This one's a bummer. I dig Steyn and I like his stuff. Unfortunately he decided to break out the boffo intellectual label, just to let us know that somebody can really think (unlike, say, me and you - the people that haven't been hit with the Magic Wand of Public Wisdom):
Others may find Germany in the ‘30s the more instructive comparison. “It isn’t silent majorities that drive things, but vocal minorities,” the Canadian public intellectual George Jonas recently wrote.
True. But what's with this "public intellectual" stuff?
There's no need to elevate writers you agree with by giving them a phony label. "Writer" is enough. Leave the "public intellectual" nonsense to somebody else.
Just a note from your gregarious private moron.
4 comments:
You're on thin ice with this one, Sean. How would you go about describing who George Jonas is to someone who is unfamiliar with him? Jewish Hungarian immigrant whose fifty year career as journalist, author, poet, playwright and political commentator is widely considered the most distinguished of the current day?
How about just Canadian intellectual, George Jonas.
There is no such thing as an "intellectual." Canadian or otherwise.
I believe you are saying that the word is pretentious and has no useful meaning.
You are largely in the right of it, but the word still works for me in the case of George Jonas. That is one bright guy.
Been following your blog for a couple of years now. Its a good, fun read. Loved your comments on set lighting. My word you were steamed about that stuff!
Keep it up Sean. Good stuff!
Cheers.
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