PRESTOPUNDIT -- feeding memeorandum & econRT daily

[Paul Johnson in his book Intellectuals] cites a book published in 1935 titled The Intelligentsia of Great Britain. The subjects were .. a playwright, five novelists, an economist, two essayists, a philosopher, an editor, a theologian, two scientists, two political scientists, a biographer, and a poet. Can we come up with an equivalent list of heavyweight public intellectuals for the present-day United States? Well, there are a number of job categories there we can strike out right away. I wonder what proportion of my readers can even name a living American poet? .. I doubt there are any who would pay good money to hear what, say, Rita Dove has to say about large matters of public interest. Similarly with playwrights. I think: Pretty much my entire knowledge of the current theater scene is derived from reading Mark Steyn's theater criticism in The New Criterion, which has left me with the rather strong impression that the U.S. playwrights of today are all left-wing homosexuals. You may wish to remind me that John Maynard Keynes was a left-wing homosexual, and so he was; but he was also a great economist who changed the minds of entire nations and did as much as any man to shape the later 20th century. I hope I won't be bursting anyone's bubble if I say that Tony Kushner is just not in that league ..

By comparison with P.J.'s 1935 list, mine shows a strong shift towards conservatism. The center of gravity of the 1935 list is well to the left of center; of mine, well to the right .. To correct the balance, I leafed through some back copies of the reliably left-wing New York Review of Books and The New Yorker to pick out a heavyweight or two. With the best will in the world, I couldn't. The modern Left simply isn't competitive above the middleweight category. Considering their near-monopoly of academia, the arts, and the media, this is astounding; but try the experiment for yourself and see.