re: BHL
A good example of French Intellectual is Bernard-Henri Levy.
He wrote Sartre's biography, went to Bosnia and denounced what was going on there in the early 90's, and lately went to Pakistan to investigate Daniel Pearl's death.
He was a communist sympathizer, years ago, realized what was going on, denounced the regimes. He's got a way to commit himself in fighting human injustice.
Raoul