The Accessible Intellectual

It was long before Machiavelli wrote the Prince or Plato the Republic that intellectuals began playing the role of advisor to those who govern. It seems inevitable that no single person is aptly equipped to rule, but needs a corps of intellectuals for direction.

Intellectuals have always held a soft power over government, a power of influence. But over time, the direction and shape of their influence has had to change in accordance with changes in systems of government. Today, public intellectuals face the problem of influencing the public, the theoretical power holders in our democracy, amidst competition from the most prolific of mass media. In order to maintain their influence, the public intellectual must retain the intellectual nature of his work while making it – and himself – entirely accessible to the masses.

Yes, the role of public intellectual, one who advises more than just the heads of state, was necessitated only by the advent of democracy. Democracy changed the entire dynamics of government. Now, the “masses” (a word Stephen Mack calls "crude and ugly," but we will assume to mean those who vote and those who have any influence over others who vote) are, in theory, the ruling bodies. In some ways democracy requires a faith in the aptitude of those masses, but in others it reveals a loss of faith in any single individual. In some cases (like the case of Ferdinand of Hapsburg, for example, who was mentally retarded but ruled the Hapsburg Empire at the height of its power) the average competence of “the masses” will be greater than that of an individual who came to power solely by political maneuvering.

Democracy, however, makes the intellectual’s job much more difficult. Rather than advising a single ruler through open and established communication channels, it’s now necessary that the intellectual advise millions of people, who each have only a very small piece of the power of government. Democracy then, is not necessarily a “rule by the people,” but rather, a rule by those who can most effectively influence the people.

The question for the public intellectually is how to exercise their influence.

Today, in our media-saturated world, many players fight for the attention of those all-too-powerful “masses.” From former presidential candidates to concerned citizens and academics to celebrities; influence is exerted across nearly all mediums and nearly every hour of the day. But with people screaming from all sides, it’s hard not to get lost in the deafening cacophony.

Thus, in order for a public intellectual to be effective, he or she must chose an effective means of communicating with “the masses.” A public intellectual must step down from the city-on-the-hill that is academia and reach out to the public on a lower level. A real public intellectual must be an accessible intellectual.

Intellectuals have used the printed word as a means of public communication since Gutenberg’s invention of moveable type. They have used word-of-mouth and public speeches even longer. The accessible intellectual can also be heard on news radio or seen as talking heads on any number of news and commentary shows. Most recently, many public intellectuals, including the one writing this post, have taken to the ultimate democratic medium, the internet, to further widen the public discourse. There are a huge number of mass communications by which an intellectual can speak to the people. The key is finding the one to which they will listen.

At this point, many intellectuals retreat back to academia or politics under the guise of credibility and professionalism. But the accessible intellectual understands the importance of his role in a democracy. He or she uses all means necessary to divert the public’s attention from celebrities and gossip toward a public discourse on the area of his or her expertise.

And once the intellectual has effectively entered the public sphere, once he or she becomes truly accessible, it is paramount, and perhaps most difficult, to maintain an intellectual demeanor.

A true intellectual’s aim is not to provide a one-way stream of information, regardless of how informative and necessary that information might be. A true intellectual’s aim is also not to effect policy changes directly, though he or she might be well equipped to do so. The accessible intellectual’s aim is to open a lively and engaging public discourse.

Thus, an intellectual’s focus is not on providing absolute answers. Rather, an intellectual is more concerned with asking the right questions: questions that are provocative, questions that facilitate an exploration of a subject, rather than a lesson on it. An intellectual provides the public with the format and reason to understand a subject for itself.

Also, an accessible intellectual is not adversarial toward dissenting opinions. Rather, he or she is willing to consider counterarguments for the sake of gaining a more complete understanding of an issue.

Thus, an accessible intellectual is not the gatekeeper of a finite knowledge pool, but rather the guide who leads the way for a public who attention is too divided for self-government. The accessible intellectual not only equips the masses with the information needed for effective self-government, but also plays a role in socializing the masses as responsible citizens and individual leaders. To do this effectively is not difficult. In addition to being personally well-informed, a public intellectual must be only two things: accessible and intellectual.