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Sun, 12 May 2013 04:08:59 -0400

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Sat, 11 May 2013 12:52:10 -0400

“I used to think that any professional who used his education to make a living was...

Sat, 11 May 2013 12:19:52 -0400

“I used to think that any professional who used his education to make a living was automatically belonged to the class of people we call Intellectuals. But then one day in graduate school one of my professors made the startling confession that he didn’t consider himself an intellectual. To him, an intellectual was some kind of urban sophisticate. He was from rural origins and saw himself as “just plain folk” who, by dint of good luck, just happened to become well educated when most other people didn’t. On further reflection, I saw no reason to doubt him. There are lots of very smart people in the world who have no particular attachment to the life of the mind. There are people who have spent a lot of time in school but who are not particularly educated. And there even more people of relatively modest abilities who are trained to expert levels of competence, but who are not very original or deep thinkers.

What distinguishes an intellectual from non-intellectuals is not so much their cognitive ability or their educations, but a strong natural curiosity which sets them apart from those around them. Aldous Huxley once remarked, that an intellectual is a person who, by adolescence, had discovered something more interesting than sex. It is this curiosity which makes the sustained effort necessary to master a discipline seem almost effortless, and which permits the piling up of knowledge in discipline after discipline. At some point, this knowledge reaches a critical mass and the intellectual has an epiphany which organizes the sum of his knowledge according to his unique insights that define him as an intellectual. In this respect, becoming an intellectual is to fully realize oneself as an individual. Hence the goal of a good PhD. program is to develop the uniqueness of the individual’s intellect, so that in becoming uniquely himself he becomes a Proust, a Foucault, a Nietzsche or a Picasso or a Freud.

Another way to look at it is that intellectuals are people who take their own and other people’s ideas seriously, which presupposes a necessary honesty. When conversing intellectuals try to pursue a topic cooperatively. They may be competitive and debate to win, but winning is not the point. It is to subject one’s own and other’s ideas to critical examination in order to expose weaknesses in one’s knowledge or logic that prevent one from coming to new level of understanding of something. To this end, they argue scrupulously and cooperatively and criticize constructively. They help one another define their terms so that they do not argue past one another. Nonintellectual people use conversation for other purposes—i.e., to transact business, to gossip, to pass the time, and as ritual forms of social affirmation and inclusion.

Because intellectuals tend to probe the depths of human understanding, they tend not to share the same received illusions and common sense assumptions as other people. And for this reason they are often set apart and at odds with non-intellectuals, which often makes their lives difficult. But give them an academic title, a modest stipend, a quiet place to study, and access to each other, and they become as contented as can be.”

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Thu, 09 May 2013 14:44:30 -0400

You are more beautiful than you think.

Thu, 09 May 2013 13:50:37 -0400

You are more beautiful than you think.

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Wed, 08 May 2013 23:16:54 -0400

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Wed, 08 May 2013 20:39:27 -0400

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Wed, 08 May 2013 20:38:40 -0400

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Wed, 08 May 2013 20:37:11 -0400

joadie: Story of my life.

Wed, 08 May 2013 20:35:40 -0400

joadie:

Story of my life.

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Wed, 08 May 2013 20:35:14 -0400

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Wed, 08 May 2013 20:29:50 -0400

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Wed, 08 May 2013 20:28:56 -0400

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Wed, 08 May 2013 20:23:16 -0400

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Tue, 07 May 2013 22:54:02 -0400

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Tue, 07 May 2013 21:57:39 -0400

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Tue, 07 May 2013 21:54:28 -0400

Something I drew, “Infinian”.

Mon, 06 May 2013 20:39:08 -0400

Something I drew, “Infinian”.

Breathe Until You Choke.

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“I used to think that any professional who used his education to make a living was...

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You are more beautiful than you think.

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joadie: Story of my life.

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Something I drew, “Infinian”.