Among other inevitabilities predicted by those who know him is the dumbing down of political and intellectual discourse. To be an intellectual in these countries today is to invite derision, to be looked down upon. At a talk he gave in London some time ago, the author Alberto Manguel responded to an audience question thus, “The intellectual act today has no prestige whatsoever.” This is not an unfortunate accident as a deliberate political ploy. Manguel was talking of the consumer society, but it applies equally in the political society too. Whether or not a theory is true or false is important to them, independently of any practical application it may have”.

Source: The Hindu July 28, 2019 18:34 UTC