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Entry: Firing Foxman Link: http://www.takimag.com/site/article/firing_foxman#3447 Post contents: thank you mr Gottfried, excellent article. paul johnson wrote modern times...and intellectuals has this to say in his book "one of the principal lessons of our tragic century which has seen so many millions of innocent lives sacrificed in schemes to improve the lot of humanity is this, beware intellectuals, not merely should they be kept well away from the levers of power, they should also be objects of particular suspicion when they seek to offer collective advise, beware committees conferences and leagues of intellectuals, distrust their public statements issued from their serried ranks, discount their verdicts on political leaders and important events. For intellectual far from being highly individualistic and non conformist people follow certain regular patterns of behavior, taken as a group they are often ultra conformist within the circles formed by those whose approval they seek and value, that is what makes them en masse so dangerous, for it enables them to create climates of opinion and prevailing orthodoxes which themselves often generate irrational and destructive causes of action. Above all we must at all times remember what intellectuals habitually forget that people matter more than concepts and must come first, the worst of all despotisms is the heartless tyranny of ideas." Sent at: 2008 05 15