Intellectuals & Society

Ellsworth Toohey: Mr Roark, we're alone here. Why don't you tell me what you think of me in any words you wish.
Howard Roark: But I don't think of you.
--The Fountainhead

Recently finished Intellectuals and Society by Thomas Sowell. Intellect is different from intelligence. Intellect is the ability to grasp and manipulate complex ideas while intelligence (wisdom) is the ability to combine intellect, knowledge, experience, and judgment to produce coherent understanding.

Intellectuals refers to an occupational category--people who deal primarily with ideas. Writers and academics would be examples. Intellectuals are dealers of ideas, not users of ideas. Unlike some people who apply complex ideas (e.g., engineers), an intellectual's work begins and ends with ideas.

Sowell distinguishes between intellectuals and intelligentsia. Intellectuals produce ideas; intelligentsia distribute ideas. Thus, the intelligentsia (e.g., media) are channels for distributing the products generated by intellectuals. I like to think of them as part of the same supply chain. One upstream; the other downstream.

I found the first half of Sowell's book particularly interesting. He discusses the lack of verifiability and accountability of the intellectual's typical output, and the lack of reasoning typically applied by the intelligentsia as they disseminate intellectual ideas. Marx's work is a classic example.

He then works thru the impact of intellectuals in various domains such as economics, social welfare, academia, and law.

Where Sowell lost me a bit was in his discussions of intellectuals and war. His primary claim is that intellectuals have typically been anti-war (with notable exceptions including the prosecution of wars such as WWI and WWII under Democratic regimes). The distribution of antiwar sentiment thru the intelligentsia has generally produced a naive public that permits bad guys like Hitler and Saddam to get head starts on military campaigns.

However, Sowell fails to argue convincingly why any 20th century war actually required US involvement--an implied assertion throughout. Nor why hawkish policies such as trade embargoes did not exacerbate propensity for war.

Also, Sowell does not touch much on why intellectuals as a class think the way they do (anti-freedom, pro-socialism, anti-business, pro-government). More thoughtful treatment can be found elsewhere.

That said, Sowell's book is a worthy read. The cites alone are worth the price of admission, and present a compelling body of evidence generally damning to the intellectual class. I hope to draw from this work as my thought processes continue to develop.

Reference

Sowell, T. 2009. Intellectuals and society. New York: Basic Books.