>What causes it? I'm in a southern town with a big public university, the
>profs and grad assistants that speak up don't get contracts, don't get
>tenure, or if tenured are driven out. But I'd define intellectual for the
moment
>as someone who gets paid to study
That's the problem-- if movement intellectuals are being paid to study, they are on the payroll of the state or elite institutions, so of course they don't serve activists well. One reason why I got a law degree after getting a Ph.D. was because I figured I should get the ability to make money NOT for intellectual work, so I'd have the time to do any intellectual work on my own dime or at the pathetic pay the movement can provide for the occasional article. I'm a big fan of Russell Jacoby's thesis in THE LAST INTELLECTUALS that the opening of the universities to the Left was a largely bad thing, in that it took them off the street into the cloisters.
I'm not a big fan of Lenin but at least he understood the basic form of intellectual work activists need -- "What is to be Done." Most academic work addresses every issue other than that. They explain history, the criticize activist leadership. they question "dualities", but they rarely lay out step-by-step programs for activists to evaluate. The reason EMPIRE excited folks was that, however half-assed its program in my mind, it actually tried to connect deep historical analysis to a program of action, a rare thing so it stood out.
I remember back in the early 90s I worked on a report on the California economy for a statewide labor-environmental network. Everyone liked the initial draft but they complained that after ripping apart the Governor's program based on what was happening in the state, it didn't detail what we should do. So myself and my coauthor went back and revved up a set of solutions-- and folks were thrilled. No anti-intelectualism, just enthusism for a set of ideas on where we should go. (Notably, when the media picked up on the report, they focused on the solutions section as well- I was quite proud that this was the first time I was red-baited in a major media outlet by the rightwing academic commentator they brought in for a quote). I have never seen a reluctance by activists to consider well-reasoned goals and programs proposed-- they just want it rooted in the analysis and work they are involved in with a positive vision of how to do it.
-- Nathan Newman