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An earlier version of this essay appeared in Nygaard Notes a couple of years ago. It speaks so well to the issue of “Why Support Nygaard Notes” that I thought it would be good to run it again in honor of this Pledge Drive. I've revised it a little bit, but the basic message is the same.
In my 1999 essay, “Reading the Newspaper: A Four-Step Process,” I explained the first step, which is “Learn the context elsewhere,” like this: “No news story comes from nowhere. Any story you come across can only be properly understood if you have some working knowledge of the history which preceded it, the relationships between the people and institutions involved, the economics and culture of the community or nation in which it occurred, and so forth. In other words, the “context.” Daily newspapers usually lack context, so they are really the worst places to educate yourself about an issue... The point here is that you would be better off getting your background on an issue from something other than a daily publication.”
The people who work to provide such background and context are what I call “Public Intellectuals.” What is a “Public Intellectual?” Well, they come in all shapes and sizes, and arise from different places, but they all have a similar social function. They are the people who have the time and inclination to do the thinking and communicating necessary to help the rest of us sort out and try to make sense of the flood of information to which we are subjected every day of our lives. Public Intellectuals on the scene at present include people like Vandana Shiva, Tim Wise, Arundhati Roy, Robert Fisk, Greg Wilpert, Phyllis Bennis, Noam Chomsky, and Howard Zinn. There are many others.
Any social change movement needs clear thinking. Popular educators, who are all about social change, speak of a cycle of “action, reflection, action.” Simply put, it is understood that each attempt we make at changing the world (Action) DOES change the world. This, in turn, creates a new reality, which means that we would do well to consider the new reality we have created (Reflection) before we decide on what to do next (Action). Intellectuals can provide some of the analytical skills to help with these processes. In short, Public Intellectuals use their intellectual abilities to help make social change.
Public and Private Intellectuals
U.S. culture has lots of “non-public” intellectuals. Corporations employ untold numbers of people to think about how to make more money for their companies. Maybe we could call these people “private intellectuals.” Schools and colleges have lots of scholars on their payrolls. They sit around reading, thinking, doing research, and talking. If they talk only to students or other professionals in their fields, then they are simply scholars and teachers. That's important, but it doesn't make them Public Intellectuals. Maybe they are sort of “Semi-Public” Intellectuals.
What distinguishes a Public Intellectual from any other person who spends a good deal of their time thinking and talking is that a Public Intellectual consciously attempts to make herself useful to the public at large. You will find a Public Intellectual out in the world—speaking, writing books and articles, attending political meetings and conferences, and in many ways attempting to make her or his knowledge and skills available to people who are doing the hard work of organizing people to change the world.
Public Intellectuals are generalists, big picture thinkers, context-providers. While they may have a specific area of expertise, they must also have the broad general knowledge necessary to understand the social importance of the details they know. Perhaps the biggest thing that Public Intellectuals have that distinguishes them from the general population – and enables them to do what they do – is that their lives are arranged to allow them TIME. Time to think, time to consider the Big Picture, time to reflect on the context for all of the information that shapes our understanding of “how the world works.”
Does the U.S. culture support Public Intellectuals? Yes and no. Some scholars make their living by teaching, and do their social intellectual work “on the side.” Some people are employed by “think tanks,” which raise funds and use the funds to actually pay people to be Public Intellectuals. A lot of the people you see on the TV political talk shows or read in the editorial pages fall into this category. Naturally, many of these people tend to use their abilities to defend the system we have, since the “winners” in this system – that is, the wealthy and powerful – are more likely to support intellectuals who will defend this system than those who are more critical. They'd be sort of crazy not to do so.
Please note that all this talk about “intellectuals” is not some sort of pie-in-the-sky thing that is only of interest to political fanatics. The ability of the so-called “right wing” to fund all sorts of think tanks and Public Intellectuals goes a long way to explain their success in recent years in the U.S. This army of Individualistic and Competitive (IC) intellectuals has helped their political allies to develop and use strategies that have enabled them to consolidate their political power at all levels. In addition, and perhaps more importantly, they also have used their well-funded prominence to push the IC ideology into the forefront of political discourse here at the beginning of a new century. It's not an accident that the political “center” in this country has shifted so far to the “right.” The IC crowd has been scheming and planning this movement for many years, and using their money to carry out their schemes and plans. Creating and supporting Public Intellectuals is one way they do this.
Those of us who have a different set of hopes for our nation and our world have to counter this power with a power of our own. We have to support Public Intellectuals who have a set of values that is more Social and Cooperative so, when a crisis occurs, they will be able to provide the memory, the context, and the perspective that can help us to place the “news” that we are given about our world into a philosophical and ideological context that gives it meaning in light of our values.
What This Has to Do With Nygaard Notes
While anyone can be a Public Intellectual, only some of us have the desire and the inclination to spend a lot of time using our brains in this way. Thinking is real work—it isn't magic—and it takes time to do it. And it takes even more time to communicate it to the public at large. I love doing it, and I think I'm good at helping people do their own thinking, which is why I produce Nygaard Notes. Not only do I consider myself a Public Intellectual; I think of myself as a Working Class Public Intellectual. By that I mean that I write from the point of view of those of us whose only hope for a better life comes from hard work and solidarity. People of wealth and power can pretty much take care of themselves, as individuals. That's what power means, in part. While some working class and poor people may “make it” to that level someday through good luck or entrepreneurial skill, most of us won't. To improve our lot we will have to rely on united action, social solidarity, and love.
Some Public Intellectuals, also, can kind of “make it” as individuals, since they are so well-known that they get paid to speak, or they can sell enough of their own books that it allows them to live. But they didn't start out able to do it on their own. Somebody had to support them. I myself am working on writing a book, and the more public appearances I do and pieces I publish, the closer I will get to being able to spend all my time doing this work. But I'm not there yet and, in order to do the work needed to get there, I NEED YOUR HELP!
Nygaard Notes is intended to contribute to the intellectual work that is essential to a successful social change movement. It's only a small part but, I think, an important one. If you appreciate my work as a Working Class Public Intellectual, and understand the importance of this kind of work, then perhaps you will make a contribution in support of the project. Thank you! |
