The philosophical breach between the American people and the intellectuals is the hope of the United States.
The revolt keeps growing, from tea parties to angry town hall meetings across the country, an uprising against the attempts of an elite to force on us an all-powerful State, about as welcome as grandma's cod-liver oil. Examples of revolt go beyond irate callers to radio talk shows. Take for instance the incident at a Frankie Valli concert recently posted on American Thinker, and the disgust and anger in Joe Sheffat's article. Sen. Barbara Boxer encountered it, as did Sen. Claire McCaskill, who made the mistake of asking if she was trusted.
The elite seem unable to comprehend that anyone could possibly oppose their infinitely superior wisdom, hence the strange and radical smears against the town hall opposition. No one could possibly have a better idea than us, the elite, therefore the town hall "mobs" must be fakes. Anyone, like Ronald Reagan, George Bush, or Sarah Palin, who thinks differently than us, the elite, surely must be of lower intellect.
The elite are unable to understand that this is not about taxes, or health care, or politics. It is about them... [snip]
- Sen. Harry Reid - degree: law, business experience: 0, In Congress since: 1982
- Sen. John Kerry - degree: law, business experience: 0, In Congress since: 1984
- Barney Frank - degrees: law, business experience: 0, In Congress since: 1981
- Nancy Pelosi - business experience: 0 (worked for DNC), In Congress since: 1987
A degree from Harvard does not wisdom make. In fact, the longer an individual stays in academia, the fewer credits they earn in the College of the Real World.
Implementing the ideas of intellectuals can result in disaster. Dr. Peikoff discusses the role of philosophy and the intellectuals:
The root cause of Nazism lies in a power that most people ignore, disparage - and underestimate. The cause is not the events hailed or cursed in headlines and street rallies, but the esoteric writings of the professors who, decades or centuries earlier, laid the foundation for those events.
"[The Nazi] death camps," notes a writer in the New York Times, "were conceived, built and often administered by Ph.D.'s"
The elite think and see us as needing their benevolent care, since we don't have their level of "sophistication". Such arrogance is the road to tyranny, as warned by writer C. S. Lewis:
Of all tyrannies, a tyranny sincerely exercised for the good of its victims may be the most oppressive.
For the sake of benevolence, the Elites in Power are willing to implement by force the Elites in Towers' utopian fantasies. The Benevolent Eliteness accepts the advice of intellectuals with little or no critical scrutiny. The blind acceptance of global warming is one example. As a result, unrealistic grandiose schemes are proposed which always seem to result in the need for more Benevolent Elitenesses... [snip]
Dr. Peikoff describes the roots of today's revolt:
The hope of the United States lies in the philosophical breach between the American people and the intellectuals.
The people admire material wealth, practical success, technological innovation. The intellectuals dismiss such values as "middle class," and say that machines are destroying the globe. The people admire self-reliance, productiveness, and the other virtues of the so-called "work ethic." The intellectuals say that these virtues are impossible, unnecessary, antisocial, and/or "Puritan compulsiveness."
The people approve of personal ambition, are eager to pursue their own happiness, think that a man should not live on handouts but should earn what he gets, and reject the insistent demands for self-immolation. The intellectuals denounce this - every element of it - as selfish and therefore vicious.
The people hotly reject the proliferating manifestations of the welfare state, from soaring welfare rolls to forced busing to sexual quotas. The intellectuals condemn this as unfeeling, racist, "sexist."
The gap between the people and the elites has become a chasm, into which the elites are about to fall.
[Not without our first severing their control of our institutions [government, education, media], as they've the power {as is being proven to this day} to counteract/thwart the values of the majority...]
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