There was a time when disputes between intellectuals (some of whom might be academics, and vis-à-vis), made headlines and provoked editorials in newspapers and on the radio. And there were consequences, as when Martin Luther’s 95 Theses made their way into the mass media of his day. Today this sort of thing, faith and works and other topics, might make a 30-second segment on a non-bicoastal late-evening news roundup.
There was a time when a quarrel between eggheads in the pages of Commentary magazine about the quality of Tennessee Williams’ plays, or a debate about Gandhi’s influence on Indian history, carried on over several issues of Encounter magazine; it would actually and in actual fact “trickle down” — to use a term from economics — into the “wider culture,” whatever that is. It touched people no less than those who won the World Series.
Now, pff.
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