Public Intellectuals, Inc.

Public Intellectuals, INC.

Public intellectuals in America have good reason to be discouraged. And so do those who look to them for intellectual leadership. Currently, it almost seems that the more public the intellectual, the less seriously he or she is taken by other intellectuals. As one recent commentator succinctly put it, "It is, in essence, hard for public intellectuals to remain intellectual" (Rhode 150). Nevertheless, public intellectuals today have more media outlets and markets available to them than ever before. Due primarily to the rise of new technologies, the circulation and recirculation of their ideas are reaching wider and wider audiences. Consequently, as the intellectual influence of public intellectuals over other intellectuals (viz., non-public intellectuals) wanes, the market for their ideas and their entertainment value skyrockets.

An additional cause for discouragement for public intellectuals and those who look to them for intellectual leadership is that society at large just doesn't seem to afford its iconic or star public intellectuals much respect anymore. Public intellectuals in America are merely "one side of an argument," so to speak. From the general public's point of view, they are either Republican or Democrat; liberal or conservative; left-wing or right-wing; pro-choice or pro-life; and so on. Public intellectuals signify or are reduced by the general public to nothing more than a position—and usually an extreme one—on a topic of contemporary social and political concern.

The reduction of the discourse of public intellectuals to mere polarized positions is the most observable sign of a lack of respect. It serves to short-circuit and obviate subtleties of argument and render superfluous the need for evidence. Respect is afforded public intellectuals not by the mere "declaration" or "assertion" of a position (anyone can merely declare or assert a position). Rather, respect is granted to them through the opportunity to articulate and defend their positions in some detail or depth to a wide audience. It is further confirmed when their defense is thoughtfully received by an attentive audience. Public intellectuals are respected for the depth of their knowledge, and efforts to suppress it, such as the reduction of their knowledge to a mere position, is ultimately a sign of disrespect for them as intellectuals.

The lack of respect afforded our public intellectuals today is a major cause for concern. The current situation can be put into better context when one recalls that the history of public intellectualism in America includes figures such as Ralph Waldo Emerson, William James, Max Weber, and John Dewey—figures who still have a powerful presence in the world of ideas. At present, public intellectualism in America is preoccupied more with the idea-in-itself that is being promoted than with the person who is promoting it. For much of the last century, Dewey, for example, was regarded as not just another expert commenting on the public school system in America. Rather, he was treated as one of America's finest philosophers who just happened to be sharing his ideas on education to a respectful and attentive national audience. At the opening of the twenty-first century, however, the situation is much different.

Moreover, the recent passing of Susan Sontag and Edward Said, two of America's most recognizable and respected public intellectuals, could very well mark the last stage of an age when our public landscape is marked by living, larger than life individuals whose work captures what Emerson called "the world's eye" and "the world's heart." Today, we are left with merely a mass of expert opinion-generators as our public intellectuals. These pundits, as they are pejoratively termed, feed the knowledge-entertainment industry with an endless stream of opinions, the stuff upon which a mass audience starved for insight into an increasing complex and dangerous world feeds. It is ironic that at a time in history when our knowledge of the world is expanding exponentially and the market for public intellectuals...