[Bret L]

All Power to the Intellectuals!

Posted by Bob on October 22, 2009 at 4:15 pm
Filed Under Coaching Session, Political Correctness | 6 Comments

"In 1992 I decided to try grad school again. One semester almost drove me nuts but I learned that what I had said about academe in A Plague on Both Your Houses in 1976 was, at the very least, true. In 1976 it had been many years since I had left academe and my description of it struck even me as a bit overblown.

I found out in 1992 that it wasn’t. But I had no illusions going in.
One person, hearing I was in Political Science, said, “It must be
fascinating to them to ask you about all your campaigns and making
laws and working for the President.”

I was actually stunned by this statement. Obviously it had been a LONG
time since this person had been in school, or maybe, like most people,
she just didn’t notice while she was there. I sort of mumbled, “No,
they’re too busy to be interested in that stuff.”

In school, your sole interest is in listening and regurgitating on
tests and trying not to worry yourself into a breakdown. The person
who asked me that had a college degree, but probably had not been to
grad school. She probably thought that GRAD students would be
interested in the subject they were dedicating their lives to. I
understand that was once true.

My father used to advise us to talk to a professor about HIS subject,
because to HIM that was the most fascinating thing in the world. Back
in HIS day it was probably true. After all, back then the few people
who had doctorates could make good money anywhere. But by my time
academe or government were the only places a man could be assured of a
job for life.

Graduate students and professors have less interest in their subjects
than a plumber does in pipes.

One thing I noticed was the difference, even from my generation, in
the reaction of professors and grad students to the words, “If you’re
so smart, why ain’t you RICH?”

In my day, professors or grads would just chuckle at it. Today they
start to explain how just anybody can get rich if they’re MEAN or
GREEDY enough or how it’s all a matter of chance and so forth.

They protested too much and they protested WAY too quickly.

There are endless books about how industrialists shape their mentality
around the industry on which their money and power depends. But I am
the ONLY person who has written a book of that sort about academe.

Academe is an industry so gargantuan that it could stuff US Steel in
its vest pocket without a bulge. On every issue its attitude is that
if things were turned over to the Intellectuals, things would be fine.
All money would be OK if the Intellectuals took it and gave it out.

This giving all money to the dictatorship of the proletariat, made up
of Intellectuals, used to be called Communism or Socialism. On the day
the Soviet Empire collapsed, every Communist or Socialist became, in a
single day, Environmentalists. No one else noticed that, of course. If
they had noticed it they would have been surprised.

I wasn’t. The program of Environmentalism today is a Kyoto Treaty
where all production becomes subject to the dictates of the
Intellectuals."

http://www.whitakeronline.org/blog/2...intellectuals/

[Shhhh! I'm Listening to Reason!]

On Oct 23, 5:33*pm, Bret L wrote:
All Power to the Intellectuals!

Why is it that whenever Bratzi posts a Pink Floyd song goes through my
head?

"We don't need no education..."