Beware Intellectuals

I was flipping through Paul Johnson's book Intellectuals again before I let a friend borrow it and the last paragraph resonated within me when placed in the context of what America is currently fighting against. Our country has been taken out of the hands of the people, and placed into the hands of others who claim to know what is best for us. Call me crazy, but I still believe that I know what is best for me, not another man called an intellectual.

Trust the intellectuals and you will soon find that the pretty promises backed up by college degrees and scientific studies will only lead you to the chopping block to make way for another man's utopia. Keep a close eye on this administration, for they are the dreamers, and we are the chaff which must be cleared away to build their heavenly home.

At the closing of his book, a book dedicated to showing how the elites who shaped culture were the most dangerous of men, Johnson concludes:

I think I detect today a certain public scepticism when intellectuals stand up to preach to us, a growing tendency among ordinary people to dispute the right of academics, writers and philosophers, eminent though they may be, to tell us how to behave and conduct our affairs. The belief seems to be spreading that intellectuals are no wiser as mentors, or worthier as exemplars, than the witch doctors or priests of old. I share that scepticism. A dozen people picked at random on the street are at least as likely to offer sensible views on moral and political matters as a cross-section of the intelligentsia. But I would go further. One of the principal lessons of our tragic century, which has seen so many millions of innocent lives sacrificed in schemes to improve the lot of humanity, is--beware intellectuals. Not merely should they be kept well away from the levers of power, they should also be objects of particular suspicion when they seek to offer collective advice. Beware committees, conferences and leagues of intellectuals. Distrust public statements issued from their serried ranks. Discount their verdicts on political leaders and important events. For intellectuals, far from being highly individualistic and non-conformist people, follow certain regular patters of behavior. Taken as a group, they are often ultra-conformists within the circles formed by those whose approval they seek and value. That is what makes them, en masse, so dangerous, for it enables them to create climates of opinion and prevailing orthodoxies, which themselves often generate irrational and destructive courses of action. Above all, we must at all times remember what intellectuals habitually forget: that people matter more than concepts and must come first. The worst of all despotisms is the heartless tyranny of ideas.