Brain Drain

"If you think that by threatening me you can get me to do what you want, well, that's where you're right."
--Chris Knight (Real Genius)

Presently, people who qualify as 'intellectuals' (e.g., academics, journalists, pundits) generally seem to be more interested in pursuing political ends than in pursuing the truth. In his 1927 work, La Trahison des Clercs (published in transalated form as The Treason of the Intellectuals in 1928), French essayist Julien Benda, offered an early discussion of this phenomenon.

More than 80 yrs ago, Benda observed the already-in-motion trend that intellectuals were foresaking the principles of intellectual life, such as disinterested judgement and faith in the universality of truth, in order to join politically driven 'cults of success.' Intellectuals were shedding independence in order to be power brokers of the day.

The past few decades have seen this phenomenon escalate. We regularly see politicians trot out willing 'experts', for example, to lend validity to a particular point of view. Other experts pepper commentary on opinion pages of leading newspapers.

Were such intellects truly dedicated to pursuing the truth, then they would not side with 'movements' such as global warming or Keynesian economics where conclusions/findings remain highly contestable.

Perhaps relying on a subset of individuals to do the reasoning or thinking for the rest of society is not a particularly good division of labor.

Rather than outsourcing their capacity for reason to those who are considered 'smart,' perhaps all individuals should diversify their skill sets to include thought processes that pursue the truth.

Reference

Benda, J. 1928. The treason of the intellectuals. New York: William Morrow & Company.