Robert, I agree that Nozick has a weak argument. Its not clear that being good at high school math necessarily makes a student good at high school English. But I suspect that most University professors did well in High School. Whether that is true for journalists and poets is another matter!

Sadly, the “obviousness” of an explanation is no proof of its connection to reality. We’ll set aside the lack of anti-capitalist animus on the part of musicians, composers, sculptors and personal trainers as something for sociological investigator to verify or disprove. Well accept a plethora of anti-capitalist “intellectuals.” But let’s break it down a few levels.

The intellectuals are anti-capitalist because they did relatively better in school. Well, of course they did. They’re so bright. After all, they grew up to become

“poets, novelists, literary critics, newspaper and magazine journalists, and many professors. “ and they’re concentrated in “academia, the media, government bureaucracy.”

Government bureaucrats? How’s that one again? I can find you a number of “govies” who are anti-capitalist to some degree, but not many of them are poets or literary critics. And they aren’t notably academic or clever, for that matter.

But were journalists notably successful students? Of the poets, novelists and literary critics whose lives you have read about, how many graduated at or near the top of a college class? How many even graduated?

Which leaves professors. I will concede that these days anyone with tenure spent a long time in school and likely had his terminal degree from a prestigious institution. This is not the same as conceding that they were either brighter or more academically successful than those who didn’t go into academia. And if they weren’t at or near the top of the class, the whole edifice collapses. I don’t think this whole speculation is ready for the sociologists yet.

A couner-hypothesis? I don’t really need one, but just to be sporting I’m going to go against Brother William and posit two sources of anti-capitalist animus. Academics, please keep in mind, mostly ARE government bureaucrats. Government bureaucrats benefit in many ways from a larger more powerful government. And few of the people outraged when Haliburton gets a no-bid contract would care much for having to submit bids for teaching Freshman Comp. That sort of thing is for plumbers.

The second source consists of entertainers who despise their audience. Some of them are successful nonetheless. Think of certain film directors and producers. Others are poets and novelists on the edge of subsidy publishing. All can see themselves producing great works of art if they didn’t have to pander to the philistines.

I look at anti-capitalist criticism, and I consider the source.