Scholar warns: America’s intellectual elite enjoys making us obey and comply.

America’s Intellectual Class Misusing Power to Threaten Freedom of Speech, Says Scholar

Scholar and author Tom Harrington has warned that America’s intellectual class has been given too much power by the public, and their misuse of such power is threatening the fundamental freedom of speech in the country. In a recent interview with Jan Jekielek on “American Thought Leaders,” Harrington said, “It’s absolutely remarkable how easily we’ve gone from free speech to asking, ‘How can I make my way around the censorship that’s here?’”

The Power of Experts

Harrington pointed out that people are delivering a lot of their power into the hands of “experts” who tend to have a “flipness” with which they have used such power. “Worse than flipness, there seems to be almost a perversion and a joy in making us obey and be compliant for compliance’s sake. This is very troubling in a society,” he said. Harrington warned that censorship and cancellation are “two cudgels” used against the public.

• Experts must be able to keep their ego impulses in check and ensure that they are using their power to help the people.
• True experts do not impose their reality on anyone.
• Power is a gift in a democratic society.

The Premise of Democracy

The premise of democracy, as it formed in America in the 18th century, was that lawyers, workers, and farmers were all citizens of equal measure. Even though there may be a pecking order, no one was “inherently better” or in a place to tell someone else how they should live their lives. “Now, there seems to be among the credentialed class an attitude that says, ‘Yes. I’ll be polite to people. I’ll be polite in a basic social sense. But in my heart, I know that poor person really doesn’t know what’s good for them. After all, I have nice degrees. I went to the right schools. I’ve really thought a lot more about things than other people,’” Harrington said.

Pushing Censorship

In the interview, Harrington also pointed out that censorship and cancellation are “two cudgels” used against the public. “We’re beginning to see that a lot of this hooting down is not as spontaneous as many of us would like to believe. With the recent ‘Twitter Files,’ and the case that the attorney generals of Missouri and Louisiana are trying now, we’re finding out that this was anything but spontaneous. There were a number of government actors working in concert with private actors to achieve a censorship that, frankly, for those of us of a certain age, is unimaginable.”

It is important to remember that power is a gift in a democratic society, and experts must use their power to help the people, not impose their reality on them. The premise of democracy is that all citizens are equal, and no one is inherently better or in a place to tell someone else how they should live their lives. Censorship and cancellation are dangerous tools that should not be used against the public.