ML goes further than I would:
Vox, great article, I guess one of the great stumbling blocks of the intellectual subculture is pride. All men are born with a spirit that is in rebellion against God, it seems that at least some of the people you are talking about marshall the resources of thier {supossedly} great intellects in their war against God.
I think many of these intellectuals revel in their percieved superiority over “normal” saps especially when it’s very likely that said intellectuals were picked on and marginalized by so called normal people as children.
While I agree that intellectual pride is a genuine stumbling block for many individuals, I reject both the implication and the overt statement in the second paragraph. It is mystifying to me that so many people who readily recognize physical superiority and understand how a physically powerful individual develops a superiority complex are incapable of understanding that precisely the same process is at work in the intellectually superior.
In both cases, the sense of power can be intoxicating and often leads to arrogance, but no one ever talks about “perceived” physical superiority – except a few stupid equalitarians, of course – or refers to “normal” strength, speed, quickness or agility.
The sense of separation from the norm is not created by any rejection by others, it exists from the very first moment of engagement. The subsequent marginalization that often occurs is usually the result of actions on both sides; the normal mainstream fears and is jealous of those who excel and harbors the usual dislike of those who are different in any way, superior or inferior, while the intelligent individual all too often refuses to compromise and engage with the mainstream in terms it finds acceptable.
This is ironic, of course, because one who is smart enough to be intrincically separated from the mainstream should be smart enough to figure out how to engage successfully with it. Some, especially girls, do this almost automatically, others like me require a few years of junior high hell before the light bulb goes off.
Unfortunately, a common result of this marginalization is that whereas the physically superior merely feels a mild and reasonable contempt for the norm, the intellectually superior often develops an outright dislike, if not hatred, for it. This, I think, is why intellectuals are so dangerous and why Plato’s notion of rule by highly educated, highly intelligent Philosopher-Kings is a fundamentally flawed one, as it can lead to terrible atrocities at the behest those intellectuals capable of rationalizing the transformation of their hatred for the masses into dehumanization.