delcielo's Journal: The Tyranny of "The Intellectuals"

Oscar Wilde once wrote "you cannot reason a man out of a position he has not reasoned himself into", and so I did not respond this last Saturday when I was privy to a conversation that desperately begged for a response. Perhaps I should have; but in the end, I wasn't convinced that it would result in anything positive.

There were 5 or 6 of us gathered around when conversation turned to politics. This particular group of men leans very conservative, so I left my centrist self to listen. But the subject of liberal universities and left-wing nutjob professors arose. That led directly into a condemnation of intellectuals in general. They were seen as thinkers at the expense of doers. They were leeches, thinking themselves so smart; but providing little benefit to society. They pontificated arrogantly to the hard-working citizens who built this country. This went on ad nauseum.

It offended me greatly for a number of reasons. First, there was bit of the strawman in how they related intellectuals to liberal nutjobs. It's a strawman argument useful for dismissing said intellectuals. It's a method of minimizing them and their opinions. It's a mechanism for elevating one's opinion to "the right opinion" when there is conflict.

The other thing that struck me was the willfull ignorance of the historical contributions to our society of the "intellectuals". It's quaint and uplifting to our pride to say that this country was built on the backs of the American worker; but it's not the complete story.

Intellectuals wrote the Declaration of Independence.
Intellectuals wrote the Articles of Confederation.
Intellectuals argued for months throughout the constitutional convention, hashing out mechanisms and political philosophies that they pulled from political studies and histories written by men none of us now know from memory. These were smart men. They were studious.
The intellectuals spilled their blood alongside of the farmer and the trapper in the war. They implemented the strategies that allowed us to defeat the British. Who can forget Nathan Hale's statement that "I regret that I have but one life to give for my country" or Patrick Henry's challenge to "Give me liberty or give me death!"?

It was intellectuals who cured Polio
It was intellectuals who sparked the industrial revolution
It was intellectuals who took us to the moon
It was intellectuals who developed the exotic composites and materials that protect our troops
It was intellectuals who developed the training that make our military the strongest and the smartest in the world
It was intellectuals who developed our incredibly safe cars with their airbags, anti-lock brakes and crumple-zones
It was intellectuals who designed the computers that make so many of our other accomplishments possible

It will be the intellectuals who one day cure cancer and aids.

T.J. Watson, the founder of IBM gave his employees notepads on which he had printed "Think". This wonderful little laptop I'm typing this from is named after those "Think" pads.

When intellect becomes a bad word in this country, we have seen the beginning of the end of our strength, our elevated society, and of our very character.

Work hard. Think hard. Make us better.