Thanks for the left-handed compliment, Tom. [I mean that, no sarc]

It wasn't, however, an attempt to blow smoke - just the opposite: an attempt to blow smoke away; a return to 'first principles', a look at the language. A 'metacomment', if you will... with an implicit question about why intellectual is a perjorative among such a large number of people whose behavior can fairly be characterized with the same word.

There's a special irony. We Boomers were raised in a duplicitous environment: the brightest (such as we) were encouraged into intellectual pursuits in the post-Sputnik phase of the Cold War, while our parents' generation was disparaging "eggheads" and "ivory tower" types (not to forget finding Commies in the PTA and under every bed). We've inherited the worst of both, I'm afraid: trained to perform as intellectuals, yet acculturated to despise others like ourselves.

What was Ayn Rand, after all, if not a capital-I Intellectual?

I ordinarily leave personal anecdotes out of what I post here, but I'll say this: I know a lot of people who are so certain about being right that all those who disagree can only be clinically mentally ill. I'm seeing a lot of that same fanatical certainty in the foreign policy of my country, and in the attitudes of many of its citizens - including some here.

I genuinely do not comprehend how or why certain people get such glee out of pointing out how hated "we" - that is, Americans - are elsewhere in the world. Since, here in the Zone, they're most often quoting some other opinion-writer, the phenomenon must be fairly wide-spread. What sort of perverse self-affirmation is gained by being the object of hatred? Is it, after all, a need to reinforce "I'm right, so you're crazy"? Are we capable only of ridicule of our critics because we cannot brook the possibility, no matter how small, that they may be right?*

And have we forgotten that hatred is the prime motive for terrorism?

[* - see the chapter of Bronowski's The Ascent of Man titled "Reason and Certainty"; I think it's 11, but I don't currently own a copy.]