[WS:] One more comment on this. You seem to have an optimistic view of this social class, as basically a liberal force for good, perhaps with an exception of a few bad apples. I am more skeptical - I think that the 'educated class' - call them priests, brahmins, policy advisers, intellectuals, journalists or demagogues - is singularly responsible for virtually all major atrocities in recorded history. Most ordinary people may be intolerant of others who differ from them, but this will likely end in a few brawls. It takes an intellectual to elevate this intolerance to systematic hatred, repression and eventually extermination. Graeber does a decent job showing how the brahmin class created a system of thought justifying debt slavery. Spanish inquisition was the brain child of intellectuals. So was nazism, communism (of a certain band, of course) islamism etc. that systematically exterminated millions. And then of course, is the world of financial speculation - the brain child of economists and mathematicians - that immiserated and starved to death millions amidst plenty.
All those who masterminded and executed most, if not all, crimes against humanity came from the educated professional class. Of course, not everyone was an architect, but many were willing cheerleaders and executioners, including intellectual giants like Heidegger (Hitler sympathizer) or Hayek (Pinochet sympathizer). Or promoters of psychopathic views like Nietsche or Ayn Rand. Not to mention the scores of jurnos, jurists, or teachers willingly spreading and executing racist, fascist and other genocidal ideas.
So let us not forget this dark side of the intellectual class. These deeds loom much more ominous than the liberal attitudes that you tend to focus on. This is not meant to be anti-intellectual rant but a reminder that the educated class is not a bearer of mostly liberal and humanistic ideas. Give them a chance and they will be leading the masses to book burning, pogroms, and crimes against the humanity.
-- Wojtek
"An anarchist is a neoliberal without money."