Thomas Sowell: The Vision of the Anointed

SEE HERE Thomas Sowell is one of my favorite thinkers. He's got more common sense in his little finger than most of the pointy heads have in their whole bodies. He points out here that one thing that many intellectuals share is "the vision of the anointed." This is an idea not too far from C.S. Lewis' "inner ring" and is a fundamental temptation for those who imagine they are so smart that they should be in charge. The problem actually is that most of the folks that think they are that smart only think that because they've been successful academically. The reality is that given anything practical to do they often fall on their faces. Hubris is what it comes down to and hubris as the ancient Greeks knew so well leads always to very bad places.