Oh look, a study by the Harvard Brain Trust has just been released. Let’s rush it out to everybody on the Blogosphere because it supports our position.
Hogwash!
Hogwash? But Fred, this is the study we’ve been waiting for. These people are the “real” authorities and they clearly state an empirical finding that is unimpeachable because of their immense stature in the highbrow world of intellectual authority.
Fred doesn’t buy it. Why? Fred is not impressed.
How can that be?
Let me explain.
If these mental giants are truly the best and brightest, why don’t they ban together and approach the people in power and use their incredible gift of superior intellect to convince them to do the right thing?
It should be easy for these PHDs to outwit the mental midget bureaucrats and direct them towards a desire to improve what ever it is that needs improvement. Also, please note that they don’t band together. In fact, they seem to be the most isolated purveyors of activism at any level of activist pursuit. The guys that you think you need most are pretty much inaccessible. If you do manage to reach one, he is alone. He doesn’t immediately gather the rest of his ilk to spearhead action.
No. Scholars are usually ensconced in a University or Government position with a pension that is granted by some massive organization who does not want their indoctrination squad to rock the boat too hard. Scholars throughout history have been right and wrong at the same time, over and over. Think! That’s what we pay you for but don’t do anything. Just tell us what you think. You think, we act. We don’t think.
Now, the problem here is, how do you tell the real intellectual from the corrupt intellectual? A corrupt intellectual is a person who is driven by an ideology. A corrupt intellectual has a result first and then a study following to support the result. The uncorrupted intellectual is a person who has no expectation of the outcome until, through full knowledge of the subject, forms a hypothesis that is beyond reasonable argument. It is wonderful when this happens but it is also inconsequential. The intellectual does not act on the findings. He is merely the finder. If his findings are not consistent with the need of an ideology, the findings or the finder are compromised by ridicule or are ignored and the findings roll away into obscurity.
Actions speak louder than words.
Words are powerful, but only when those words reach a structure of power, either social or financial. Let’s make it clear to the intellectuals that we need them to not only make the discovery, but to then follow through and direct their incredible mental power to creating a vehicle or structure to bring their rottin’ tootin’ conclusion to someone who can use it for a better world.
In conclusion, if you are an uncorrupted intellectual and you can find other uncorrupted intellectuals, please unite and do something of substance. You should be bright enough to figure out just how to go about it. If you don’t, you may not be as bright as you think.