"Clever sillies" - why so many intellectuals are also leftists and lack common sense
01-15-2016, 09:22 PM
Good topic. George Orwell said it best: "Some ideas are so stupid only intellectuals believe in them"
Spend enough time around left-wing circles and you'll see this more times than you can count. I've noticed a few types. First, you have otherwise smart people who become entranced by some fanciful idea or bombastic ideology, oftentimes because such people grow up comfortably but without anything to believe in, so they get sucked into the first "cause" they discover, especially one that plays on disillusionment (an emotion that tends to occur in those who know enough about the world to be disappointed in it, but not enough to know the world is never perfect and can't be). This sort of idealistic inebriation is all over the pages of revolutions throughout history, and ironically enough those unfortunate souls are almost invariably either disappointed or doomed by the results.
Then you have the educated but dim bulbs who like to feel intellectual, so they hide their deficiencies behind the opaque ideological catch-phrases that leftism specializes in. Take any average wit, have him read a few pamphlets by Marx or whoever and soon enough he'll be able to regurgitate enough of the slogans that he'll sound almost like an intelligent person to those who don't know better. These kinds of people fall in love with the appearance that they're smart, and even more the brain-dead approval and sense of superiority they get from their leftist peers. Not surprisingly, they cling to "the cause" with special fervor because their ego depends on it. (Ever wonder why some leftists become so angry and animated in arguments over even the most trivial of topics? That's why...if they don't feel "right", they lose their pretense to feel smart, and thereby most of their self-perception)
Last, you have the people who despite having some intelligence and education still don't quite fit in with most people, and so they seek an outlet for their alienation and disaffection. We see this very frequently among feminists, however the same principle applies generally with many leftists who crave normalcy (far more than you or they'd probably think) but can't find it in normal society...hatred for the normal and normal people is merely a step away from this, and leftist ideology then gives it the veneer of a noble purpose. They tell themselves they're altruistic, but in truth "the cause" is all about them, as it always is.
Luckily, such illusions often fall apart after exposure to the real world. The college leftist who grows up and becomes a conservative is so common that it's become a centuries-old trope.
Spend enough time around left-wing circles and you'll see this more times than you can count. I've noticed a few types. First, you have otherwise smart people who become entranced by some fanciful idea or bombastic ideology, oftentimes because such people grow up comfortably but without anything to believe in, so they get sucked into the first "cause" they discover, especially one that plays on disillusionment (an emotion that tends to occur in those who know enough about the world to be disappointed in it, but not enough to know the world is never perfect and can't be). This sort of idealistic inebriation is all over the pages of revolutions throughout history, and ironically enough those unfortunate souls are almost invariably either disappointed or doomed by the results.
Then you have the educated but dim bulbs who like to feel intellectual, so they hide their deficiencies behind the opaque ideological catch-phrases that leftism specializes in. Take any average wit, have him read a few pamphlets by Marx or whoever and soon enough he'll be able to regurgitate enough of the slogans that he'll sound almost like an intelligent person to those who don't know better. These kinds of people fall in love with the appearance that they're smart, and even more the brain-dead approval and sense of superiority they get from their leftist peers. Not surprisingly, they cling to "the cause" with special fervor because their ego depends on it. (Ever wonder why some leftists become so angry and animated in arguments over even the most trivial of topics? That's why...if they don't feel "right", they lose their pretense to feel smart, and thereby most of their self-perception)
Last, you have the people who despite having some intelligence and education still don't quite fit in with most people, and so they seek an outlet for their alienation and disaffection. We see this very frequently among feminists, however the same principle applies generally with many leftists who crave normalcy (far more than you or they'd probably think) but can't find it in normal society...hatred for the normal and normal people is merely a step away from this, and leftist ideology then gives it the veneer of a noble purpose. They tell themselves they're altruistic, but in truth "the cause" is all about them, as it always is.
Luckily, such illusions often fall apart after exposure to the real world. The college leftist who grows up and becomes a conservative is so common that it's become a centuries-old trope.