Public Intellectuals

You can vote here for who you think of as top intellectuals. I notice no filmmakers are up there, although a playwright turned politician is...

I'd be lying if I didn't wish to someday be in this stratosphere of people - I wonder what it takes....

I can already see it: G Black, filmmaker and blogger.

Ahhhh, everyone is entitled to delusions of granduer on a Sunday afternoon, me think.

UPDATE: In case it wasn't completely clear, I know very well that I will never be included in such a group for a couple of simple reasons:

1. I'm not smart enough
2. I'm not driven enough
3. But even if I did have the brains and the drive, I know that luck and timing play a major factor in all of these things, and that my chances would be slim even if I possessed the aformentioned gifts.

Most people go through their lives doing a job, either well or poorly, loving people, raising a family, etc, etc. There is dignity in this. But there are also people, not only official "public intellectuals," (which is admittedly a little pretentious), who make a point of understanding the world that surrounds them, and knowing about a variety of subjects, not just those that are in their narrow self interest. I think society benefits from having such people around, above and beyond their jobs and "official" contribution to society.

Fareed Zakaria talks about such unofficial public servants in the Future of Freedom, professionals who played such a role in towns and cities.

I guess my point is that I aspire to be in that "stratosphere." I think it is why I'm attracted to filmmakers like Michael Mann, Alain Resnais, and Richard Linklater, who weren't necessarily "film geeks," like Scorcese or Spielberg or Godard. The former filmmakers, to me, are thinkers whose chose film as their medium of expression, people with ideas about the world who chose film, although it could just as well have been another profession, but circumstance and timing and interest all came together. The later group are film geeks, who would be working in other film related fields, ie clerk at video store to musical composer to tv writer to video artist to film critic if they weren't directing films.