ovens, or kill full-term babies by stabbing them in the neck and suctioning their brains out. Therefore, the contributions of intellectuals in shaping society are ones that need to be harnessed appropriately, winnowed to remove the ôsticksö from the ôstraw,ö and considered in light of the ideas of other sources in addition to those of the intellectuals.
In the context of shaping public opinion and guiding the public to appreciate a particular view, intellectuals hold a great deal of powerùpower nearly commensurate with that of the media, in terms of its ability to alter peopleÆs thinking, convince them to join a cause, or frame facts and ideas according to their own agenda. This power can be tapped to facilitate the building of a country, but it must be recognized for what it isùmanmade ideas that are subject to error and personal bias. Furthermore, as ideamongers, intellectualsÆ ideas may be brilliant, but they are not necessarily always workable in practice.
Given those caveats, the advantages of intellectual thought in engaging public discourse and shaping public thought are tremendous. Although the average citizen may recognize that his government is not responsive to his problems, the economy is failing, and his family cannot live as free a life as he would like, he is generally neither in a position to affect any of those things in terms of his political influence nor equipped to come up with a better way of handling them. Here is where intellectuals can excel. They can develop not only the concepts for an improved society but also the infrastructure for sustaining them. They can work through any obstacles from an ideological standpoint, before they are put into practice. Then, with the passion of their convictions, they can convince leaders and citizens alike to adopt their approach.
It is interesting to note that intellectuals have historically held positions of great influence relative to a countryÆs ...