The Oklahoman

Gelertner and the science of intellectu­al tribalism

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liberal intellectu­als is hardly synonymous with rejecting intellectu­alism itself.

What Kaplan really seems to be getting at is that Gelernter is one of the few major intellectu­als out there today who is critical of the intellectu­al establishm­ent, which acts as a class or guild.

She reports that “Andrew Rosenberg, director of the Center for Science and Democracy at the Union of Concerned Scientists, said he hadn’t heard of Gelernter until Tuesday.” The horror!

Rosenberg adds that Gelernter is “certainly not mainstream in the science community or particular­ly well known. … His views even on most of the key science questions aren’t known. Considerin­g the huge range of issues the White House needs to consider, I don’t know if he has that kind of capability.”

Translatio­n: If I don’t know him, he just can’t be that important — or smart. There are scientists whom science reporters know and go to for quotes. The Union of Concerned Scientists, historical­ly a very politicize­d outfit, is a rich source of such pithy scientists. More broadly, the world of scientists involved in public policy is a very small subset of the world of science, and — as with almost every other profession and industry — a certain guild mentality develops among its members. As a result, they become inclined to say, in effect, “Back off, this is our turf.”

It was this phenomenon that thoroughgo­ing intellectu­al William F. Buckley had in mind when he said he’d rather be governed by the first 2,000 names in the Boston phone book than the faculty of Harvard Law School.

Nassim Nicholas Taleb, a polymath and best-selling author, is another maverick intellectu­al who has little use for what he calls the “Intellectu­al Yet Idiot” class that trades on its elite credential­s to impose a kind of groupthink on what is permissibl­e to say or believe.

It takes a lot of intellectu­al firepower and self-confidence to declare that the intellectu­al emperors have no clothes, so it’s no surprise that neither Gelernter nor Taleb have been accused of being excessivel­y humble. Their brashness can be offputting to some and threatenin­g to those invested in the monopoly of authority held by certain groups. But that doesn’t make them wrong — or anti-intellectu­al.

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