The Fall
They’ve always been there, desperate to control the common man’s path. Intellectuals; the bane of humanity, representing a tiny fraction of the body of humans; despising those who love freedom, and those who don’t like being lectured by... intellectuals. Especially about accepting “advice” from pampered elitists.
It’s a thing with elitists; them controlling everything. Upper tier.
If elitists are anything, they are ill-equipped to advise anyone alive today. They are out of touch, no longer relevant, and they aren’t sought out for their “guidance” over educated humans who can now make their own decisions intelligently. Of course, the fact that their kind aren’t needed rarely staves off particularly boring excursions illustrating the depths of their “intellects.”
This is their end... beginning.
These were the thoughts of Howard Springer, a man particularly concerned intellectuals were losing their influence. When he saw the copy of Orlando at the used book store, he was forced to recognize he’d been ignoring disaster; foolishly.
There had been a revolution of sorts catching on, of which, he was just then becoming aware. It represented the instability predicted eons before; universal knowledge. The press at the time, desperately (and foolishly) tried to calm the masses, inferring they were the ones with the most to lose.
This was the mistake that sparked the movement which seeks to end the elitists’ intellectualism prop for good. Howard couldn’t stop wondering if he alone had it all figured out; if he alone was aware something needed to be done immediately, and if he, alone, was considering it. He couldn’t just wait. He couldn’t afford to just wait.
It occurred to him that he may have been the first intellectual to recognize the threat; it was up to him to educate the others. Now.
He had to devise a way of getting the message to “worldly” intellectuals.
Although Howard was considered an intellectual by a popular magazine, and made numerous late night TV show appearances, he was not recognized by elitists. Plenty of them had insulted him in TV appearances of their own over the years. Howard just took the abuse as being non-consequential ignorance on their part; basically the reason they needed his findings.
There’s a saying, “You can lead a horse to water, but you can’t make him drink,” and this saying can even be applied to elitist intellectuals. The long-held practice of feigning awe of intellectual elitists as though they were royalty, endowed by the universe... is over.
Howard didn’t understand that the very premise of intellectualism having a lot to do with an overabundance of hubris, really meant that his very important “message” would fall on deaf ears. Howard wasn’t really “one of them;” not in their view.
Try as he may, Howard’s warnings went unnoticed, causing the worldwide death of intellectualism.
Howard’s since gotten in with a group calling themselves the “Basement Elite,” which, as you may have guessed, is a remnant of intellectuals splitting from the classic intellectual “clique.” No one cares.
The Fall © free-reign 2020
This is my entry to The 31 Sentence Contest Round 21 by @tristancarax. It is a contest based on creating a story with 31 sentences exactly in order, and each sentence has a set number of words to be written. For more information on joining the challenge see this post:
Thanks for reading!
Sources for images used in this post:
(Public Domain photos are from Wikimedia Commons)
Protesters: badlyricpolice from Portland, USA / CC BY
Contest Prompt: Public Domain, @tristancarax
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posh:
Bam! Drop mike and dance off stage. Does anything more need to be said.
Was this personal for you? It sure sounded like you were going after intellectuals pretty hardcore from personal experience. 🤣 I remember that you did say that you were in the army. I can see intellectuals saying this and that about what the army is like while you stand at attention doing your best not to run over and smack an idiot.
Your use of the recurring word "intellectuals" and its different forms was a nice touch. Really enjoyable to see.
Sucks for Howard there at the end. lol
It used to be that the "intellectual elite" were religious figures, and that still remains the case in some societies. In the west, that status-quo changed some time ago, when, for whatever reason, artsy, politically-minded people who embraced and pushed for socialist ideals became the west's "intellectual elite."
This reminds me of the saying, "Never talk about religion and politics," as discussions concerning either, generally end up with people on both sides who once liked each other, but when the "discussions" between polar opposites naturally end in disagreement, want to destroy those on the other side.
To me, the intellectual elite today, represent people who aren't really that into the concept of total freedom, and in fact, want to take the rights of those who are free away, with their veiled claims that the people aren't intelligent enough to make their own decisions. The classic claim of tyrants.