/2008 12:38:39 AM PST by 2ndDivisionVet
Hits it dead on.....
Sowell bump.
Not so, though I do think the anti-intellectualism in some Republican corners is a bad thing.
Americans have long been anti-LEFTIST intellectual.
JFK wasn’t real fond of Adlai and was shocked when Adlai stood his ground in the UN during the Cuban missle crisis. Also, Truman was a mere high school graduate. And, I know I have already picked up the coded language saying that “helping those less fortunate” is not a good thing for the incoming crowd and they are frowing on them with no intention of allowing the less fortunate much mobility since anyone who is not an “intellectual” is a dumb a$$ and therefore, can’t know any better or do any better. So, let’s just give the dumba$$ more of the pie so they won’t think about it.
Yep a new type of cultural war is coming. I know people who voted for Obama based on the Harvard thing alone and pointed to Palin going to five different schools as a reason not to vote for McCain. They said they expected more from a President to have the proper elite education. Of course, these people who said to me this were from the New England region. They were dismayed when I pointed out Truman’s background.
This is the kind of discrmination you get from the European mindset and drove our ancestors out of Europe. I have been abroad enough, even alot to Africa and to Rwanda and that region to know when you start talking about the “intellectuals” as a seperate group that it is a form of harsh discrimination on those who are less fortunate and to look out.
Yep, good point. The reason why our ancestors came to the USA and made us seperate from England is at stake again.
Thank you Mr. Sowell. This is an analysis that I particularly needed to hear this morning. Enlightening, comforting and reassuring. I’ve been dealing with a couple intellectuals the past few days, and this gives me insight into their otherwise confusing ramblings.
There you go.
What Kristof is REALLY talking about is the American distrust of intellectuals because Americans can smell a phony, even if we can't quite figure out WHY we're smelling one.
The "intellectuals" he's talking about are phonies like John Kerry--people who "grap complexity" by agreeing with Democrat think tanks and "planners" like Howard Dean, or leftists like the late Said and the confused Chomsky. These are people who work in ideas the way some people work in paint--but there are fine artists, and then there are fingerpainters. Most Democrats can't tell the difference, but pretend they do--they read The New Yorker and BOOM! they're in the club.
Democrat intellectuals remind me of a long article on postmodernist theory published some years ago. After reading praise on their work for months in some intellectual rag where they published, they revealed they'd pulled a scam--the authors consciously wrote a MEANINGLESS article, full of illogic and lies, then sat back and watched the readers of the magazine praise their BS, exposing the fake intellectualism of the readers. This was written about in a book the writers later published.
Democrats think that because they walk into a library and sit down that that's the same as someone who lives in that library day and night, studying. The Dems are the ones flipping through magazines who think that sitting in the library makes them intellectuals.
“During the 1930s, some of the leading intellectuals in America condemned our economic system and pointed to the centrally planned Soviet economy as a model— all this at a time when literally millions of people were starving to death in the Soviet Union, from a famine in a country with some of the richest farmland in Europe and historically a large exporter of food.”
On Mike Douglas’ program, Tommy was discussing the Soviet Union. He had just made a persnal trip there. I remember him speaking of rail cars lined up by the mile, filled with rotting, spoiling fertilizer that was supposed to go to the wheat fields, but never made it. That was at a time when Russians were starving and trying to cut new deals for American wheat.
Tommy Smothers was somewhat of an expert in Russian political affairs, so the program emphasized, and widely read. The interview, without Dickey present, exposed very deep knowledge and common sense.
I don’t know if Tommy Smothers is still living. Anyone know?
Yeah, the Smothers Brothers are both still alive. Tommy, now 71, was given an award at the Emmys the award he was denied 40 years ago for writing for their show at the time, the only problem is that he decided to give a tired old anti-war diatribe on the stage as if it actually was still 1968.
The author was Alan Sokal, the book was The Sokal Hoax. Slings and Arrows sez check it out.
Well, sorry to hear about his positions, then.
Over the years I've known a good number of people that were walking encyclopedias but could not apply that knowledge much less come up with a new solution to a new problem.
To date I've seen no meaningful application of knowledge from Obama that has accomplished anything useful. And if you take it step further, what new idea has Obama ever proposed? That answers all I need to know about his "intellect" that I keep hearing about.
Thanks so much for that—I’ve been trying to remember the book ever since I lost the scrap of paper I’d written the title on! Much obliged.
Freakin’ nails it. “Anti-intellectual” is a code phrase for “rejects European socialism”.
He sure packs a lot of punch in a short column.
No wasted words.
This guy is the gold standard for this niche, like Prager.
That’s amazing, though. The person you described sounded quite a bit different than the umpteenth Bush-basher up on the stage. You almost wanted to smack him upside the head and say, “Tommy, this ain’t 1968. The surge is working... and, hey, had you liberal Hollywood pukes not been deliberately undermining the effort in Vietnam back then, who knows how many millions of lives could’ve been spared and living in freedom instead of under Communist tyranny.” But, hey, being a Conservative in Hollywood is frowned upon... mustn’t be for freedom and all that stuff. Our heroes are Che and Fidel, Mao and Ho. Power to the people, doncha know ?
De nada.
I was asking all through the campaign, as writers or posters mentioned how intelligent Obama is, “How do you know? How has he demonstrated this?” Still waiting for an answer ...
I’m glad to see a new Sowell column. I was concerned that he might have expired from rage after the election.
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