The Role of the Intellectual in the Modern World

Intellectuals appear to have had more influence in former periods than in our own. This influence today has been exaggerated. Intellectuals may influence people's talk more than their actions. They are thought to have caused changes when they merely have been foreseeing them a little sooner than the rest. Intellectuals who form their opinions upon evidence have little influence today. Since the war, people of intelligence have had little or no influence on the course of events. This cannot be attributed to democracy because in the totalitarian states their influence is no greater. The large social forces are in essence irrational, prompting men to act against the interest of mankind and against their own private interests. The man who really acts in accordance with his own interest is he who believes he is sacrificing himself to a public end. Anti-intellectualism arises in situations where strong passions that cannot be gratified exist. The intellectual still has influence where passionate issues are not involved, as in the field of technology technicians do more to change the face of the world than social scientists. But technical change is blind and directionaless, without a conception of the ends for which men should live. Respect for the intellectual and the sage is in inverse proportion to the intelligence of the community; respect for the intellectuals decreases with the increase in their numbers. A little education is unsatisfactory because it is just enough to subject people to propaganda. Short of complete ignorance for everyone, the best thing is a good education for all. This is a pre-condition for the influence of intelligence and rationality in the world. Modern means of communication enlarge the range of collective hysteria-the great enemy of democracy. A wholesome, happy childhood and a critical and skeptical attitude to be developed by education are the primary sources of sanity

Blame · Democracy · Epistemology · Face (sociological concept) · Ignorance · Intellectualism · Irrational number · Modernization theory · Passions · Political science · Politics · Social science · Sociology · Subject (documents) · Educational Challenges and Innovations · Law · Philosophy · Psychology · Social Psychology

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