"Intellectual"

[David Hearne]

This point may have already been brought up, but shouldn't we
differentiate between the "professonial" definition of "intellectual"
(i.e., the college profressor, the scientist) versus "intellectual" as
a certain personality type? The latter seems a lot harder to describe.
As my brother said, "What does being 'anti-intellectual' mean? That
you're pro-stupid?"

Gordon Fitch's shot at Richard Hofstadter was well-aimed, but you have
to really wonder about how much currency deep thought has in the USA.
My father once complimented me for my willingness to educate myself
after college. "Well, everybody educates themselves," I said. No, they
do not, he replied in a firm voice.

Was my father being snobbish or observant? Or both? Despite what I
said, I was obviously pleased. Hey, how many people can cite John
Stuart Mill, a sociological book about the juvenile deliquency scare
in the fifties, a six-hundred-page biography on Pope John Paul II and
"I, Claudius" among the last ten books they've read? On the other
hand, what does that really mean? Does this make my intellect any
sharper than the next person's?

    -- David