On Intellectuals in Politics

In his essay “Intellectuals in Politics,” Richard Rorty gives us his thumbnail sketch of the history of democracy in the United States. In the beginning were the Founding Fathers, fearful of mob rule. In the interim were the spread of literacy and the struggles for democratic progress of ten generations of liberal-leftists. In the present is a malaise of inactivity, germinated, in some part, by postmodern intellectuals who seem more concerned about gay-bashing in the streets, racist reporting in the press, and sexual harassment in the workplace than they are about the rich soaking the poor. Given more space, I suppose I would want to tell a less simple-minded story: a story that did not have to begin with the Founding Fathers; a story that acknowledged that ten generations of American leftists might not all have shared the same vision of democratic progress; a story that described some of the pernicious activities pursued at home and abroad in the name of American-style ...