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DAMN_INTELLECTUALS

                                              March 13, 2005


Attacking the over-intellectualized
seems to be a sport popular with
all political persuasions.                     TRAPS



I was thinking about how Carr's
anti-intellectual stance and conservative        RUSSIAN_PLOT
cultural opinions go together very well:

  Oh, stop going on with all that socialist
  cant and get back to *common sense*.


  (To summarize Carr: hates modern art/lit; fascinated with the 17th
   century; dislikes social reform movements, taking prohibition
   as the model; defends human appeal of the tale of "blood and
   thunder"; yet he is fascinated with obscure historical minutiae...)


And it occurred to me that anti-intellectualism
is reasonably compatible with left-wing
political opinions as well.

    You must overcome repression
    and do what you feel!

                                                 (Who would be
                                                 a good example
                                                 of that though?
                                                 Maybe some of
                                                 the sillier
                                                 yippees, Hoffman
                                                 or Rubin...)



                       Nietzsche inspired
                       extremists of both
                       the left and right...





 Libertarians and Neo-cons alike
 like to accuse the opposition of     E.g. Rand, Podhoretz
 anti-intellectualism...


 But that's an ax that
 swings in any direction...

 A tool you can use to justify                        If you don't
 whatever it is you already believe?                  agree with us
                                                      Rational People,
                                                      obviously,
     Everyone always wants to believe that            you're *irrational*.
     their side is the font of reasonable
     reason; and the other guys are raging
     fanatics seduced by doctrine.


                                                         SOUL_SO_DEAD

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