Posted by
Speedicut on Sunday, October 04, 2009 1:02:27 PM
What is the problem with Intellectuals lately? We had them gated off but they have escaped, criticizing the commoners for voicing their opinions about what kind of country in which we want to live. Progressives (oh the irony of that moniker) and other Dem/libs just flat out call us commoners "stupid", "liar" and "hateful". It's their go-to move instead of arguing the issue with facts and reason. We'll excuse them because it would be like criticizing hyenas for sucking eggs. Bill Maher says (mostly rightly) that the Right has no Intellectual leaders. There are a few on the right who say the same thing. Lindsey "Truman Capote" Graham, Richard Posner, David Brooks, et al bemoan the dearth of Intellectual discourse.
First, we should clarify what "Intellectual" means to Intellectuals and what it means to normal people. Most of us are intelligent, educated, and well-informed. We know what's what. Just because we don't sit around reading the NYT book reviews or the latest tomes on science and philosophy doesn't mean we are not intellectual. The Intellectual's notion of "Intellectual" is that you work in a field where you isolate yourself, study, dream, write like James Joyce (except it is supposed to be NON-fiction) and then get together with your ilk and bandy about the ideas up with which you have come. If this process goes on long enough - and it always does - you lose touch with the common folk; that is to say The Majority.
Let's go back to the beginning of this glorious country. We had men like Washington, Franklin, Madison, Adams, and Jefferson. I'll wait for today's Intellectuals to tell me these men were NOT Intellectuals. (insert theme from Jeopardy here). No? Okay. These men not only thought Great Thoughts and held Lofty Ideals; they wrote them down on paper and acted on them. Plus, these men not only thought Great Thoughts and held Lofty Ideals - they also knew how to pick up a hammer, plow a field, fix a sink (if they had actually had them) tabulate the costs of groceries and balance ONE set of books for their respective businesses. In other words, they were brilliant AND useful.
Today's Intellectuals are soft. Locke, Rousseau, Hume, Spinoza and 'em, good or bad - right or wrong, were all in agreement on common sense truisms in every person's life. Sometimes, a fist in the face will get the bad guy to see things differently. A man can get as drunk as he wants BUT he should pay for his own drinks. If you have a wife, you pay for her needs. Build your own house, make the most of your abilities. An agreement is an agreement. Do what you say you're going to do. If you mess up you should own up. The founders all accepted these notions as common rules to live by.
Not so today's Intellectuals and politicians. They have had no reckoning put upon them. They have too much time on their hands and have lead us astray. They campaign instead of govern. On the opposite side are the normal people, Dems, Repubs, Indies, Mods, whatever, who just want accountability of those whom we have voted into office. Until we get the foundation fixed there is no time or money for the shiny new stuff like Healthcare for All and other gigantic bailout programs. When the normal people speak out about what we want - which is EXACTLY what the Founding Intellectuals wanted - the modern Intellectuals call us common, low brow, and pedantic.
In their smugness, the Intellectuals tell us we have no new ideas. This is why Intellectuals are mostly useless. They don't know that THERE ARE NO NEW THINGS UNDER THE SUN. I'll bet 90% of native born Americans have heard this saying. Most humans know this instinctively. Intellectuals are seldom direct so what they are really saying is:
We love this idea of universal free stuff; we have no reason to believe it will work like we say it will; we deep down know that we are not really progressive since it's been tried before; and we are putting all of our faith on humans behaving as we wish them to behave.
Some pols on the Right agree with those on the Left. Lindsay Capote Graham is one of them. He says we should calm down and talk about things. Well, the problem is that the Left uses brass knuckles and the Right wants to have a college debate, you know, with rules and stuff. So, finally, we commoners have had enough. We've taken it upon ourselves - which we should have been paying attention all along - and gone back and read the Founders writings. We've rediscovered our voice. So we're out of practice and get loud - too bad. If you want us to stop shouting then show us some respect. Quit doing things behind our backs and lying to our faces. We honestly want to debate ideas, whether practical or lofty. But you have to be upfront with us and trust us.
Meanwhile, we're going to ignore the effete Intellectuals and get to fixing the country.