In May Foreign Policy announced a contest to decide the top 20 public intellectuals in the world. To simplify the process the top 20 would be picked from 100 public intellectuals selected for the magazine by a committee. The candidates were chosen because of the influence of their ideas.
But like all humans, public intellectuals are egotistical and seek the limelight. Hence, many of the 100 campaigned to be on the short list. Muslims campaigned the best as, according to the 500,000 voters, the top 10 public intellectuals in the world are Muslim. Interestingly, six of these top 10 no longer reside in a Muslim country, four live in the U.S., a couple live in Europe. One of the leaders is a televangelist in Egypt, two are clerics, one is a 'religious theorist', whatever that is.
In the second group of 10 we find such intellectuals as Al Gore, Ayaan Hirsi Ali and Fareed Zakaria.
There were write-ins. The top vote-getter in this capacity was......
Stephen Colbert, former presidential candidate.
It just goes to show that we all do stupid things every so often.
1 comment:
Here's why I have no time for "public intellectuals":
"public intellectuals are egotistical and seek the limelight."
Being intellectual means relying on one's thought processes to define one's being. If those processes are controlled by the ego, which lies constantly, no way can they be intellectual.
"Public intellectuals" are shams. Their thought processes are tainted.
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