My cousin who works for a 1.2 million pay at a multi-national giant tells me academics are beggars – academics who work in alliance with NGOs promoting peace, national regeneration, pluralism and sorts. Gross generalization – yes. And it really doesn’t amuse me even if these so-called academics would succumb to market forces and HCL; cos, money is what invites them in there – not purely human welfare. So, there they go, substantiating and giving leverage to the agendas of the highest bidder, strengthening points of view, chipping into others.
And now, whenever one speaks of the Peace Deal or infrastructure development –leave alone the price of onions– we inevitably come across a so-called “Intellectual Community” that has something to say – something that justifies the Highest Bidder for whom s/he is doing the shopping. Indeed, being an “intellectual” pays and these intellectuals are no immaculate beings either. They calculatedly appear at various niches and nooks of the larger power structure, negotiating his/her way like a dhaam piece. In turn, the power structure gives them recognition, legitimacy and status – and together the “intellectual” is baptized and contained into a perfect symbiosis with the people who can readily pay him/her.
This is very much like what happened with the “Court Poet” in times bygone. The Kings of yore patronized the “local poetic boy” as a medium of pronouncing one’s power and stability. Not only did the court poet entertain and amuse, but behind the amusement was the more serious agenda of convincing and transmitting – the legitimacy of power being articulated through a pseudo-political, creative and convincing agent. Whether the poet knew that s/he was “doing some shopping” here is not my question – and that question is, in any case, invalid cos there’s no reason for the poet to worry about what his functions are – as long as he is paid for it.
So, the “intellectual”, today, is a metamorphosis of the Court Poet – the difference being: today the stakes are a bit higher, the politics involved are different and the status of the intellectual on the lay society is somewhat more influential. Who is the “intellectual”? To the uncritical eye, s/he is someone knowledgeable, critically involved and “wiser” – wiser than you. Wiser than me. Which, unfortunately, is bullshit – cos the “intellectual”, too, is play acting. s/he is obediently miming an “act” in this great game of survival and the great push “forward”. And in this strife, s/he –by the default “superior” status we ascribe to and by the virtue of privileged agendas that ally by him/her– parade in front of us as the “holier than thou” and the all knowing. The “intellectual” pretends to be the objective, the observant, the calculating and the troubleshooting. Talks about the theorization of having a “sustained, pluralist, democratic Peace mechanism”. Talks of “enhancing multi-ethnic solidarity within the framework of a Federal State”. Talks in a different language. Smiles intellectually. Not an ordinary person – walks intellectual. The hairdo’s intellectual. The accent is intellectual. Habits and principles are intellectual. Fucks intellectual? Maybe not all.
Who is this intellectual then? And what is being “intellectual”? It is essentially a forging of the self, the “making up” of a self to “stand out” as an authority and a legitimizing force. It is a way of acting a part to convince others of things that have to be convincing – for the survival of the stakeholders of various power “slots”. No intellectual is innocent. They are driven and governed by a “Higher Politics” that always threatens to take over the world. Scary proposition – that.
I tell my Sri Lankan friend in UK that matters will not be solved during our lifetimes. That the promise of a pluralistic bridge to gap the Sinhala-Tamil forge will not be. We know many activists working for it. But, it will remain an ideal that is worth working for. While the mad theorist rambles and as the intellectual gambles there is too little time left in our hands to be genuine in our addressing of issues. Intellectuals and their proxies that live for peace, actually live out of peace. Another doctorate, another research, another presentation – it’s as easy as another smoke. Like another brick in the wall. Nothing comes out of these processes that fail to identify human emotions and the feelings of people whom they pretend to speak for.
There was never an intellectual. There will never be an intellectual. The “intellectual” is a lie – a make-belief. Believe in it and you die. Stop dying my friends. Start fighting for your survival and start surviving for your “intimate group”.
Tags: intellectuals, multiculturalism, NGO
