Descent of Man, by Charles Darwin

We often bemoan the lack of true intellectuals today. Let’s copy a passage from a true intellectual from a bygone age.

A most important obstacle in civilized countries to an increase in the number of men of a superior class has been strongly urged by Mr. Greg and Mr. Galton, namely, the fact that the very poor and reckless, who are often degraded by vice, almost invariably marry early, whilst the careful and frugal, who are generally otherwise virtuous, marry late in life, so that they may be able to support themselves and their children in comfort. Those who marry early produce with a given period not only a greater number of generations, but, as shewn by Dr. Duncan, they produce many more children. The children, moreover, that are born by mothers during the prime of life are heavier and larger, and therefore probably more vigorous, than those born at other periods. Thus the reckless, degraded, and often vicious members of society, tend to increase at a quicker rate than the provident and generally virtuous members. Or as Mr. Greg puts the case: “The careless, squalid, unaspiring Irishman multiplies like rabbits: the frugal, foreseeing, self-respecting, ambitious Scot, stern in his morality, spiritual in his faith, sagacious and disciplined in his intelligence, passed his best years in struggle and in celibacy, marries late, and leaves few behind him. Given a land originally peopled by a thousand Saxons and a thousand Celts --- and in a dozen generations five-sixths of the population would be Celts, but five-sixths of the property, of the power, of the intellect, would belong to the one-sixth of Saxons that remained. In the eternal ‘struggle for existence,’ it would be the inferior and less favoured race that had prevailed --- and prevailed by virtue not of its good qualities but of its faults.” (p. 174)

Today, many people can write the same passage. But will we respect the author of such a passage, as people had respected Darwin in his day? Today there are true intellectuals, just like in Darwin’s day. But we trash them, condemn them, or at best, ignore them. Then we lament the lack of true intellectuals.

Today’s situation is not unique. It is rather common in human history, as recorded in the following passage in the same book.

The Holy Inquisition selected with extreme care the freest and boldest men in order to burn or imprison them. In Spain alone some of the best men— those who doubted and questioned, and without doubting there can be no progress—were eliminated during three centuries at the rate of a thousand a year. (P. 179)

In any stable society, the most important work for the ruling class is to eliminate or marginalize the freest and boldest men. In Holy Inquisition and today, those who doubted and questioned are round up and broken down.