Hofstadt is a brilliant scholar whose research integrates intellectual history, social history and political history. Academic Classics. This book, published in the 1960s, has attracted a lot of interest today. The historian Yu Yingshi pointed out, "This is inseparable from the election of Donald Trump." In other words, people regard the election of Trump as a As an extreme embodiment of the "anti-intellectual tradition" in the United States, Huo's work can serve as a "weapon of criticism." Fok began his critique of the "anti-intellectual tradition" from four aspects: religion, education, business, and democratic politics in the United States.
However, he evaded a crucial truth: this so-called "anti-intellectual tradition" is not so much "anti-intellectual" as "anti-Left", it is the last line of company banner design defense to defend the American conceptual order, if not With this line of defense, the United States may become the American version of Nazi Germany or the American version of Communist Soviet Russia. Fok admits, "We should not overly glorify the functions of the intellect, so any pragmatic assessment of the intellect's place in the human world should not be seen as 'anti-intellectual'", agreeing with Eliot (TS Elliot), "If there is no human nature behind the intellect, we can only appreciate it as a gifted child who can play chess.
He also acknowledges this historical fact: Communism in the 1930s was indeed more attractive to intellectuals than to the rest of society, and that there were indeed some special and striking examples—certain intellectuals Their over-belief in communism made them betray the country. Among them, there is a painful and embarrassing case: in August 1938, on the eve of the signing of the peace treaty between the Nazis and Soviet Russia, 400 American intellectuals jointly issued a declaration against slandering Soviet Russia as a "totalitarian regime". And that the Soviets were "the mainstay of human peace". Although Huo is a leftist, his classical leftist still has conscience and common sense, unlike today's leftists who have lost their conscience and common sense.