Liberal “Mea Culpa”

to like struggle for its own sake. But the careers of a whole intellectual generation—the Londons, Upton Sinclairs, Steffenses, Floyd Dells and Jack Reeds—raise still another question: Have Writers Brains? Does the ability to put sentences in marching order or to create a semblance of logic in the marshalling of “evidence” necessarily mean that intelligence is present? The answer would seem to be No.

The issue has its pertinence at a time when it is frequently alleged in learned and artistic circles that a recrudescence of Know-Nothingism is menacing the intellectuals. If Know-Nothingism is a threat, it is not something that comes from the depths, or—in London’s words—the “people of the abyss.”

MR

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Murray N. Rothbard

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to like struggle for its own sake. But the careers of a whole intellectual generation—the Londons, Upton Sinclairs, Steffenses, Floyd Dells and Jack Reeds—raise still another question: Have Writers Brains? Does the ability to put sentences in marching order or to create a semblance of logic in the marshalling of “evidence” necessarily mean that intelligence is present? The answer would seem to be No.

The issue has its pertinence at a time when it is frequently alleged in learned and artistic circles that a recrudescence of Know-Nothingism is menacing the intellectuals. If Know-Nothingism is a threat, it is not something that comes from the depths, or—in London’s words—the “people of the abyss.”