[Anamensis]

Well, I did read Johnson's "Intellectuals" but I hope the Lilla book will be a little better. While Johnson was interesting, he seemed more interested in attacking the intellectuals looks and personalities rather than their ideas. Sartre was ugly and Bertrand Russel had bad breath, therefore we shouldn't give their ideas any credence. I don't agree with that approach, that's no more helpful than trying to denigrate Thomas Jefferson's ideas on the grounds that he owned slaves. I want real arguments, real explorations of the consequences and motives of their ideas, Rand style. I've ordered the Lilla book and hope to get it within the next two weeks.

[Benrand]

Nonsense, I just picked the book up after watching "The Hanoi Hilton" to get an idea of what the War Tribunal organized by Russel was...Johnson laid it out and didn't mention any personal peccadillos of Russell's. He gave a description of it, and some interesting facts to go along with it.

There are ugly warts talked about in that book, but they fit. Marx was a madman, a foul madman...I;v emet smelly intellectuals just like him...it's good to know the personalities behind the ideas. After all, the Personal is the Political, as they say.