Neil Reynolds: American Intellectuals and the ‘Fictitious Personality' Gambit
[Neil Reynolds writes for the Globe and Mail.]
Stanford University economist Thomas Sowell has spent his remarkable life doing battle with the American intellectual elite, the vanguard of utopians that wrote – or more accurately, perhaps, dictated – the history of the 20th century. In Intellectuals and Society, his 32nd book, published in his 80th year, this indefatigable scholar skillfully documents the tragic consequences of intellectual arrogance.
They are all here, all the usual suspects, for this fascinating interrogation – the erstwhile pacifists (Bertrand Russell) and the occasional fascists (H.G. Wells, George Bernard Shaw), the twisted journalists (Walter Duranty, the New York Times reporter who covered up the Moscow-directed Ukrainian famine that took millions of lives) and the deluded presidents (Woodrow Wilson)....
In Intellectuals and Society, Dr. Sowell examines the way in which intellectuals invent “fictitious personalities” for people they oppose – and cites Mr. Justice Thomas as an example. Nineteen years after his controversial confirmation to the Supreme Court, he is still invariably described in media reports as an embittered loner, “a virtual recluse in private life.” A New Yorker article said he could talk only with his wife and described the couple's life “as one of shared, brooding isolation.” Yet, the other justices insist he's the most accessible of them....
Dr. Sowell identifies Harry Truman as the recipient of another “fictitious personality.” Following the heroic presidency of Franklin Roosevelt, he says, the intellectual elite was determined to portray the plain-spoken president from Missouri as “a country bumpkin.” Yet, he was a learned man, “a voracious reader whose fare included the heavyweight books of Thucydides and Shakespeare.” He could read Cicero in the original Latin.
Dr. Sowell says the intellectual elite destroyed Great Depression president Herbert Hoover, turning him into “a cold, heartless man who let millions of Americans suffer needlessly because of his supposedly doctrinaire belief that the government should leave the economy alone.” Yet, for the most part, Roosevelt adopted Hoover's economic program – making Hoover the inventor of the New Deal. Writing in 1935, Walter Lippmann, the famous columnist, observed: “The program initiated by President Hoover was something utterly unprecedented in American history. The Roosevelt measures are a continuous evolution of the Hoover measures.”...
Read entire article at The Globe and Mail
Stanford University economist Thomas Sowell has spent his remarkable life doing battle with the American intellectual elite, the vanguard of utopians that wrote – or more accurately, perhaps, dictated – the history of the 20th century. In Intellectuals and Society, his 32nd book, published in his 80th year, this indefatigable scholar skillfully documents the tragic consequences of intellectual arrogance.
They are all here, all the usual suspects, for this fascinating interrogation – the erstwhile pacifists (Bertrand Russell) and the occasional fascists (H.G. Wells, George Bernard Shaw), the twisted journalists (Walter Duranty, the New York Times reporter who covered up the Moscow-directed Ukrainian famine that took millions of lives) and the deluded presidents (Woodrow Wilson)....
In Intellectuals and Society, Dr. Sowell examines the way in which intellectuals invent “fictitious personalities” for people they oppose – and cites Mr. Justice Thomas as an example. Nineteen years after his controversial confirmation to the Supreme Court, he is still invariably described in media reports as an embittered loner, “a virtual recluse in private life.” A New Yorker article said he could talk only with his wife and described the couple's life “as one of shared, brooding isolation.” Yet, the other justices insist he's the most accessible of them....
Dr. Sowell identifies Harry Truman as the recipient of another “fictitious personality.” Following the heroic presidency of Franklin Roosevelt, he says, the intellectual elite was determined to portray the plain-spoken president from Missouri as “a country bumpkin.” Yet, he was a learned man, “a voracious reader whose fare included the heavyweight books of Thucydides and Shakespeare.” He could read Cicero in the original Latin.
Dr. Sowell says the intellectual elite destroyed Great Depression president Herbert Hoover, turning him into “a cold, heartless man who let millions of Americans suffer needlessly because of his supposedly doctrinaire belief that the government should leave the economy alone.” Yet, for the most part, Roosevelt adopted Hoover's economic program – making Hoover the inventor of the New Deal. Writing in 1935, Walter Lippmann, the famous columnist, observed: “The program initiated by President Hoover was something utterly unprecedented in American history. The Roosevelt measures are a continuous evolution of the Hoover measures.”...