It is true, in a sense, to say that the mob has always been
led by more educated men. It is much more true, in every sense, to say
that it has always been misled by educated men. It is easy enough to say
the cultured man should be the crowd’s guide, philosopher and friend.
Unfortunately, he has nearly always been a misguiding guide, a false friend and
a very shallow philosopher. And the actual catastrophes we have suffered,
including those we are now suffering, have not in historical fact been due to
the prosaic practical people who are supposed to know nothing, but almost
invariably to the highly theoretical people who knew that they knew everything.
The world may learn by its mistakes; but they are mostly the mistakes of the
learned.
-The Common Man (collection of essays published posthumously in 1950)
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