August 24, 2004
ANOTHER BEAUTIFUL MIND (via Jeff Guinn):
Democracy Matters Are Frightening in Our Time (Cornel West)
A decade ago I wrote Race Matters in order to spark a candid public conversation about America’s most explosive issue and most difficult dilemma: the ways in which the vicious legacy of white supremacy contributes to the arrested development of American democracy. This book—the sequel to Race Matters—will look unflinchingly at the waning of democratic energies and practices in our present age of the American empire. There is a deeply troubling deterioration of democratic powers in America today. The rise of an ugly imperialism has been aided by an unholy alliance of the plutocratic elites and the Christian Right, and also by a massive disaffection of so many voters who see too little difference between two corrupted parties, with blacks being taken for granted by the Democrats, and with the deep disaffection of youth. The energy of the youth support for the Howard Dean campaign and avid participation in the recent anti-globalization protests are promising signs, however, of the potential to engage them.
It would take real determination to write a book stupider than Race Matters--which contained the warning: "We are living in one of the most frightening moments in the history of this country. "--but Mr. West seems equal to the task. Presented with a nation in which over 80% of his fellow citizens are Christians and about 40% describe themselves as evangelicals and where Howard Dean made nary a ripple in even Democratic primary voting, while a new free trade pact comes along every week, what conclusions does Mr. West draw? That governance according to the politics of that overwhelming majority represents the failure of democracy and that the rout of the secular Left is a sign of its long term promise. And then folks wonder why America has always been so contemptuous of intellectuals? Posted by Orrin Judd at August 24, 2004 9:05 AM
Not as much contemptuous as confused. Why are they called "intellectuals"? I think it must be because of the big vocabulary as most "intellectuals" turn out to be people that I wouldn't trust with a burned out match, let alone national policy.
Posted by: Mikey at August 24, 2004 9:24 AMMikey:
Intellectuals operate in the realm of pure theory, detached from our lived reality:
As a threshold matter, Richard Hofstadter has great difficulty defining intellectualism, but he does contrast it with intelligence:
[I]ntelligence is an excellence of mind that is employed within a fairly narrow, immediate, an
predictable range... Intelligence works within the framework of limited but clearly stated goals, and
may be quick to shear away questions of thought that do not seem to help in reaching them.
... Intellect, on the other hand, is the critical, creative, and contemplative side of mind. Whereas
intelligence seeks to grasp, manipulate, re-order, adjust, intellect examines, ponders, wonders,
theorizes, criticizes, imagines.
Mikey-
Where do you think the moderate-left Democratic Party gets it's ideas? Taxes, environmental policy, business/property regulation, family and education policy etc.,etc.Add to the above the fact that the most hair brained Supreme Court decisions are based on such mental masturbation and you have American government circa 1933 to the present. They are called "intellectuals" by those who like to picture themselves as such. H.L. Mencken was the first to describe them as the "boobs and quacks" with which have become all too accustomed.
Posted by: Tom C, Stamford,Ct. at August 24, 2004 9:48 AMDr. West would be most upset by your reference to him as Mr. West. Which tells you a great deal about intellectuals.
Posted by: jim hamlen at August 24, 2004 11:09 AMAn intellectual is a person who has been educated beyond their intellegence.
An intellectual is someone who could get a dog's breakfast of an essay like this published.
The rest of us would be ashamed to submit such a cacophonous grab-bag rants and misapprehensions.
Posted by: Jeff Guinn at August 24, 2004 12:52 PMI bet Lawrence Sumner is sighing in relief that he was able shake loose from DR. West, now he's Princeton's problem.
Posted by: h-man at August 24, 2004 6:36 PMI like the British phrase: the "Chattering Classes."
Posted by: Robert Schwartz at August 25, 2004 12:29 AM