Managing Leadership^®

The overseas visitor travels about the United States, recording his impressions, examining them to divine the very meaning of the country, to psychoanalyze its current condition. But like many psychoanalysts, he reserves to himself – not to his subjects – the right to determine what constitutes psychological health; indeed, it seems never to occur to him that the situation could be otherwise. And, of course, he has his own sharply defined conclusions on the topic, about which he brooks no argument, although he periodically reveals a faintly amused disdain for the temerity of those who insist that there might be cause for one.

For you see, as he does not hesitate to make abundantly and repeatedly clear, he is an intellectual. This is a status, he explains, that one enters into by studying certain prescribed sources which confer freedom of thought – that is to say, intellectual independence, or liberation from conventional patterns of uninformed, unenlightened thinking. He is big on the various degrees of status enjoyed by one station or another in society; for example, being a journalist affords one “autonomy” of thought. We can only wonder how much additional reading is required to elevate a person to true “freedom” in that regard.

And, indeed, he seems to be on a quest precisely to discover the uniquely American answer to that question. Here’s a candidate, he writes, hopefully: but while this person has the reputation of being an intellectual, he doesn’t quite dress like one, or exhibit suitably dismissive mannerisms. That one appears at first glance to have the requisite command of language and formidable intellect, but on further inspection reveals that be must have slept through some vital elements of the unforgiving curriculum, or fails to display a sufficiently enlightened perspective.

Ah, but here’s one: the very “prototype” of an American intellectual. And what combination of qualities, we might ask, constitutes this prototype? Well, it seems that an important one of them, at least, is that he or she comes very close to approximating the European notion of that concept.

If the matter ended there – with an absurdly overwrought, essentially effete narcissism – then there would be little harm in it, really. But it doesn’t end there, and this boundlessly ambitious concept is surely robust enough, an absurdity in its own right.

What’s more, it’s not just a self-admiration club. These intellectuals have specific beliefs about their and our places in society, an agenda based on those, and a quite disturbing model for illustrating it.

We’ll close this subject out, next, with a look at that. See you soon!

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Today’s tip: Speaking of agendas, please see Michael Wade for a brief discussion of why they should be submitted to experienced scrutiny, rather than merely implemented on the strength of abstract promise.

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