The compromised freedom of intellectuals
George Scialabba:
Imagine a society in which intellectuals are free to write anything they want but it is forbidden to sell magazines or books. Under these peculiar circumstances, intellectuals would technically be free, but their freedom wouldn’t be worth much. Now imagine a society in which intellectuals are still free but the overwhelming majority of the society’s members — their intended readers, who desperately need the truths the intellectuals have to offer — are tired and stressed, have very little spare money for books or free time to read, are continually distracted by gaudy and often sexualized advertisements in every medium, did not receive a high-quality education, and have internalized the society’s dominant ethic of competitive individualism rather that cooperative solidarity. These are not, unfortunately, peculiar circumstances but pretty much they way things are in the United States and have been for the last forty years. Under these circumstances the freedom of intellectuals is, again, not worth much.
Only a Voice: Essays, pp. xivf
