29 March 2008
Thinking Shouldn’t Earn a Living
Reading “Out of Print” by Eric Alterman in the March 31, 2008, New Yorker convinced me that we got into trouble when we started hiring people to do our thinking for us. There is a difference between writers who are rewarded by the market with sales of their books and experts who are paid to observe and criticize current events and the human condition. It is the responsibility of every conscious soul to be constantly on the alert and contribute his opinions to the debate among self-governing citizens of a vibrant republic. Each citizen should be responsible for supporting himself by contributing to the common material welfare. Instead, anyone who can afford it has, as a luxury through private contributions and taxes, subsidized the performance of that debate by specialists, relinquishing his duty to perform that function himself.
The resulting division of society between earners and philosophers robs its actions of automatic intelligence. Thought is not a luxury to be purchased, but a duty that must be fulfilled in order to keep a republic on the tracks that lead to the common welfare.
Reading “Out of Print” by Eric Alterman in the March 31, 2008, New Yorker convinced me that we got into trouble when we started hiring people to do our thinking for us. There is a difference between writers who are rewarded by the market with sales of their books and experts who are paid to observe and criticize current events and the human condition. It is the responsibility of every conscious soul to be constantly on the alert and contribute his opinions to the debate among self-governing citizens of a vibrant republic. Each citizen should be responsible for supporting himself by contributing to the common material welfare. Instead, anyone who can afford it has, as a luxury through private contributions and taxes, subsidized the performance of that debate by specialists, relinquishing his duty to perform that function himself.
The resulting division of society between earners and philosophers robs its actions of automatic intelligence. Thought is not a luxury to be purchased, but a duty that must be fulfilled in order to keep a republic on the tracks that lead to the common welfare.
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