The Danger Of Overrating 'Intellectuals'

INVESTORS BUSINESS DAILY ^ | November 11, 2008 | THOMAS SOWELL

[qwertypie]

Confusion brought on by unneeded complexity, usually.

Intellectualism = too cute by half

[demshateGod]

It is good. I read it yesterday.

[slnk_rules]

I dunno about dumbest, but it is a trap to think learning academese and the ‘trade language” jargon of academia means you are educated. I saw that clearly in grad school.

[FreeAtlanta]

Yep, it reminds me of how poorly raised children settle arguements.

[ETL]

Those who proclaim themselves to be “intellectuals” aren’t.

The Center for Public Intellectuals & The University of Illinois-Chicago (UIC)
April 19th-20th, 2002, Conference
[Participants include: William/Bill Ayers, Bernardine Dohrn, Sen Barack Obama]

April 19th-20th, 2002
Chicago Illini Union
828 S. Wolcott

This conference is part of the Center's mission of helping to create a more engaged civil society, working towards social change, fostering coalitions between theorists and activists, and combating anti-intellectualism in contemporary culture. It will be both a celebration of ideas and a rigorous examination of the roles and responsibilities that intellectuals play in society.

I. Why Do Ideas Matter? (a keynote panel)

We introduce the “meta” theme of the conference by hearing “success stories” from diverse voices discussing their experiences intervening intellectually.

Timuel Black, Chicago activist; Prof. Emeritus, City Colleges of Chicago
Lonnie Bunch, President, Chicago Historical Society
Bernardine Dohrn, Northwestern University Law School, Children and Family Justice Center
Gerald Graff, UIC, College of Liberal Arts & Sciences
Richard Rorty, Stanford University, Philosophy

III. Lunch and Public Encounters

Alternative breakout tours led by Chicago activists. Tours of Bronzeville and other communities, and visits to organizations that are working on partnering theorists with activists.

IV. Intellectuals in Times of Crisis
Experiences and applications of intellectual work in urgent situations.

William Ayers, UIC, College of Education; author of Fugitive Days
Douglass Cassel, Northwestern University, Center for International Human Rights
Cathy Cohen, University of Chicago, Political Science
Salim Muwakkil, Chicago Tribune; In These Times
Barack Obama, Illinois State Senator
Barbara Ransby, UIC, African-American Studies (moderator)

The Center for Public Intellectuals
University of Illinois-Chicago (UIC):
http://www.uic.edu/classes/las/las400/conferencealt.htm
____________________________________________________________

"Kill all the rich people. Break up their cars and apartments. Bring the revolution home, kill your parents, that's where it's really at"
-Bill Ayers, New York Times, September 11, 2001:

Article: "No Regrets for a Love Of Explosives; In a Memoir of Sorts, a War Protester Talks of Life With the Weathermen"
http://query.nytimes.com/gst/fullpage.html?res=9F02E1DE1438F932A2575AC0A9679C8B63&sec=&spon=&pagewanted=1
____________________________________________________________

"Dig It. First they killed those pigs, then they ate dinner in the same room with them, they even shoved a fork into a victim’s stomach! Wild!"
-Weather Underground leader and wife of Bill Ayers, Bernardine Dohrn, referring to the Manson murders

Article: Allies in War -by David Horowitz
FrontPageMagazine.com | Monday, September 17, 2001
http://www.frontpagemag.com/Articles/Read.aspx?GUID=63512670-BF7C-42A0-B41D-5D0FB9E09C09
____________________________________________________________

[Dick Bachert]

Oh, did I mention that this new guy is about to shove the TRUTH of his SOCIALIST idiocy right up the voters where the sun don’t shime?

[BerniesFriend]

thankfully obama enters the White House with one of the highest IQ’s ever by a President..it is off the charts..unable to be recorded..obama speaks 24 languages..can speed-read “War & Peace” in 5 seconds..is a captain of industry..has doctorates from universities all over this planet..and other planets..let’s face it..he is smart..

[Bigun]

The juvenile sea squirt wanders through the sea searching for a suitable rock or hunk of coral to cling to and make its home for life. For this task it has a rudimentary nervous system. When it finds its spot and takes root, it doesn’t need its brain anymore so it eats it. It’s rather like getting tenure.

