Before answering the second blog prompt, I chose to read through a handful of my classmates answers to the question. I felt by doing this I was not only getting a view of what others believed a public intellectual is but how they have influenced individuals. Reading these answers helped me come up with a few questions. Who is a public intellectual? How have they influenced me? These were the two questions I tried to answer when coming up with at least one individual that I not only consider a public intellectual, but an individual that has influenced my views on different issues and or events.
For me stand up comedians, are public intellectuals I have felt most influenced by. Whether they are black (Pryor, Rock, Chappelle, etc.), white (Ron White, Rogan, Burr, Loui, etc), hispanic (Francisco, Iglesias, etc.) or other, which sounds unintentionally racist. These individuals have helped to influence my views on politics, gender, and life in general. Through stand up, comedians are able to express their views on a multitude of issues. Stand-up it self is a great forum for opinion, although only one individual at a time is on stage many different opinions are expressed by many different individuals at any time. Comedians do a great job of informing people about social issues and how they affect them, and by doing so they allow you to form your own opinion on an issue. Different opinions allow everyone to feel like they apart of something bigger than themselves, as we discussed in class like opinion tends to draw people together.
Interesting post, Anthony. If you had asked me ten years ago if stand up comedians were public intellectuals, I'd probably have said "no" (although Lenny Bruce, Richard Pryor and George Carlin definitely fit Posner's definition of a public intellectual). Now, though, I'd have to agree with you. I think it is the Comedy Central effect. Because of that cable network, I think a lot of us has come to an appreciation of stand up and comedy in general as a forum for opinion.
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