American Thinker | Victor Volsky | July 10, 2009
Intelligent idiots, smart fools, multi-degreed morons – lots of monikers could describe a category of individuals dismayingly prominent in the ruling elites of the West. They are the people so divorced from reality, so engrossed in bookish pursuits that – for all their undoubted intellectual accomplishments and often as a direct consequence thereof – they invariably end up with egg on their faces whenever they try to engage in practical activities.
Worse yet, they idolize each other, sticking up for one another out of class solidarity. Case in point: a few days ago I watched a gathering of noted media intellectuals on C-SPAN. David Brooks of the New York Times was supposed to counterbalance the four leftist pundits who vigorously extolled Barack Obama’s genius. But even the token conservative’s criticism was perfunctory. Having poked a couple of holes in the administration’s economic agenda, Brooks waxed lyrical about Obama’s personnel policy. He was struck by the “sheer intellectual brilliance” of the economic team Obama has assembled, people “like Larry Summers” who dazzle any gathering and dominate any discussion.
Apparently, the NYT columnist was unable to see the inherent contradiction in his effusive praises: if the people who formulate the administration’s economic policy are so smart, why is it so disastrous? Last January, these wizards of smart predicted that if Obama’s stimulus package were passed, the unemployment rate would not go beyond 8 percent by the end of the year. At this point, it is nearing 10 percent and shows no sign of slowing down. How could they be so wrong with their vaunted brilliance?
It is a common mistake of intellectuals to confuse IQ with common sense and verbal fluency with leadership qualities. They are simply unable to comprehend that academic success does not necessarily translate into a firm grasp on reality; the knack for endlessly bloviating on an abstruse subject does not automatically imply administrative ability; an academic degree is not a substitute for practical experience; and a professors’ lounge is not a corporate boardroom.
Nobody would deny that the members of Obama’s circle of economic advisors are indeed academically adept, well-spoken men and women. But have any of them ever run a lemonade stand, much less a bona fide business? Have they ever met a payroll? Do they know what it means to toss and turn in bed, worrying over the coming rise in vendor prices? They may have academic theories and marshal vast amounts of data, but have little practical knowledge of how things work in the real world.
So what do they bring to the administration other than long resumes and fearsome reputations as intellectual polemicists? All these brilliant academics have been brought on board for the sole purpose of lending an intellectual veneer to Obama’s political schemes and validate his power grab. Hence the pitiful sight of these noted intellectuals being trotted out to the microphones to bleat pathetically in defense of the administration’s agenda.
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