The New 'Treason Of The Intellectuals'.....

The Iconoclast ^ | March 03, 2003 | Stepehn Rittenberg

[BurkesLaw]

Makes sense to me. Resentful egotistical traitors.

[fporretto]

As a grace note to Mr. Rittenberg's analysis, I'd like to contribute the following: In many cases, these verbally-talented "intellectuals" are not very intellectual at all. That is, they possess less actual power of ratiocination than they're presumed to have. They neither analyze nor synthesize; they merely comment. Thus, what matters most about them is their unusual facility with words.

"I shall say it a hundred times if I must... We really ought to free ourselves from the seductions of words!" -- Friedrich Wilhelm Nietzsche.

Freedom, Wealth, and Peace,
Francis W. Porretto
Visit The Palace Of Reason:
http://palaceofreason.com

[Poseidon]

While I applaud your efforts to direct the casual reader to the full article, I find it somewhat humorous that you excerpted the article in its entirelty with the exception of the final paragraph...not exactly what I'd call keeping in the spirit of excerpting. However, a good read nonetheless.

[Revolting cat!]

"Even when one of their own, Salman Rushdie, was threatened with death by the forces of Islamofacism, there was barely a murmur of protest against the Islamo-Nazis and their fatwas."

False. I stopped there; once you introduce a lie, your remaining evidence and arguments are suspect!

[Lil'freeper]

Excellent find- thanks for posting it.

[daviddennis]

Interesting. My talent makes me a wordsmith intellectual, but I hated the school environment because it didn't seem to be teaching me anything truly useful. Math, for example, would be better done with calculators or computers. Analyzing other people's writing bored me; from the very beginning I wanted to write my own original stuff instead. History consisted of learning the same stuff over again that was already covered in earlier grades.

The hypothesis generated by these folks would indicate that I would most likely become pro-capitalist, since the outside world interested me a great deal more than what I saw as the artificial school environment. And that did in fact become the case.

So the theory looks pretty good.

D

[P.O.E.]

Their egos tell them "I have the answer", and they want to run everyone else's lives. They live in solipsistic loops with other birds of such feather, and can't understand that others don't, and don't want to, speak their language.

[MEG33]

Sounds reasonable.What about the very well paid actors? Academics are another group that seems disdainful of America. I think the Reds aren't dead in America.

[Zeroisanumber]

"Even when one of their own, Salman Rushdie, was threatened with death by the forces of Islamofacism, there was barely a murmur of protest against the Islamo-Nazis and their fatwas."

Not true in the slightest. Gore Vidal, Martin Amis, and assorted company were so outraged that they nearly had a collective stroke.

I've never considered dissent and criticism to be a form of treason, have we become so narrow that anyone who doesn't toe the party line is a traitor to America?

[Egregious Philbin]

Even when one of their own, Salman Rushdie, was threatened with death by the forces of Islamofacism, there was barely a murmur of protest against the Islamo-Nazis and their fatwas.

Not quite true:

`Sontag spoke of Rushdie as "only the most visible individual victim of a worldwide struggle against tolerance," citing other examples of oppressed or threatened authors. Sontag tied Rushdie's situation to the plight of the Bosnians -- she was recently named an honorary citizen of Sarajevo after staging a production of Waiting for Godot in the besieged city.'

'So, my best to you, old man, wherever you are ensconced, and may the muses embrace you.' [Letter from Norman Mailer to Rushdie]

Harold Pinter, along with Susan Sontag, signed his name to a letter in defense of Rushdie in the NY Review of Books.

[Egregious Philbin]

Jinx!

[Carry_Okie]

While I applaud your efforts to direct the casual reader to the full article, I find it somewhat humorous that you excerpted the article in its entirelty with the exception of the final paragraph...not exactly what I'd call keeping in the spirit of excerpting. However, a good read nonetheless.

For which there is clearly a rationale: It is the desire to share ideas as far as possible while still providing hits to the sponsoring source. It's actually a generous approach and an attempt to enlist the casual.

[oyez]

I think the Reds aren't dead in America

Reminds of a sign I once saw in a bar that said, "Those that don't believe in life after death should see this place closing time. " The Red's are back to life and they are finding themselves locked out.

[MEG33]

It's their big bag of burgler tools that worry me!

[Publius6961]

Why is there so often an alliance between wordsmith intellectuals -- poets, novelists, playwrights, literary critics, journalists -- and anti-democratic, anti-capitalist totalitarians?

That's easy.
To these twinkletoes, symbolism always trumps reality.
"Greatness" by association, since so many historical figures were "weird".
They are incapable of understanding that "weirdness" alone is not enough. A certain level of intellectual competence is also essential.

In the real world, the folks with a firm grasp on reality keep things going and makes the existence of these parasites possible.

Darwin explains it rather clearly.

[MEG33]

OOPS! burglar

[appalachian_dweller]

>> Resentful egotistical traitors. <<

That about caps it. I've stopped watching movies and in general TV shows altogether. Knowing how these traitors think, I just can't bring myself to watch them anymore. About all I watch is news and the discovery channel, history channel, and the learning channel.

[A_perfect_lady]

Only the intellectuals' sense of unrecognized superiority, of entitlement betrayed, produces that animus."

I hereby swear and affirm this to be true. In my teens and 20s, my sense of my own superiority stemmed directly from my way with words, and I mightily, mightily resented how little the world valued my one and only gift. It took some real enlightening to bring me face to face with myself and my real motivations... but once you "know thyself" there's no way to look at the Left without profound horror and - for me - shame.

[ecomcon]

Actors are perhaps the most despicable of the lot. They are paid to say the words of the "wordsmith". They then act like, and sooner or later, believe themselves to be actual intellectuals, simply because they said the words they were given on a script, and pretended to believe them in a convincing way. What is acting but make-believe?

Perhaps we have entirely too much liesure time on our hands.

[Phaedrus]

... but once you "know thyself" there's no way to look at the Left without profound horror ...

I was somewhat disappointed with the article insofar as I think the rot goes much deeper; i.e. into psychological dysfunction.

Most of us are "products" of the public school and university system. We grow up and we "get over it". I believe that those who remain within the "educational" system or who find their way into the media as a result of their talents also find themselves there as a consequence of their insecurity. Those institutions are one step removed from the real world of self-sufficiency and the individuals represented depend upon and are beholden to others for their sustenance. I think that they very deeply resent this. They are exceedingly immature.

The antidote might simply be to challenge them to grow up by calling their bluff. Robert Bork, a former Marine, is an example of an intellectual who grew up.