On Jul 6, 2008, at 7:41 PM, Tayssir John Gabbour wrote:
> It's almost like a paradox to be a leftist and not be
> "anti-intellectual." (At least for certain values of "intellectual.")
> If we take the most elite of elite academics -- the most cited living
> prof -- he claims that American anti-intellectualism is healthy:
>
> "In fact, if you compare the United States with France, or with
> most of Europe, for that matter -- I think one of the healthy
> things about the United States is precisely this: there's very
> little respect for intellectuals as such. And there shouldn't
> be. What's there to respect?"
It's elitist to think that intellectual activity should be the province of specialists. It's revolutionary to think that it should be open to everyone - in fact, that that should be one of the desirable features of a better society.
As much as I admire Chomsky, this passage is silly. What is he if not an intellectual who is widely respected for his accomplishments as both a linguist and political analyst?
Doug