I’ve been reading Intellectuals and Society by Thomas Sowell.
A few characteristics of intellectuals stood out to me from this article in the Christian Science Monitor by Diane Lim Rogers, an economics professor:
A reporter called me about it, which was the only reason I went to the Cain website to check it out for a few seconds, which was all it took to “get” what his proposal is basically about…
I don’t know if I’ll feel compelled to say anymore about the Cain tax plan unless the candidate actually seems to have a decent chance of getting the Republican nomination, but on the way to seeing if that happens I hope people recognize how insane his tax plan is without needing any detailed analysis. This is one plan where my biggest reaction to the plan is not that it doesn’t raise enough revenue. Like I said, theoretically it could, but why would we ever want to do it that way?
It’s sort of an example of what I called “Neanderthal tax policy” in my Tax Notes column.
via Cains 999 plan: Not sane tax policy – CSMonitor.com.
- Intellectuals have an over-developed sense of arrogance in their intellect. This columnist writes that she only took a few seconds to read up on the tax plan of republican candidate Herman Cain. It’s a simple admission that she has written an article to dispense ideas when she’s only put a “few seconds” into research.
- Intellectuals tend to bypass real argument and real facts with name calling and other distractions. This columnist really hopes that everyone will call the simplified tax proposal “insane” all “without needing any detailed analysis.”
- The refusal to do any detailed analysis is another pattern Sowell points out in his book. When an idea isn’t the idea of the intellectual, they ignore the data, and refuse to look into the facts behind the proposal. This columnist isn’t opposed to the tax structure because it’s bad; he’s not opposed because it wouldn’t work; he’s opposed to it because, as she writes, “why would we ever want to do it that way?” In fact, she had previously written an article about tax policies and proudly declares here here that she feels no need to read about alternative tax policies.
- She ends the article by calling Herman Cain a Neanderthal. While this would instantly be called racism if spoken against our President, it’s simply another example of an intellectual-style argument: dismissing any opposing argument as simply out-dated. In the mindset of the columnist, simply calling something ancient (or more insultingly “Neanderthal”) is supposed to cue everyone to never consider the idea.
