Evening star., 1936-06-18

turned upon him in a frenzy; they
tore the mantle into shreds; they
beat the young man barbarically; and
they dropped him into a deserted well
to starve and to die. They would not
have him over theml
Symbol Of Times Today.
The hatred of the intellectual is
not the hatred of intelligence. 1t is
the hatred of intelligence divorced
from common experience. It is the
hatred of intelligence which expresses
itself in a vocabulary of more than
two thousand words. 1t is the hatred
Of intelligence which works toward
a goal which it doesn't even bother
to explain, saying merely. trust me" /"
But the led do not trust, because
the leader is not like themselves. For
the intellectual has something in him.
self denied to most men, which gives
him continual pleasure.
Joseph, even in the we'll, faced with
almost certain death, could speculate
about what had brought him there
and find the situation interesting.
This inner source of excitement and
amusement, this preoccupation with
ideas, this narcissistic pleasure in his
own cerebrations, is what divorces
the intellectual from the rest of man
kind.
Loses Social Instincts.
Because he does not need the rest
of mankind, although he thinks that
it needs him. the springs of his de-
light are in himself. His self-love
is neither vanity nor egotism. Both
are more forgivable. because both are
more human. The intellectual be-
lieves that the world loves him; it
must love him, he thinks-or he does
not think about it at all. He takes
1t for granted.
His gifts are paid for by the loss
of his social instincts. The vain man
cares what the world thinks, for he
measures himself by others. The in
tellectual does not care what the
world thinks. He only cares what
fellow intellectuals think. And the
world knows it.
One of the most brilliant men in
the Socialist regime in Vienna-the
best Socialist regime, the most sue
cessful and incorruptible yet set-up
in the modern world-released from
concentration camp, exclaimed hu-
morously to a friend who could con-
done with him: why are you ex-
cited? History will merely record that
1880 to 1870 were troubled years!"
Their Basic Weakness.
1t Is in the possibility of escape
from final responsibility that the
weakness of the intellectual as ruler
lies. The idea is the important thing
He seeks to bend reality to the idea.
not the idea to reality. And if he fails
he shrugs his shoulders. confident
that the dream will one day, however
distant, be realized. But his followers
cannot endure the dream that doesn't
come true.
Few intellectual. even great ones,
and they are few, have made good
rulers. Jefferson was a man of genius:
he gave words to a worlds yearning in
a document of state which is i'm
mortal literature. but he was q dis
appinting President.
Yet it is perhaps we'll that they
should not stay in power so long that
the reaction against them becomes a
resentment. barbaric in its fury. For
then it can sweep them out Of society.
board them up in concentration
camps, exile them abroad. When they
are gone there is eventually corrup-
tion and decay. For they are the
yeast in the bread and the ferment
in the grape. Then men begin to
whisper, Il wish they lived again"
And sometimes it is too late.
Just the same. President Roosevelt
made his greatest political mistake
when he put the coat of many colors
on the brain trust.
(Copyrsht. 1850