Beyond The Commons

Aaron Wherry covers all the goings-on in and around Parliament Hill. Follow Aaron on Twitter: @aaronwherry

Categories: Beyond The Commons, Capital Read

The intellectual politician

by Aaron Wherry on Wednesday, May 20, 2009 1:38pm - 11 Comments

Bob Tarantino ties himself in knots over Michael Ignatieff.

And so arises the crux of the problem: the breaking of the covenant between intellectual and audience. When Michael Ignatieff writes as an intellectual, the compact with his readers revolves around truth – he is striving to express it, we are entitled to expect good faith in his efforts. But when Michael Ignatieff acts as a politician, well, truth assumes a somewhat lesser role in the proceedings. To what extent do his activities as a politician compromise his writings as an intellectual? Will we have lost a valued thinker only to gain just another politician? Is that really going to be a fair trade, one for which we’ll come out the better as a society?

Wasn’t Stephen Harper initially promoted to some degree as an “intellectual?” Even now, if you trust his official parliamentary profile, he’s listed as an “author, economist, lecturer.”

Tags: Bob Tarantino, Michael Ignatieff, Stephen Harper

More by Aaron Wherry

http://www.jackmitchell.ca Jack Mitchell

The problem would easily be solved if one simply resolved, as an intellectual politician, to tell the truth at all times and not massage the facts. Ignatieff has done this on a few occasions and the press — oh, thank you, fourth estate!! — has kicked him for it. Even now, he seems to be hesitating on the brink, hesitating to plunge into the abyss of our cant-fueled political culture. Don’t do it, Iggy! If you forsake your intellectual truth-telling side, we will have to wait another ten years for an honest politician to emerge.

John.K

Ten years, Jack?

You cockeyed optimist, you.
john g

Well I guess if you take both sides of every issue like Ignatieff does, you’ll be telling the truth 50% of the time, right?

Ted

Perhaps Iggy’s problem lies in the fact that he has learned his political stripes with Harper as the leading polician and example. One would think breaking significant promises based on core principles to be a requirement. Look to other career politicians for examples, Iggy.
http://carnewsandviews.com jwl

I like to think Iggy is correct 200% of the time because there is rarely one ‘truth’ to be found. When he takes both sides of an issue, left and right can agree with parts of what he’s saying.

Douglass

Ah but doesn’t the truth lay on both sides of the issue? If you stand firm on one side or another, are you not just a partisan? A good leader can dance that tight rope. Taking what is needed from both sides to find the real ‘truth’. Like it or not.

catherine

Harper is listed as an author? Shouldn’t that be aspiring author?

dan in van

I don’t think claiming to write things spoken by John Howard count, but you could say he prefers to publish his ‘works’ on the editorial letters pages of the Wall Street Journal, I suppose. By they way, “When Is Harper’s Hockey Book Coming Out?” is now 245 on the amazon pre-order list…

oompus boompus

“Will we have lost a valued thinker only to gain just another politician?”

Evidently his thinking was valued mostly by rich kids burning through their parents’ money and by middle class kids burning through taxpayer loans.

Whether the kind of intellect said to be possessed by Iggy (or Harper) has any value in the real world has not been tested and is unlikely to be tested anytime soon.

“Is that really going to be a fair trade, one for which we’ll come out the better as a society?”

Society will be improved to the extent that people start thinking for themselves and stop depending on ivory tower eggheads and lifetime political weiners for all the deep thoughts.

To take only 2 current hot topics, it doesn’t take a genius to figure out that EI is a ripoff and Afghanistan is a bloody waste of time and money. But deferring these decisions to politicians, no matter what their alleged IQ, guarantees that the public will be permanently hosed.

Ted

“depending on ivory tower eggheads and lifetime political weiners for all the deep thoughts”

When did we ever do that? That’s the big conservative canard that bugs me probably more than others. Sure, eggheads and talking heads and pundits – like Harper in fact – run around spouting their opinions, but where is the evidence that government has been depending on deep thinkers to do its business? If anything, our government should be relying on and consulting with them more, not less like Harper is doing and not only doing but advocating as a good thing.

The odd thing is that it is often conservatives who lament that we are dumbing down our nation with TV, etc. but then attack our brightest thinkers for being… our brightest thinkers.