I have heard that Intellectuals have on occasions (apparently) managed to be of benefit to society after someone had managed to block their normal vision with sense & pragmatism.

Ah yes, the heritage of every Australian is to be
exactly the same. To quote Philip Adams:

" Dull, self-satisfied, and
joylessly conformist. Not simply null and boring,
but nullarboring. Not merely mindless, but
lobotomised."

Of course thinking does involve
taking some considerable risks - "but almost every
human advance is based on experiment, innovation,
and adventure."

Cheers.

Dear Lexi,

I am currently immersed in a book by Australian author Steve Toltz called 'A Fraction of the Whole'. Actually buckled in might be more appropriate, not entirely sure I am enjoying the ride, however it has struck me as a very Australian novel. It can be light, trite, and in places not that well written. While it attempts to explore the depths of the human condition, the humour keeps getting in the way. It kind of acknowledges the fact that even in the worst of it our problems are pretty first world and flags the truth that our most profound are at best eccentrics and at worst destructive madmen.

That is not to say that in other settings they can't be lauded without our tall poppy syndrome pissing on their pedestals, which is why so many of our 'intellectuals' head overseas to where their gifts/foibles can find fertile ground for growth and appreciation.

Most Australian's have an innate suspicion of them that is not without foundation as Toltz explains through his primary character;

“The Greeks for example, had fine ideas about how to run a society that are still valid today, especially if you think slavery is wonderful. As for the rest of them, all unquestionable geniuses, I have to admit their enthusiasm for and celebration of one kind of human being (themselves) and their fear and revulsion of the other kind (everyone else) grated on my nerves. It is not just because they petitioned for the halting of universal education lest it 'ruin thinking', or that they did everything they could to make their art unintelligible to most people, but they always said unfriendly things like “Three cheers for the inventors of poison gas” (DH Lawrence) and “If we desire a certain type of civilisation and culture then we must exterminate the sort of people who don't fit into it” (GB Shaw) and “Sooner or later we must limit the families of the unintelligent classes” (Yeats) and “The great majority of men have no right to existence, but are a misfortune to higher men” (Nietzsche).”

Cont...

Cont...

Perhaps the deep philosophical works of the modern era need pinched and desperate lives reeling from holocausts or the like to explore and expound the human condition. It might just be a simple fact that Australia does not willingly offer that environment, either because of its physical expanses or because its inhabitants have a different take on the world. We don't get overly excited about patriotism, nor grand ideas, nor pervasive ideologies, nor our intellectuals much to their chagrin on occasion.

In many, many ways we are living blessed lives and while our stay-at-home intellectuals and writers like Tim Winton might lift the skirts on some of the banality and shallowness they do it with affection and a capacity to recognise it as almost celebratory since we, compared to so many less fortunate peoples, have little need to be shown the way to the promised land, we are in it, we have found our happinesses, more often than not without the help of our intellectuals (they had usually nicked off anyway) and that was what got them so often angry with us.

Well too bad.

Clive James may fancy himself a poet but so was Bosnian Serb leader Radovan Karadžić. Pol Pot taught French literature and Hitler was a writer and a painter. Perhaps Australians are right to keep our 'gifted' from getting ahead of themselves so if Adams sees 'laid-back' as lobotomised that is his right, just don't let him get a chance to do anything about it.

Toltz for PM.

Oh wait! He is a writer too.

" Dull, self-satisfied, and
joylessly conformist. Not simply null and boring,
but nullarboring. Not merely mindless, but
lobotomised."

What an apt description of Philip Adams!

Clem some, not all, of your detractors are so because they fear they are not intellectuals!
Now if enough of us hit the bin and donate to the site we could re make those speakers corners and cafe,s right here.
We do now but could do better if we funded it.
I am more than surprised that CONSERVATIVES, think intelligence/intellectuals are all from the left?
Surely a few of them are intelligent?