Bagehot The thinking capital

摘要

If english intellectuals hate their own country, as George Orwell wrote, the feeling is mutual. Abstract thought is seen as suspiciously continental in a land that has a whole lexicon for deriding "eggheads" in "ivory towers" who are "too clever by half". British politics is marked by this anti-intellectualism. The most successful party in Britain's history is that of the proudly practical Tories, the "stupid party" of John Stuart Mill's snooty caricature.