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LAST_INTELLECTUALS
May 3, 2005
"The Last Intellectuals" (1987)
by Russell Jacoby
The thesis is that:
o independent,
o American, My prime example of this
o public, breed is Jane Jacobs, and
o intellectuals it's one of Russell Jacoby's
are an endangered species. prime examples as well.
Jacoby claims that the main JANE_JACOBS
reason for this is that they
have become academics,
voluntarily imprisoned in the
Ivory Tower where they write Or at least, I *think* he claims
intentionally for an extremely this is the *main* reason. He at
narrow audience, solely least strongly implies that it's a
motivated by professional prominent reason... I think a
advancement. close reading shows that he really
only claims that it's the reason
that he wants to talk about.
This gap in our culture--
according to Jacoby-- has It's a problem with his style of
been filled thus far by the argument: he qualifies things so
aging intellectuals of a carefully, it can be a little hard to
previous generation, and to track exactly what he's saying
some extent by foreign (though it always *seems* clear).
imports (e.g. the European
post-modernists). And he's one of those guys with
a knack for discussing possible
Russell Jacoby argues counter-arguments without quite
that we need wide-ranging addressing them-- he just
non-specialized leaves you with the *feeling*
intellectuals that write that they've been addressed.
for a general audience:
INTO_THE_STRAW
"The transmission belt of culture-- the
ineffable manner by which an older generation
passes along not simply its knowledge but its
dreams and hopes-- is threatened. The larger
culture rests on a decreasing number of aging
intellectuals with no successors." -- p. 7-8
It's a difficult business,
discussing this sort of VOID
hole in our culture, an
absence of an intangible (And in fact, it's the
presence... very first excuse
Jacoby offers up...) (Excuse?
Jacoby shows awareness of Qualification,
many-- though not all-- of Patch,
the difficulties. Hedge?)
His thesis depends a lot on
definitions and perceptions,
and there's much room for (And if you think
quibbling and caviling, and I'm going to skip But also, whatever
in fact, it practically the opportunity, you the merits of his
invites such attacks... haven't been paying thesis, whatever
attention.) his omissions,
But I don't think there's this book is a
too much doubt that he's very good
on to *something* here-- historical survey
of 20th century
American
"As intellectuals became academics, intellectuals
they had no need to write in a
public prose; they did not, and Reading it
finally they could not" -- p. 7 continually left
me thinking
things like:
I think the real question,
though, is *why* is the "Podhoretz wrote
academic influence so a book called
pernicious? The idea here 'Making It'?
is that an academic switches Didn't Paul
*entirely* to a specialist Goodman write a
audience, but this-- book called
'Making Do'?
(1) Was not always the case. Goodman must
have been
(2) Is not universal to all riffing off of
disciplines. Podhoretz..."
Some fields are more GOODMAN
welcoming (forgiving?) of
experts dabbling in
popularization than others.
The disease can not just be
that the market for independent
writing has dried up, there is
also a disease of the academy TEXTS_IN_DECLINE
that needs to be accounted for.
(Jacoby does talk about this a
bit: things have calcified,
credentials matter much more,
avoiding public controversy is
more important...)
ACADEMIC_LIGHTS
But now let me get down to
the fun stuff-- quibbles
and cavils-- maybe there
are enough of them that they
add up to something...
The worst difficulty, and Not included are:
one that he barely popular science writers
addresses, if at all, is software geeks
that he has a pretty science fiction writers
rigid idea of what counts rock lyricists/critics
as an "intellectual", and talk radio people
if you're not a marxist documentary film-makers
working in the libertarians (and few conservatives)
humanities/social
sciences, it's hard to Some of these categories
make it into his club. he dismisses explicitly,
but rarely for convincing
(But not impossible: reasons.
e.g. Norman Podhoretz
is covered pretty
throughly.)
I spent much of the 80s
mulling over the libertarian
publications "Reason" and I was also a big fan of
"Liberty", which would the Whole Earth Review,
certainly seem to qualify as but I would have to check
written for (if not always to see if some of their
reaching) a general stable of writers were
audience. young enough for Jacoby's
cut-off.
But at least Jacoby does
praise the neo-con Kostelanetz
"Commentary" for being lists Stewart
written more accessibly Brand as a
than things like "Social missed example.
Text"...
But why would you compare it to
"Social Text" rather than "The
Nation" or "Mother Jones"? (Jacoby himself publishes
in "The Nation" now.
I don't know about then.)
Jacoby mentions in passing that he's not
including rock lyricists and critics but
doesn't really explain why.
Just to pick one:
And what about:
Brian Eno: leading intellect
of my generation (T/F)? Lou Reed
Patti Smith
I would say so, though Eno's David Bowie
medium was LPs, linear notes Richard Hell
and interviews with very few David Byrne
published essays/articles (he
didn't publish a book until Lester Bangs
the 90s).
