Book 48 - Frank Furedi "Where Have All The Intellectuals Gone?"

[jazzy_dave]

Frank Furedi "Where Have All The Intellectuals Gone?" (Continuum)






In this book, Frank Furedi argues that genuine intellectuals have largely disappeared from the public sphere - paradoxically, given that we supposedly live in a knowledge economy supported by an expanding higher education sector. The result is that potential intellectuals have taken up other, narrower, roles e.g. lobbyists, policy-advisers. This has impoverished public life. Furedi identifies the causes of this decline; the bureaucratisation of the university; reverse snobbishness; obsession with inclusiveness and relevance at all costs. In the final chapter he suggest where we should go from here.

Succinct and thought-provoking.

Comments

[a-phoenixdragon.livejournal.com]

Definitely need to read this...

[changeling72.livejournal.com]

As a non-intellectual I think it would all be over my head.

[brithistorian.livejournal.com]

This does sound like an interesting book. Another cause of the decline in America in particular is the latest recurrence of our national tendency toward anti-intellectualism. It never ceases to amaze me that the same country that produced Jacques Barzun and Calvin Trillin could also produce George W. Bush, who bragged about being a C student.

[quirkytizzy.livejournal.com]

This. Very much this.

I'm not the brightest crayon in the box. By far. I surround myself with people who FAR outstrip me in the realm of writing, math, and science. But it is very frightening sometimes to be in a room and realize "Holy shit, I'm the smartest one in here...?"

People just stopped caring about learning. If it doesn't fit into a FB or Twitter update, it's just not important.

And that's fucking SAD.

[davesmusictank.livejournal.com]

Totally agree there.

[brithistorian.livejournal.com]

I think you're selling yourself short here - from looking over your LJ I think you're a much sharper crayon than you're giving yourself credit for. But even if you weren't, the fact that you're trying, that you read and write and think, that you use your head as something other than a place to grow hair, means you're one of the Good People in my book. I'd rather be friends with someone who was dumb as a bag of hammers but curious about the world and wanting to learn that someone who was a certified genius but content to do nothing more than come home at the end of the day and shovel in whatever the mass media want them to absorb. (Note: I'm not anti-TV, just very conscious that on TV, as with pretty much everywhere else, Sturgeon's Law applies.)

[quirkytizzy.livejournal.com]

Thank you! I really appreciate your compliment! *does a happy dance!* And I agree - I'd much rather be with a dumb person who is curious than a self-professed "intellectual" who thinks they already know everything and thus aren't interested in doing anything.

I mean, I'm not looking for someone to go out and discover a cure for cancer. Just turn off the tv once in a while (SO WITH YOU ON THAT), pick up a book, or get on the internet and talk about stuff that you found on a blog that's REALLY NEAT and you want to know more about.

That's it. It's not hard work. It's just stretching out your brain once in awhile!

[davesmusictank.livejournal.com]

I agree. You are smart and i am no way knowledgeable about everything, God forbid. I am a constant learner always willing to pick up new ideas, new opinion, new thoughts and so on. Life is a learning curve in my books.

[londonkds.livejournal.com]

I have a bias against Furedi because of his involvement with the "Revolutionary Communist Party"/Spiked crew (hardcore Trotskyites in the 70s and 80s who then became equally extreme right-wing libertarians).

[thespian15.livejournal.com]

lobbyists, policy-advisers.
If that's the answer, we are screwed, because there appears to be VERY LITTLE intelligence in those fields. :o They don't have intelligence, they have nothing by 80s Wall Street GREED. :o
Hugs, Jon