Led By the Nose

The Father of Lies Knows His Own

Lena Dunham has been exposed as a fraud.  She is clearly a narcissist.  Yet like many pseudo-intellectuals she remains lauded by the glitterati, a class of doyens never inclined to let the facts get in the way of a good story.  So Marx, Tolstoi, Hemingway, Satre, Gollanz, Rousseau, and Lillian Hellman--notorious liars all-- were lionised by the Commentariat of their day.  They remain lionised amongst the "smart set" to this day.

It has been well said that a person's character can be known by their acquaintances and friends as well as by their enemies.  The glitterati of our day illustrate the point.  A fraud such as Dunham continues to be celebrated and lionised amongst them.  By so doing, the glitterati betray their true character.  Michelle Malkin puts the matter in perspective.

Cocoa Puffery

The Sophistry of The Intellectual Cadre

When it comes to the "educated elite" nothing is surprising.  Ignorance, prejudice, and superficiality know no bounds.  We came across this recently, which caused not a little chortling into the cornflakes.  The headline in BreitbartNews gave us a hint at what was to come:

The Big Question: How Silly Can a Philosopher Be?

Well now.  Let's see.  The appellation, "philosopher"  is usually taken to mean, at root, a lover of wisdom.  But when that wisdom is cocooned within the narrow confines of cotton wool, sometimes it degenerates into a "love of sophistry" which is an entirely different kettle of fish.  In this case, the sophist is one Daniel Dennett, who writes in Atlantic now and then.

Puff-Pastry Intellectuals

 False Rape Stories

In his book, Intellectuals Paul Johnson indicts successive, famous modern intellectuals for lying.  Not just an occasional porky, but a life-long dedication to fabrication.  Apparently, their "higher truth" and status as superior beings justified lying and living lives of systemic deceit.

This is not to say that all intellectuals are liars.  But the incidence is sufficiently common that anyone with the slightest dose of cynicism would at the very least suspend belief when prominent, celebrated intellectuals are involved.  Indeed, the more celebrity attached to an intellectual, the more likely professional deceit is at the core of their public (and private) personae.  Johnson does the numbers on Jean-Jacques Rousseau, poet Shelley, Marx, Ibsen, Tolstoy, Hemingway, Brecht, Bertrand Russell, Sartre, Victor Gollanz and Lillian Hellman.  All were deceitful liars.  All built and cultivated a public image and a personal narrative that was untrue.

In recent weeks we have seen two incidences of what appear to be fabricated claims about rape.