American Intellects

Nieto’s piece on “the intelligentsia” was a ridiculous exposition of snobbery. Her line that “the education needed to train or hone a person’s ability to think abstractly is laborious and limited to a few” suggests that only those with an extensive formal education are qualified to “pursue ideas, opinions, etc.” She then said, “The intellectual does not pursue money or status.”

Come on, professor, for a member of a social minority to expound such nonsense, is to say the least, shocking.

She suggests that no one in the “trade or commercial, or blue-collar working class,” is capable of intellectual thought or action.

I am grateful that my college student grandson and soon-to-be college student granddaughter will not be exposed to such haughty attitudes. “The traditional thinking class,” indeed!

Because my only exposure to higher education was a date with a girl at UCLA some 50 years ago, am I doomed to a life of intellectual mediocrity?

KEITH R. MATZINGER

Camarillo