Himmelfarb on Why Intellectuals Hate Capitalism
22nd December 2017
Intellectuals have uncommon tastes and with them comes an inclination to put down the ordinary person, who has ordinary tastes. But instead of feeling happy at being different, intellectuals feel unduly isolated, neglected, and unrecognised in their endeavours and their passions. They thus equate a better society with a society in which common people are somehow forced to acquire such “superior” tastes, too. But such a society is difficult to build, if decision making is not centralised. A decentralised system–in which consumers decide what books and movies they want to consume, and producers decide what books and movies they want to publish and broadcast–may allow small niches for the intellectuals’ superior tastes, but would tend to spend many resources to give people action movies and comic books. So, it becomes almost inevitable to blame the system–which is more comforting than blaming the people.