 Stevenson the "intellectual," left, could happily go years without picking up a book. Truman the bumpkin devoured Thucydides and read Cicero in the original Latin. |
Posted on 11/12/2008 5:27:44 AM PST by expat_panama
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."
He cited Adlai Stevenson, the suave and debonair governor of Illinois, who twice ran for president against Eisenhower in the 1950s, as an example of an intellectual in politics.
Intellectuals, according to Mr. Kristof, are people who are "interested in ideas and comfortable with complexity," people who "read the classics."
It is hard to know whether to laugh or cry.
| Stevenson the "intellectual," left, could happily go years without picking up a book. Truman the bumpkin devoured Thucydides and read Cicero in the original Latin. |
Adlai Stevenson was certainly regarded as an intellectual by intellectuals in the 1950s. But half a century later, facts paint a very different picture.
Historian Michael Beschloss, among others, has noted that Stevenson "could go quite happily for months or years without picking up a book." But Stevenson had the airs of an intellectual — the form, rather than the substance.
What is more telling, form was enough to impress the intellectuals, not only then but even now, years after the facts have been revealed, though apparently not to Mr. Kristof.
That is one of many reasons why intellectuals are not taken as seriously by others as they take themselves.
[snip]
(Excerpt) Read more at ibdeditorials.com ...
Those who proclaim themselves to be “intellectuals” aren’t. Einstein, Schweitzer, Bonhoeffer never applied that description to themselves.
Most of those who thought of him as an "intellectual" aren't even remembered.
So much for the hollow and pretentious false intellectualism of the 1950s.
The Left is all about emotion, not ideas.
This is a great article, worthy of a ping.
Have you also noticed when listening to libs, how INTELLIGENT anyone is who happens to have the same ideology (yet says the most ignorant things),
yet anyone who actually IS intelligent, and isn’t a flaming socialist, is “dumb”?
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. It doesn’t take a whole lot of intelligence to see the truth. It does take a whole lot of brain power to create a well-integrated, sophisticated lie or fantasy. Consider that it took a huge amount of brain power to turn out an episode of Star Wars(not true) than it does a video of kids playing in the back yard(reality).
This explains why the folks at Harvard, Yale, etc. can turn out such nonsense that mere mortals know is foolishness.
Sowell explained the “intellectual worship” phenomena in his “Conflict of Visions” book.
The left has the worldview that humans are perfectible (as opposed to the “tragic” worldview that humans are inherently flawed, ie sinners),
and therefore, some humans are already “more perfect” than others,
and therefore, those who are “more perfect” SHOULD make decisions for those who are “less perfect”.
“Intellectualism does not equal wisdom”
Or, as Dennis Prager says, some ideas are so foolish they could only come from a university. Another bullseye by Sowell.
some intellectual....can’t even distinguish between the fatuous narcissism that passes for intelligence among the Ivy League, with true intellectualism.
On this other tread we were comparing Rush Limbaugh and Dennis Prager --another bumpkin/intellectual pair --and IMHO Prager's got good sense in more areas than Rush does.
There is absolutely no danger of any intelligent person “overrating” intellectuals. Only they can do that...........
Has Obi learned there are not 57 states, yet?
Roger that. Sent it to my lists here.
Too bad Sowell won’t run for office.
Doubt he could win as he has this annoying habit of TELLING THE TRUTH. I’m afraid the American sheeple CAN’T HANDLE THE TRUTH!
That's one of my rules of life. The more someone proclaims his or herself to be a (fill in the blank), the less likely it is that they're not.
lol! Our great minds tread the same path (re post 13).
Intellectuals are so damn smart that they don’t realize that THEY are the first to be eliminated in any Left Wing Dictatorship.....
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