Literature, U.S.A

available in a paperback translation, Betrayal of the Intellectuals, Beacon, $1.25). Benda believed, it is true, in the Enlightenment, and that belief led inexorably to his intellectual fate. But he demanded of the intellectuals a loyalty to the search for truth, irrespective of (in fact, in the most arrogant contempt of) the pressures of the day. “The treason of the intellectuals,” as he conceived it and as he lashed out against it, was in its essence no more nor less than the betrayal of truth for extraneous considerations. That he substantively was wrong in his judgments is the tragedy of a brilliant mind. It does not negate the insight that the man who lives by ideas betrays his being when he subordinates truth to any other consideration.

Mr. Brooks, quote Benda in his substantive errors though he does, preaches the opposite: the truth be damned, unless it is optimistic, enlightened, secular, comfortable and popular.

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available in a paperback translation, Betrayal of the Intellectuals, Beacon, $1.25). Benda believed, it is true, in the Enlightenment, and that belief led inexorably to his intellectual fate. But he demanded of the intellectuals a loyalty to the search for truth, irrespective of (in fact, in the most arrogant contempt of) the pressures of the day. “The treason of the intellectuals,” as he conceived it and as he lashed out against it, was in its essence no more nor less than the betrayal of truth for extraneous considerations. That he substantively was wrong in his judgments is the tragedy of a brilliant mind. It does not negate the insight that the man who lives by ideas betrays his being when he subordinates truth to any other consideration.

Mr. Brooks, quote Benda in his substantive errors though he does, preaches the opposite: the truth be damned, unless it is optimistic, enlightened, secular, comfortable and popular.