Re: Inorganic Intellectuals and the Mythical Ideal of the Marxist Tradition (Re: Moderation)
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