From: bfrg9732@uxa.cso.uiuc.edu (Brian F. Redman)
Newsgroups: alt.activism
Subject: Imposters in the Temple (1 of 7)
Summary: The corrupt state of U.S. universities
Keywords: treachery trickery deceit deception
Date: 14 Sep 92 00:19:06 GMT
Organization: University of Illinois at Urbana


Imposters in the Temple:
American Intellectuals are Destroying our Universities
and Cheating our Students of their Future

by Martin Anderson

Part 1  --  Two Intellectual Classes

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Martin Anderson describes himself as an amateur anthropologist of 
American intellectuals. He defines the American intellectual as 
normally belonging to one of two categories -- the professional 
intellectual and the academic intellectual. According to Anderson, the 
key difference between the two types is that professional 
intellectuals (such as writers, news analysts, commentators, etcetera) 
must survive or perish in an actual free marketplace of ideas. The 
professional intellectual whose ideas do not win out against other, 
competing ideas gets replaced by the professional intellectual whose 
ideas are deemed superior by the masses who consume them.

This is not the case with the academic intellectuals. Here, the value 
of ideas gets judged by a small group of peers or "colleagues." 
According to Anderson, "The major factor that defines and separates 
the two intellectual classes in America [i.e. academic intellectuals 
vs. professional intellectuals] is the effective society in which they 
work -- the political structure of the organization they work for, the 
way in which their work is judged, and the people who judge them. In 
brief, America's academic intellectuals work in a quasi-socialist 
state, while our professional intellectuals, for the most part, work 
under bare-knuckle capitalism."

Thus, "...the typical academic intellectual operates freely, 
uninhibited by the judgement of outsiders, subject only to the verdict 
of colleagues who themselves are judged by the same narrow 
criteria.... The professional intellectual, on the other hand, is at 
the mercy of not only subjective judgements on the quality of the 
writing, but also its dollar value in the marketplace.... The ultimate 
judge of the professional intellectual is the vast buying public, not 
the opinion of peers."

According to the author, these two classes of American intellectuals 
essentially do not coexist. "They don't understand each other very 
well; they like each other even less." Other differences between these 
two classes include:

o -- Academic intellectuals are much more numerous than professional 
     intellectuals; about two-thirds of a million academic 
     intellectuals vs. about 15,000 professional intellectuals.

o -- "...the readership of professional intellectuals is often 
     measured in the millions whereas the typical academic writer is 
     lucky to have an audience measuring in the hundreds."

o -- Academic intellectuals enjoy a much higher status among the 
     general population than do the professional intellectuals.


Anderson stresses that the majority of academic intellectuals are men 
and women of "high intelligence and great integrity." Yet one of the 
major tenets of his book is that "The death of integrity in the heart 
of higher education is the root cause of the educational troubles 
which afflict us today." The author points to a series of 
transgressions which, although individually not decisive, collectively 
are overwhelming in their indictment of the current situation. "We 
know about the smothering impact of 'politically correct' thought. We 
know of the assault on the history and values of Western civilization. 
We know of the financial corruption. We know of policies that judge, 
not by intellect and achievement, but by skin color -- all in the name 
of anti-racism. We know of the demise of teaching, how little it is 
valued by faculty and administrators. We know of the blatant abuses 
concerning student athletes."

According to Anderson, "Too many of our universities and colleges have 
acquired the trappings of an aging state -- the same kind of smug 
arrogance that comes to people who are never seriously challenged, the 
kind of elitist mindset that makes its leaders feel they are above the 
laws and values that govern others, the presumptuousness to believe 
that what they say is important is important, that what they say is 
true is true."


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Synopsis/Review by Brian Redman
"Ah yes, Armageddon. I remember it well."
End Part 1