Ophra? Who probably never even touched Philosophy.
Someone opposite to the above? The proffessors living in universities.
The poetic ones? Those strictly romantic and literate, conciously refuse to be recognised as philosophers.
Or the more balanced type? Writing prosely like Nietzsche, often able to come up with stuff like “thinking is feeling; feeling is thinking” by Susan Sontag who just died last month.
the most popular intellects in the U.S. are comedians. To bad not all comedians have intellects. It’s all about wit and humor over here you know, and when it’s not, politics and buisness take up the rest of the slack.
To answer the rest of your question, real intellectuals don’t get much attention anywhere in the world. It has always been and for a long time to come will be a minority movement, and the only reason I write “a long time to come” is that I still hope mankind will change… eventually.
You’ve a nice wish as me, maybe you should go French:
“In France, a wizened man or woman in a black beret, smoking unfiltered Gitanes and with a copy of Sartre’s “La nausée†in his pocket, is considered a national treasure. Reverent circles form around him in cafés. When he wishes to muse about the existentialist paradigm, he is given a double-page spread in Le Monde. His brief but seminal work, “Fifi et le nouvel hermeneutiqueâ€, wins the Prix Goncourt and is seen being read on the Métro.”
I’ll try my luck in France, just in case I become a intellectual someday.
thats unfortunately just a cliche, of many. dont think the frenchies are much more intellectual than anyone else.