Fear and Terror Provide Better Safety

Terror. Fright. Panic. Worry. Apprehension. Phobia.

The Patriot Act. Increased Racial Profiling. Detainments. Watchlists. Warrantless Searches.

All of these are synonyms for fear, and then follows a list of acts that have originated from these fears.

Remember back in 2010 when Jon Stuart created “The Rally To Restore Sanity” and Stephen Colbert followed, when he created “The March to Keep Fear Alive”? If not, Stuart'scan be found here and Colbert's, here.

Posner would in no way consider Stuart or Colbert public intellectuals, but there’s no denying that the two have a big political presence, especially within the media and public sphere. The two use humor, satire, and other elements to appeal to their audiences, but behind all of that lies truth (albeit, their version or take on it) and like their activities mentioned above, appeal to the masses and try to engage the nation in current events. I believe Colbert does a great job of this, especially when he ran for President in 2008, the South Carolina Primary for GOP in early January of this year, and then a few weeks later when he confirmed Stuart would be the official head of his fundraising committee, and then he released the statement "I am proud to announce that I am forming an exploratory committee to lay the groundwork for my possible candidacy for the President of the United States of South Carolina!"

Colbert elevated his humor to the next level: he integrated it not only with truth, but also infused it with action. Why would two well-established people such as Stuart and Colbert cross-over into full-fledged politics? I’d like to think part of it was their fear of the current presidential happenings, and turning that fear into a sense of safety. After all, what Stuart and Colbert’s “stint” did was increase awareness of the politics, increase voter turnout, and even increase people to convert their fears into actions that could help indirectly alleviate some of those fears.

In this instance, I it worked to use the tools of fear and mass-media and then challenging us (the public, Americans, the people) to take action.

Debts to Society

What’s our debt to society? Pay taxes, vote, make a change in the world?

What are Public Intellectuals debts to society?  Public Intellectuals, people whose creation and criticism deals with ideals, have a debt to educating and being involved with the public concerning those ideals.   Previous intellectuals exposed the truth, but now, with the rise of the political sphere, intellectuals are needed for evaluating, understanding, identifying, and articulating problems and truth.

Posner gave us notorious lists of top public intellectuals, and I think anyone who reads them has an idea of additions that should be added to those lists.  For me, I believe contemporaries Howard Gardner, Al Gore, Pope Benedict XVI, and Chinua Achebe should be added to that list.

Now the key question: would Posner accept these public intellectuals as possibilities for his lists?  Probably not. 

That doesn’t mean that they aren’t worthy public intellectuals of note, because as we know, and even Posner stated, his definition of Public Intellectuals is formed for him, and not a formed by public consensus. 

I believe the four I listed are distinct persons who have a certain specialty.  Not only do they have influence within specialties ranging from writing to teaching to cultural conflicts to climate crisis to religion, but these people also have the ability to communicate their ideas, educate, and create an influence about their ideals to the public—something I did agree with Posner on, regarding what defines a public intellectual.

These people possess key elements that elevate them to the role of public intellectuals, who in turn pay debts to society.