"What I find particularly disconcerting about the US academia (and the post-modern brand of discourse in general, I presume) is its supply-side intellectualism. It is manifested, inter alia, by giving the entire credit for a fruitful idea to the person who was shrewd enough to obtain a patent, or monopoly rights if you will, on it. The demand side - or their impact on- and reinterpretations in a broader discourse - receive little or no attention. A flip side of this supply-side intellectualism is the use of ad hominems to discredit an idea - as it is widely practiced by intellectual figures of various statures diligently laboring to manufacture intellectual biographies of their adversaries by linking them to conventionally designated monsters (Hitler, Stalin, McCarthy, Osama bin Ladin, the archetypical 'Racist,' 'Holocaust Denier,' etc.). Portraying Sweezy as an intellectual heir of Stalin is a part of this sad trend."
Hey, that's a very astute and interesting comment. I was well aware of the "star system" -- but had not linked it to supply-side thinking. It also bring to mind the ninteenth century cult of virtuosity, which had to be linked to the unrelenting deskilling of labor in general.
But as for "the flip side of supply-side intellectualism," I'm not so sure. This seems more of a piece with US righteous and pure evangelicalism.
Joanna