Britain needs intellectuals to be intellectuals

There are several things which are severely lacking in politics: confidence, integrity and knowledge. We hear every day that the prime minister is no different to the deputy prime minister who is no different to the Leader of the Opposition. And whilst the typical threats of voting for the BNP, for the Greens or for UKIP are issued by certain sects of the disgruntled electorate, how much can we say things have properly changed in politics? I only mention this because I have decided to talk about Newsnight’s debate on 1^st October about intellectuals, featuring Mary Kaldor, Alain de Botton and Alastair Campbell (sigh, I wish he’d shut up about Blair), all of whom made interesting points. But aside from the points raised, I thought to myself, ‘Why is this shown near the end of the programme, close to eleven at night, and not at five in the afternoon or ten in the morning?’ In other words, why don’t we have open intellectuals?

The question is even more perplexing when we do have serious thinkers in British society. Whilst we look to France especially to look at the influence exerted by such dense minds, let us not be fooled: we have Stephen Fry, Melvyn Bragg, Niall Ferguson, George Monbiot, Owen Jones, A.C. Grayling, Will Self, and we had the late Bertrand Russell and Christopher Hitchens. I am certain that the mind power of these individuals would trump that of either the Blair, Brown or Cameron ministries, the latter equally as male-dominated as the list above. But would they call themselves intellectuals? No, we’re British; we’re historians, broadcasters, journalists, writers and authors. ‘An intellectual?’ they would each retort, ‘Me? Perish the thought.’

And how this contrasts to the continent – everyone who either loves France or loves philosophy has to have heard of Bernard-Henri Lévy. As he swaggers across the globe, delivering lectures with his mane and wearing half-buttoned shirts, he is the Kate Moss – the showoff, the icon, and just how teenage girls look up to her, swotty wannabe serious thinkers, such as myself, look to him.

As much as I desire to deify intellectuals, it is simply not possible. My mind simply forbids it, threatening me with an almighty fall down to Earth if I don’t comply. Lévy went to the grande école the École Normale Supérieure, and from a wealthy family, growing up in Neuilly, an area that may as well be an extension of the exclusive 16^th arrondissement of Paris. Our own intellectuals don’t fare much better either. On my list of those clever stalwarts, apart from A.C. Grayling, all were Oxbridge-educated, and, save Owen Jones, all were privately educated. You can see why, when this combination is then supplemented by close and amiable relationships with the press and politicians, that, to some, this creates a sulphurous stink of disconnect with the others.

But the links between other journalists and politicians can’t simply be seen as disco-dancing with the devil. Politicians are functional; perhaps they are the nearest that humans can get to robots, sharing both the characteristics of efficiency and stupidity through steel-lined stoicism. Intellectuals represent the optimum of human intelligence, at the other end of the spectrum. Whilst their thoughts can take ages to process and finalise, the end result is sweet.  And thus, they can be the programmers of human civilisation. Because, as many sci-fi films have shown us, once robots gain control, the world and humanity collapses on itself.

So, how to solve the dilemma of having a group of accessible, inclusive, broad section of intellectuals in our society, a group that can provide, with ease, sensible arguments to the ordinary people, whether on TV, Twitter or Talksport? I am aware that Utopia has not yet materialised and we cannot expect that all the below will come into fruition, there are things that I personally would recommend. Firstly, this group cannot be solely privately educated, as a product of the 8% who attend private schools. Disconnect is nearly inevitable. Secondly, there would be no Oxbridge dominance, on the account that only social status has deemed these universities as top dogs nowadays, whilst others, such as UCL, are proving themselves to be of similar quality. Thirdly, there must be some sort of balance between left-leaning and right-leaning intellectuals. Of course, the left-wing seems more visionary and progressive and perhaps 50:50 would be unrealistic, but considering that this country remains rather conservative, especially in terms of the economy, the disconnect rule is broken once again. And finally, and this is equally important, intellectuals should understand people. Whilst it is fantastic to quote Socrates on a regular basis, what is the likeliness that there is a large audience to understand? Such things can undermine such talent instantly.

Alastair Campbell said on that interview with Newsnight that he wished to get rid of the ‘too clever by half’ culture in Britain. I may disagree with him on many things but that’s where we have common ground. I love knowledge and I love thinking and I would like to be able to be paid to think, to write about thinking, to speak about thinking and to encourage people to think. I just wish that the great minds of this country were on the same wavelength as me.