(And... is "Maximum
There's no mention at all of Rock n' Roll" not
the Pacifica radio people I Marxist enough for
grew up listening to-- Jacoby?)
WBAI
Science Fiction writers
evidently don't qualify:
Gregory Benford, BENFORD
Samuel R. Delany, DELANY
Bruce Sterling STERLING_DISTRACTED
The 80s produced some classic works
of popular technical writing:
And the 70s were good for
Stephen Gould, space exploration books:
"The Panda's Thumb" (1980)
"The Mis-measure of Man" (1981) Henry S. F. Cooper,
"A House in Space" (1976)
Stephen Levy, "Hackers" (1984)
Michael Collins,
Tracey Kidder, "Carrying the Fire" (1974)
"The Soul of a (Tracey Kidder
New Machine" gets a mention, Tom Wolfe,
(1981) at least.) "The Right Stuff" (1979)
James Gleick,
"Chaos: Making a New Science"
(1987)
Oh, but that was the same year
as "Last Intellectuals".
Eric Drexler's "The Engines of Creation" (1982)
Eric Drexler's work in
particular was very wide-
ranging, including
discussions of the problem
of public decision making Even in the unlikely event that
on technical subjects, and Drexler's discussion of
various ways we might increase "nanotechnology" were proven
our collective intelligence useless, there would still be some
very valuable material in this book.
Consider that Richard Stallman
was just getting started on some
of his best work during the mid
80s... some of it technical, some Hakim Bey's
of it essays and manifestos. "Temporary Autonomous Zone"
was out in 1985.
In particular he invented the
tremendously creative and ground
breaking legal hack, "the gnu
public license" aka "copyleft".
Are these not intellectuals?
Jacoby says something
dismissive about "software
whizzes" at one point--
In general, the possibility that
the kind of intellectual that he's Hey! Real intellectuals
interested in might now be besides are supposed to write
the point seems too horrible for about subjects that I
him to contemplate. understand!
THE_NEW_INTELLECTUALS
Richard Kostelanetz
(in "Whose Last
Intellectuals?",
collected in _Crimes
of Culture_) brings
up still more names, APOCRYPHA
e.g. James Fallows.
Kostelanetz also notes
that Jacoby skips
Buckminster Fuller in But then, Buckminster
his history. A telling Fuller was a pretty
point? terrible writer. Maybe
Jacoby doesn't think he
precisely qualifies as
There's no someone writing for a
mention of Ayn "general" audience.
Rand, either.
Maybe she wasn't
writing for a
specific enough Kostelanetz alludes to
general a work of his own, (Yes, he does
audience. _The End of Intelligent that a lot.)
Or something. Writing_ from 1974,
which he says identifies
a problem Jacoby doesn't
address.
END_OF_INTELLIGENT_WRITING
But, the above is not the only
counter-argument (counter-point)
that could be brought against Jacoby.
In addition to the "Hey you missed
a bunch" argument there is:
o Should we care if a writer is
American? What if thinkers outside
the US were doing a better job of
addressing key issues? Should we
ignore them?
o What if specialization is a
necessary evil? Maybe the real THE_NEW_INTELLECTUALS
issues are too hard for the
general audience to follow.
Physicists are not required to
drop quantum mechanics because
most people find it confusing,
why should, say, economists, be
subjected to different rules?
o The academic jobs are drying up.
If the academy is a seductive faustian
bargain, at least it's a bargain that (Kostelanetz
fewer intellectuals have available. makes this
point also.)
o And one last counter-argument of sorts:
Well, maybe that was true back
in 1987, but *now* we've got...
The Internet!
Which brings us to Cosma
Shalizi, who's notebooks
are one of my own picks I first read "The Last
for Best of the Web. Intellectuals" because
Shalizi mentioned it at the
end of one of his essays.
That essay had a slightly
different focus: Shalizi
asked not where did the
intellectuals go, but who
are our leading
intellectuals.
His question was: why is
it so hard to think of
someone currently alive A version of
of the caliber of that material:
Bertrand Russell?
[ref]
SHALIZI_CHALLENGE
(But the
appended
remark about
Jacoby is
missing.)
This raises another point, though:
Question: do we need stars?
There are people out there
writing op ed pieces, working
on web pages, writing small If the "transmission belt"
press books, and they are is busted, isn't it more
largely unsung heroes... because few people are
reading the output of these
Can't they act as an an effective writers?
"transmission belt of culture"
even if they're not establishing Imprison 90% of the
big names for us to drop? intellectuals, and the
remaining 10% would still
Would it be okay to overflow the pages.
have an intellectual
movement without the
names of leaders to A transmission
attribute it to? belt may slip
on either end.
ANARCHY
GRUEN_HILLS_OF_EARTH
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