re: #350 The Sanity Inspector

OTOH…

One of the principal lessons of our tragic century, which has seen so many millions of innocent lives sacrificed in schemes to improve the lot of humanity, is- beware intellectuals. Not merely should they be kept well away from the levers of power, they should be also be objects of particular scorn when they seek to offer collective advice.
—Paul Johnson

Classic anti-intellectualism I would say. And complete rubbish. How is this one of the principal lessons of the 20th century? Fear mongering.

There is nothing so irritating as somebody with less intelligence and more sense than we have.
—Don Herold

Not really someone I would use to argue that intellectuals are dangerous or that anti-intellectualism is good. This is a nice little quote to tickle someone who is a bit afraid of intellectuals by talking about the “common sense”, the idea that the down-to-earth individual knows better than the well-read.

Intellectuals are people who believe that ideas are of more importance than values. That is to say, their own ideas and other people’s values.
—Gerald Brenan

Values. Oh how I LOVE that word.

Middle-class intellectuals are a little too inclined to resent poorer people acquiring for the first time material possessions, and especially luxuries, of a kind they themselves have always taken for granted.
—Paul Johnson

Bah. Crap.