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Politics : View from the Center and Left -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: epicure who wrote (95256)	11/11/2008 10:42:15 AM
From: Lane3	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 541853

How you got to "believing people" just because they are intellectuals is beyond me. What I said was I did not think or suggest that you said that. It was just a restatement of the point that intellectuals can be mistaken. I think "the first 100 people in the phone book" is clearly a Paean to the uneducated. He didn't mean that literally, although there are clearly problems with the alternative. It was just a flip slap at Harvard. Buckley was an urbane intellectual. He also said "I spent my whole life trying to separate the right from the crazies." Being an intellectual certainly doesn't mean you have the right answers, but being ignorant means you are almost sure not to have them. Indeed.

To: epicure who wrote (95256)	11/11/2008 11:19:30 AM
From: Sam	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 541853

The ambivalence to education is deep-seated in American culture. Here are some quotes from Thomas Jefferson that illustrate that ambivalence: State a moral case to a ploughman and a professor. The former will decide it as well, and often better than the latter, because he has not been led astray by artificial rules. Educate and inform the whole mass of the people... They are the only sure reliance for the preservation of our liberty. Enlighten the people generally, and tyranny and oppressions of body and mind will vanish like evil spirits at the dawn of day. If a nation expects to be ignorant and free, in a state of civilization, it expects what never was and never will be. The functionaries of every government have propensities to command at will the liberty and property of their constituents. There is no safe deposit for these but with the people themselves; nor can they be safe with them without information. Where the press is free, and every man able to read, all is safe. brainyquote.com Certainly it is true that educated people can do a great deal more harm than uneducated people--consider the current financial crisis and Warren Buffett's oft-repeated stricture to "Be wary of nerds bearing esoteric formulas."

To: epicure who wrote (95256)	11/11/2008 12:35:18 PM
From: KonKilo	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 541853

Intellectuals like to argue. They are constantly reviewing each others studies and papers. The only people who can't really argue are the uneducated, because they haven't the education to understand what they are arguing, nor have they the skills to articulate their argument. I'm sure I'm not the only one who has noticed how poor the debating skills of our visitors from the RW tend to be. It would be far more interesting around here if they were a bit better at arguing their positions.

To: epicure who wrote (95256)	11/11/2008 2:55:00 PM
From: TimF	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 541853

I think "the first 100 people in the phone book" is clearly a Paean to the uneducated. While the faculty at Harvard may have its problems, they are likely to be much better informed than the first 100 people in the phone book I don't think its so clear. They are likely to be better informed, they are also more likely to be very liberal (then again the Boston phone book probably wouldn't be full of strong conservatives). Its more an anti-liberal statement than an anti-intellectual one. The person who made it (Buckley), and the person supporting it in the article you quote (Sowell) are (or where in Buckley's case) both intellectuals themselves. Also the 1st 100 names of the Boston phone book, may be a more diverse group than the faculty of Harvard, who are after all all faculty members at the same school. Having a group all in the same occupation and all in the same intellectual environment as rulers of the country might not be such a good idea.