Intellectuals, a bane in society?

One dreary midnight as I pulled myself up from bed racked with knotty restlessness causing sleeplessness, grudgingly raised myself to my tired feet looking for a diversion to distract my antsy mind. The laptop ever ready in hibernation mode was a welcomed respite. Pushed a button and made a couple of clicks and I was on my way for a quiet period of online reading. Found myself choosing to watch this video.

An interview of a kindly, but accomplished beyond measure, man in the person of Dr. Thomas Sowell, a person I have always admired and have read about online as much as time could allow me the luxury. He was being interviewed for his new book that just came out, entitled Intellectuals and Society.



It was a most interesting and mind-grabbing hour listening in rapt silence to the ideas being tossed about and debated. For me, it was an hour worth more than the sum of its minutes. It was both very elucidating and foreboding. The latter made me feel somber and fearful. Though I confess after watching the video it was quite easy to get back to sleep.

But then after waking up, the recalcitrant and troubling thoughts came rushing back and this time made me feel sad and helpless. Like the hopes of a better tomorrow being drained out slowly but surely. Implying that I could be expecting more of the same for more years to come.

After Dr. Sowell made his very convincing case about how the intellectuals from academia are running roughshod in our society with their self-righteousness and arrogance, one would think that right-thinking persons would awaken and see the error of their ways and choices.

But Dr, Sowell made the dire prognostication to a question about the forthcoming elections. Albeit the seeming inconvertible evidence to support his case, it would still be a 50-50 chance that the people responsible for our current woes in government and society will be removed from offices come election time in 2012.

I suppose the intellectuals are so ensconced in society that expeditiously removing them would not be that easy. Aside from controlling most of government now, they also rule academia, their seat of empowerment, and of course, the compliant mainstream media is also counted in their fold. And polls show that young voters, especially those fresh from academia, now carry the same chips on their shoulders as intellectuals unerring do - aiming for stronger and more extensive statism and churning out more programs aimed at more governmental entitlements making the citizenry more dependent on the state.

And those with less in life have also been recruited and conditioned to expect more from government for their daily livelihood - more welfare benefits for a far greater number of recipients and longer unemployment insurance entitlements being now the current dispensation.

And worse, Dr. Sowell appears not alone in this. I had read other conservatives project gloomy prospects for the more enlightened adults in our midst aspiring for public offices to try to get back their government and restore the country back to the moorings the founding fathers had envisioned.

No doubt, I continue to feel sad, frustrated and not very hopeful. I am decidedly hopeful about one thing. In this particular instance, I earnestly hope that Dr. Sowell and his like-minded band are wrong.

That enough people will awaken up on time and vote for the right candidates.