I’ve been thinking about this since I heard Vaclav Havel was planning to write his memoir, specifically about his ineffectiveness as a politician. The fact that Havel was elected is a great accomplishment on a planet that is increasingly becoming more anti intellectual. Can you imagine a scholar, poet, philosopher, or scientist being elected as a U.S. president? The cubs will win the world series and the usmnt will win the world cup before that happens.
Jimmy Carter was a nuclear engineer and studied nuclear physics. So, maybe you're right, intellectuals can't be good politicians.
Nope. Starting with Roosevelt, our presidents in the last half of the 20th century have been --the dilettantish scion of patrician upstate NY family --a failed haberdasher and political hack --a general --a dilettantish libertine scion of a partrician Massachusetts family --a schoolteacher and a political hack --a lawyer and a political hack --a peanut farmer --a bad actor --a dilettantish scion of a patrician Connecticut family --a white trash libertine lawyer --a failed tax shelter salesman and dilettantish scion of a patrician Connecticut family. So, no, we're not gonna get an Isiah Berlin anytime soon to sign up for this job. But the real question is this: can we get a LEADER to be a politician?? Because, in the end, it's leadership, not intellectualism, that counts.
Karl, a general is an academic in a type of way. That being said, maybe there's a reason we don't have academic Presidents, because too many academics are of teh Chomsky variety...that beign said, Havel is a ************ing great man...