This is my definition of intellectuals: 1.They do nothing but think and write so that others may see their thoughts in writing. 2. It must be a self description (as in Susan Sonntag). 3. if not a self description then it must be something someone says about you in a biography, most often after you are dead(as in , "Lenin and other intellectuals of his time..."). 4. the golden age of intellectuals in the US was the 1950's, when housing was cheap in New York city and there was an influx of European and ex pat American intellectuals fleeing the aftermath of WWII (though apparently unable to stop it from happening, as always).
It is interesting to see intellectuals defined intrinsically as useless, and incidentally as foreigners or repatriated ex-pat Americans. It goes a long way to explain why a country that prides itself on creativity and innovation - both essentially intellectual endeavors - could consider intellectual a cussword. It's a beautiful case of cognitive dissonance, similar to the fact that "liberal" is a cussword, although liberalism refers to the idea that freedoms should form the basis of society.
