On Jan 14, 2007, at 11:20 AM, Yoshie Furuhashi wrote:
> Secular intellectuals on the Left in the USA are largely inorganic
> intellectuals: our ideas are for the people, but not of the people.
Who are these people? Is there some analogue of the Oregon Tilth that certifies organic intellectuals?
Speaking for myself, I came from the people. I'm only the second generation of my family born in the U.S., and the first to go to college. Yeah, I got a fancy-ass education from a hoity-toity college, but what is this authenticity you're alluding to? The spontaneous ideas of The People aren't all that impressive in my experience, and hostility to intellectuals is as American as violence and apple pie. So education and reading will ruin all the lovely rooted spontaneity you seem to valorize.
Doug