Tuesday, September 25, 2007

Will the Intellectual Elite be the Death of Us All?


It is quite a thing; the more blatently stupid a position held by the intellectual elite is, the more they hold it up as a sign of their...eliteness. Michael Graham sums it up - If you want something done that’s really, really stupid, you need to find someone who is really, really smart. Or thinks they are, anyway:

If you’re Adolf Hitler’s agent and you’re trying to book a speaking gig, who do you call: Columbia University or the Carolina School of Straight Chiropractic?
If you’re looking for a student to slap on a circuit board and Silly Putty and head for the airport, do you ask a drunk coed from the community college or dial MIT?

How dumb do you have to be to wear your “Play-Doh and battery pack” art in a high-security area? Or should I ask “how smart?” Because there isn’t an illiterate redneck in West Virginia who would try the stunt pulled by MIT’s super-Star....
The SEC, the ACC - why, there isn’t a barber college or school of over-the-road trucking that would let a Jew-hating nut like President Whack-I-Job rant away on their campus. Your typical American university might offer credit in basket weaving and Science of Star Wars, but they do have their limits.

Not Columbia. “If Adolf Hitler were willing to engage in a debate and a discussion, to be challenged by Columbia students and faculty, we would certainly invite him,” bragged John Coatsworth, dean of the School of International and Public Affairs.

Adolf Hitler. Now there’s a commencement speaker the graduates will remember.

Seriously, is there any organization other than the Ivy League where you could hear the phrase “Let’s invite Hitler!” without immediately hearing “Dude, what have you been smoking?”

For a 22 1/2 minute exposition on the tragic character flaw of the psuedo-intellectual, I highly recommend a viewing of this Simpsons classic....

Carl:
Let's make litter out of these literati!
Lenny: That's too clever, you're one of THEM!

1 comment:

Anonymous said...

That's a great Simpsons reference, and quite apt - shows what happens when an "intellectual junta" (to quote Kent Brockman) are put in charge of government, and other people's lives.
A "fruitopia", indeed! Larry Flint was right!