Policy intellectuals -- eggheads presuming to instruct the mere mortals who actually run for office -- are a blight on the republic. Like some invasive species, they infest present-day Washington, where their presence strangles common sense and has brought to the verge of extinction the simple ability to perceive reality. A benign appearance -- well-dressed... Read More

It is a commonplace observation that very smart people often have no sense. Writers since Aristophanes have been making sport of their intellectual superiors. Jonathan Swift had the academicians of Lagado striving to extract sunbeams from cucumbers. Twenty years ago Paul Johnson wrote a fine book titled Intellectuals, in which he tossed and gored such... Read More

To speak or write of ”the intellectuals” today is to refer to a range of political positions from the extreme rightwing (neo-liberal, neo-conservatives), through the center right (social-liberals) to the center-left (social democrats) to the revolutionary left (Marxists). Introduction Within and outside of these political categories we have a range of political ecologists, feminists, gays,... Read More