Your thoughts on intellectuals and society...

[knowledgeORbust]

Hi. I'm not sure where to post this, but I like the Lounge crowd and this seems semi-relevant so I'ma post it here. Mods, move if necessary.

I'm currently reading Rothbard's For a New Liberty, recommended by Borodog. There's a quote in here from a National Security Council staff member, written during the Kennedy administration. At this point in the book, Rothbard has been discussing intellectuals and their roles in society. I'm most curious about the parts re: employment and motives for working - in America and other countries.
All comments welcome!:

[ QUOTE ]
their most important function is to justify and extend the existence of their employers... In order to justify the continued large-scale production of these [thermonuclear] combs and missiles, military and industrial leaders needed some kind of theory to rationalize their use... This became particularly urgent during the late 1950's, when economy-minded members of the Eisenhower Administration began to wonder why so much money, thought, and resources were being spent on weapons if their use could not be justified. And so began a series of rationalizations by the "defense intellectuals" in and out of the universities... Military procurement will continue to flourish, and they will continue to demonstrate why it must. In this respect they are no different from the great majority of modern specialists who accept the assumptions of the organizations which employ them because of the rewards in money and power and prestige... They know enough not to question their employers' right to exist.

[/ QUOTE ]

FWIW, this passage doesn't represent the books' (Rothbards', libertarians') views, it's a quote from some other dude as an example.

[[Phill]]

What are people meant to be discussing here?

[cambraceres]

This cabinet member was merely pointing out the fact that intellectuals are important in what they can accomplish for their patrons. When he says that the intellectuals provide rationalizations which account for and justify the proliferation of weapons he is merely stating the needs of his employer. The gov't needed or felt they needed the security of an over inflated military, and so they used intellectuals to say why, and put their names behind those reasons.
This is less an issue in private industry however, as intellectuals are not exploited in the same way. Copanies of today do not need a validating pronouncement, whereas dubious social and military programs do.

I tend to side with H.G. Wells on the role of intellectuals, that they should be exalted and tapped for the general betterment of mankind. Oligarchy was scary effective for the spartans. By their constitution and it's strength no spartan woman saw an invading army for 900 years. Eventually the world changed around them, and their static system was finally found to be insufficient. Who should have told them it was going to happen?

In the US, our system seems to be working, but who is it who should speak up if it's not?

Intellectuals are people, and it is not uncommon for them to submit to power, or money. What the rest of soiety can do to help is find a way to allow the intelligent to tell what they find, and not be frightnened or rewarded into complacency by the powers which neccessarily support them.

Cam

[JJSCOTT2]

I have nothing to add except that I would love to see a thermonuclear comb.