[Intolerant in NJ]

Intellectuals, according to Mr. Kristof, are people who are "interested in ideas and comfortable with complexity,"...the trouble with being wrapped up in ideas all the time is that those ideas rarely touch back to the concrete, real world and can lead those immersed in them down some really out of the way detours...was it Orwell or Huxley who said "one would have to be an intellectual to believe such a thing - no ordinary man could be so foolish"?.....

[RipSawyer]

Orwell or Huxley who said “one would have to be an intellectual to believe such a thing - no ordinary man could be so foolish”?.....
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Twenty years or so ago I had a fellow of about 26 years on my payroll. He was a sort of jack of all trades and master of none and not too brilliant but he knew how to get himself back out of the woods after he screwed up and he finally settled down and became an American Family Man. One day at work he made a remark I have remembered since, he was talking about some business manager and he said that he was convinced that some of these people go to college to study how to be stupid because you just can’t be that stupid without training. Sometimes I think he was onto something that escaped most people’s notice.