The article from the NYT suggests that intellectuals view themselves as a something much like an ethnic group - physically separating, the only Real People, distrust and ignorance of those outside, etc. This sounds like a great deal like my discussions over a decade ago about various American "tribes," including what I then called the Arts & Humanities Tribe.
Culture is indeed missionaried at some of the working‐class institutions (state colleges are what I have in mind) at which exiled members of this elite are forced to teach to earn their daily bread, and snobbery is as present among this elite as among other groups of human beings.
And
First of all, we must investigate the values shared by the members of the intellectual ethnic group. The most basic value is the conviction that the articulation of ideas is the most dignified form of human activity; and closely related is the notion that those whose role it is in society to articulate ideas are not only the most superior members of that society, but also the only ones really qualified to run it.
If it seems that I am bragging that I was on this brilliant observation years ahead of everyone else - though I was ahead of a great many people - I am saying the opposite. The NYTimes article is from 1970, and by Andrew Greeley. It has been out there to see for those willing to see it for a long time.
(CWCID Rob Henderson)
The science fiction theme of giant-brained aliens is an old one, but probably the Greeks could claim they did the "Ideas are the most important things" first--if I may be pardoned the pun.
ReplyDelete