Intellectuals in Public Discourse

Intellectuals are influential in shaping public opinion, including whole governments, for a couple of reasons. First, they are passionate about what they believe, and passion always has the ring of truth to it; it is convincing. Second, they are good at expressing what they believe and casting it in terms that can render it acceptable to others, repurposing any offensive or unacceptable parts to look like something else and putting their own philosophical spin on it. Intellectuals are the ôspin doctorsö of public thought. This has both positive and negative implications. On the positive side, they can rally support for causes that, while worthy, are otherwise too tedious, dangerous, or expensive to command support on their ownùwar, sacrif

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policy by reversing courses that have failed in the past, and in so doing, they introduce new mistakes (Kaplan 281). Kaplan, who considers himself an intellectual, acknowledges intellectualsÆ ability to form policy and faults intellectuals as a group for not perceiving areas in which they have poor judgment, as well as for applying generalizations without determining whether they were appropriate to particular casesùthe opposite of the practitionersÆ fault (Kaplan 281). Despite their inherent flaws and tendencies, intellectuals have a propensity for perception and conception that is extremely beneficial in building a country. Intellectuals are the top-down thinkersùthe ones who see the big picture in the midst of myriad confusing details. They can grasp the essence of an issue and can generally see what needs to be done, although from a practical standpoint they may not arrive at the best way to frame the solution. Furthermore, they can identify causes and effects more readily than the nonintellectual. Intellectuals can reason their way through a problem, something not many people seem capable of doing. Although they cannot be guaranteed of arriving at the right solution, or even a workable solution, they can at least dev
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Approximate Word count = 3477
Approximate Pages = 14 (250 words per page)

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