The Anti-Intellectual Scholar
It is often presumed by those outside academia that all university professors, by the sheer holding of their distinguished positions, must be 'intellectual'. It is sad to note that, once in a while, this is not necessarily the case. There are, however, certain traits which can be readily used to detect the false mimicry. By nature, the anti-intellectual scholar (AIS) will tend to feel a general sense of weakness within a department, particularly visa-viz 'intellectual scholars' (IS). This inherent sense of inferiority, or lower social standing within the immediate community, will lead the anti-intellectual scholar towards actions which will ultimately attempt to enhance or fortify their position--defensive postures which readily set them apart from the 'traditional lifestyle' of intellectual scholars. The AIS will tend to have an exaggerated need to form alliances given their inherently weak position, thus will tend to be characterized by what might be labeled as 'academic extroversion', which should not necessarily be confused with psychological extroversion per se. In other words, AIS will tend to seek out genuine IS that are of higher ranking in order to fortify their own academic standing while at the same time obtain intellectual capital that would not be routinely had via their ordinary academic lifestyle. The AIS also know that, since direct competition with the IS is impossible, they will generally will tend to show outward forms of submissiveness or a reduced intellectual activity in public; the genuine questioning natural to academic debate will be out of the question as its absence will minimize an injurious reaction by the IS and falsely suggest greater solidarity than actually exists. Similarly, the AIS will try to influence the IS indirectly. If the IS happens to be of an inordinately ideological character, the AIS will be able to easily exert influence indirectly via IS's students by informing these of IS's ideological preferences, which will (again) allow these to to gain greater credibility and confidence with the IS--as well as invisible 'background control' by the AIS as these students are ascended in the ranks by the IS. Ultimately, the AIS do not generate new ideas or expand the frontiers of knowledge. The untenable nature of their position leads to the most noxious traits of their general predisposition. The AIS will routinely distort events, motivations, and personalities in order to constantly fortify their acquisition of a social rank for which there is little merit.