Daniel C. Dennett, Consciousness Explained

[Skid Marx]

Myths die hard. When Adlai jr. ran for governor in the 80’s, I had to ask a friend of mine “Why Stevenson, for chrissake?” The answer: “Because he’s smarter.” questions like ‘Any evidence of that?’ don’t work. That was the year that the dem. ticket was seeded with La Rouche people and fell apart anyway. Smart indeed.

[newfreep]

In my experience, "intellectuals" (especially of the liberal variety) can have high intelligence but lack the ability to assimilate information into a cogent, logical thought. It is consistently demonstrated by their actions of making the wrong decision time after time and expecting different results. Amazing how dim witted the "intellectuals" have been and continue to be.

[stayathomemom]

Interesting idea. That would explain their desire to keep on foisting socialism on people,even though we see it as a failed system. As sinful people, we could never be altruistic enough to make a system like that work. They believe they are perfect enough to get it right this time.

[Joe 6-pack]

"Among the many wonders to be expected from an Obama administration, if Nicholas D. Kristof of the New York Times is to be believed, is ending "the anti-intellectualism that has long been a strain in American life."

That should be obvious given the emphasis the black community at large places on education. If only the rest of our nation's schools could emulate those in Obama and Ayer's Chicago, we'd be in good shape.

[Max in Utah]

Most intellectuals rate intelligence in terms of how far you can depart from reality and make it look as though you used reason to get there.

For an extreme example, see the writings of Andrea Dworkin.

No, on second thought, don't. Even a short exposure to such tortured "reasoning" can contaminate your mind for days.

[SampleMan]

My experience is that most self-described intellectuals aren't. They are pseudo-intellectuals.

They know the “right” books to reference, but they've never actually read them. They talk about important lessons of history, that they themselves never really bothered to read up on, but rather they've taken the collective Cleft notes from a collection of other self-styled intellectuals.

In short, they spout an endless blather of what are considered to be intellectual buzz words, commonly agreed to be so, by the prevailing consensus of other self-styled intellectuals.

There was a great quote in the WSJ this morning referencing the book, “The Customer is Always Wrong” that sums this up. Its a collection of grumblings by out of work actors and artists, etc. who lament having to stoop to working in retail. To paraphrase the quote, “Despite my having a Master's degree in Artistic Performance, my manager continued to treat me like a total idiot.” I'm thinking that the retail manager was likely two to three times as bright as that overeducated idiot, unless they had a GED or higher in which case it could have been 4-5 times brighter.

[FreeAtlanta]

Yeah, I have some post grad education. Mine was in a more applied field than what Obi and gang studied. It's funny how the dang lawyers and economist think they are the only people qualified to run the government, when they are probably the worse.

I would love to pack congress, the whitehouse and the supreme court with successful small to medium size business owners. We would have an economy on fire.

[expat_panama]

Has Obi learned there are not 57 states, yet?

We might be able to cut him some slack on that one-- maybe he was joking or talking about something else.  Where he can't be forgiving is his suggestion to propose a censure of Russia's invasion before the UN Security Council --and face Russia's veto (?!).  Obi's simply not educated.  OK he's got degrees and all, but they sure as hell aren't earned degrees.

[SampleMan]

Most intellectuals rate intelligence in terms of how far you can depart from reality and make it look as though you used reason to get there.

A perfect statement.

[all the best]

Excellent example. There are extremely intelligent feminists who turn out such extremely foolish nonsense. It is their forte. They arrive at their hideous fantasies via a tortuous route that most of us cannot even begin to comprehend. (No, I’ve never read her.)

[MrB]

Sowell doesn't venture into the religious aspect, but it became clearer to me later that his reference to the "tragic" view of human nature is the Christian viewpoint of the concept of sin.

Conflict of Visions

Vision of the Anointed

[Elvina]

Usually the dumbest people are the best book educated. They spend years to learn how to talk and put together a paragraph, but their abstract thought ability stinks.

I saw this when I did graduate work in (gag) Science Education. These people could regurgitate with the best of them, and it was like they had spent their lifetime learning how to fake being "smart". When I mentioned in class that Al Gore wasn't a credible scientific source, all I got were blank stares from the other students and passionate arguments defending Gore's expertise from the professor. Yet they tell themselves they are teaching students to "think critically".