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Intellectuals: From Marx and Tolstoy to Sartre and Chomsky (P.S.)

Paul M. Johnson
 
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A fascinating portrait of the minds that have shaped the modern world. In an intriguing series of case studies, Rousseau, Shelley, Marx, Ibsen, Tolstoy, Hemingway, Bertrand Russell, Brecht, Sartre, Edmund Wilson, Victor Gollancz, Lillian Hellman, Cyril Connolly, Norman Mailer, James Baldwin, Kenneth Tynan, and Noam Chomsky, among others, are revealed as intellectuals both brilliant and contradictory, magnetic and dangerous.

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Reviews (See all 37) Write a reviewfor this

It's a hit!

The prime characteristic of an "Intellectual" in Johnson's thinking is someone who values ideas over people. Many very intellectually able people a... (show more)

The prime characteristic of an "Intellectual" in Johnson's thinking is someone who values ideas over people. Many very intellectually able people are not intellectuals in Johnson's meaning of the word and therefore are not included in this book. What Johnson does in "Intellectuals" is take a hard look at the life behind the ideas of many of our great intellectuals. From Marx and Tolstoy to Satre and Russell and many more, the lives of these intellectuals are examined. It's not a pretty picture. As Johnson says "Intellectuals have the arrogance to believe that they can use their brains to tell humanity how to conduct its affairs. In doing so they turn their backs on inherited wisdom and the religious background that have traditionally defined the aims of society." He adds that while intellectuals are always talking about their love for the "workers" and "humanity" most hated their fellow man and had no contact with ordinary people.

These intellectuals have some serious problems. They are all egoistic and mendacious. Many hated women and even their own children. Many had an inflated sense of self-importance and were very good at self-promotion. Many were greedy and an amazing percentage of them were members of the Communist Party or sympathers with it--some even after Stalin's atrocities came to light.

This is a fascinating look at the lives behind the ideas that have shaped so many people. (show less)

 
Patrick Greenan
 
by Patrick Greenan
No, it's a flop!

A toxic, partisan book in which "intellectual" is a dirty word, and secular liberals and radical thinkers are blamed for fostering "the permissive ... (show more)

A toxic, partisan book in which "intellectual" is a dirty word, and secular liberals and radical thinkers are blamed for fostering "the permissive society" and the decline of Western civilisation. Forget about social trends and zeitgeists - it is these naughty men and women who have led us all astray.

Johnson's ad hominem approach is as self-serving as it is unconvincing: pick apart the less than exemplary personal lives of handpicked, exemplary thinkers, artists and philosophers, in order to condemn their ideas and, moreover, make breathtaking generalisations about the role of liberal elites in society. Thus, Rainer Werner Fassbinder wasn't just a drug-addled, sex-crazed, workaholic film director (the Fassbinder biography Love Is Colder Than Death is a terrific and salacious read); he "turned himself into not only the leading but also the symbolic film maker of the permissive age..." Oh really? All it takes is to go ad hominem with another less sexy luminary - say Steven Spielberg, who has made a far greater impact on Western culture than Fassbinder - to watch Johnson's arguments fall into a heap.

In Johnson's world, "the association of intellectuals with violence occurs too often to be dismissed as an aberration", whilst Cyril Connolly was an "upholder of civilized values [who] had laid the egg of permissiveness". Naughty boy, Cyril! Johnson's claim in the Acknowledgements that he tried to make Intellectuals "factual and dispassionate" is disingenuous at best and downright mendacious at worst. This is a man with an agenda, who cannot be trusted or taken seriously. (show less)

 
Jeff Hewitt
 
by Jeff Hewitt
More Reviews
  • Good book about the men that helped to frame the philosophy of our day. It is depressing from the standpoint of how far they all lived from the ideals they espoused.

     
    by Facebook User on Oct 10, 2009 at 04:20AM

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  • Ed F

    Every bed-wetting, sanctimonious liberal needs to read this. Really teaches you what is behind the words of some of the "great" minds of Western thought, and helps you undertand personal context that can color writing.

     
    by Ed F on Jun 09, 2009 at 04:31AM

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