[lbo-talk] Noam on intellectuals

Doug Henwood dhenwood at panix.com
Sun Feb 11 18:11:53 PST 2007


On Feb 11, 2007, at 6:45 PM, B. wrote:


> Mikhail Bakunin: "The aristocracy of the intellect is
> the most hateful, scornful, insolent, and oppressive
> of all aristocracies that have, each in its turn, and
> all at once, oppressed human society. The modern
> universities of Europe ... perform for the bourgeois
> class the same services the Church once rendered the
> aristocracy of nobles; this new sacerdotal caste [of
> intellectuals], a church of bourgeois learning, nows
> explains and legitimates the exploitation of workers."
> (1869)

That doesn't describe contemporary Europe or North America. We have an aristocracy of money, though official ideology suggests that you're only as rich as you are clever.

Doug



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