Volume 1: A sound on Wall Street, Xinxiang City is busy copying books Chapter 195 Public Relations
Subtitle of this chapter: Public relations of public intellectuals
"Gentlemen, oh, and two ladies. Welcome, welcome. I guess you haven't had lunch yet. I will prepare some 'normal' meals for you all."
At noon on Thursday, November 25, 1920, Master Yuan's home welcomed a new group of guests. This time, he made more careful preparations than yesterday, and specially invited a team that undertakes high-end banquets to hold a real buffet in the living room.
"Everyone, please taste the Health Treatment Esscen produced by our Seris King Hundred Mountain."
The drinks and food he prepared were richer and more refined. Steak and lobster were nothing special. French matsutake and Black Sea caviar were on the table. Now he brought out the newly made WU JIA PI.
Well, this product named "The Magic Water under the Hundred-Year-Old Mountain" by Master Yuan is a product after the real Medicinal Wine of Acanthopanax Cortex is diluted. In order to adapt to the taste of Westerners, the base wine used for dilution is not liquor but gin, which is juniper. This is to let the fragrance of juniper cover up the pungent smell of medicine.
"How do you feel? Does it taste good? This gentleman asked where to buy it? These are not for sale, but you can take two bottles when you leave as... um, souvenirs."
Nonsense, this is all the top-quality Dutch gin that he bought from smugglers at a high price. If the taste is wrong, then hell. In addition, the United States is now enforcing prohibition, so ordinary people can't drink such good wine at all.
"Dear friends from the press, this is the Mahjong salon I host."
Yuan Yanshu organized a buffet, prepared high-end gin, and even thoughtfully prepared "chips" for them. If not to entertain "friends from the press", what other friends could she entertain?
"Friends from the press, today is not a press conference, and I will not answer any questions other than Mahjong. I invited everyone here to promote our Seris Mahjong."
The press conference to be held this Saturday will be his debut into the public eye and his true debut as a "public intellectual." How can he do that without proper preparation?
"Come on, these are your 'chips', and these are the Mahjong Teachers I invited. They will teach you. Come and feel the charm of our Seres game!"
So he used his relationship with Le Monde and Miss Emma Pulitzer to invite reporters from major and minor newspapers in New York to do some public .
In the Internet society of a large Eastern country a hundred years later, the title of "Public Intellectual" has become a bad name and even carries the connotation of a personal attack.
And if you understand the trends of online public opinion in a certain big country in the East in the 21st century, you will find that the process of public intellectuals going from being popular to being stinking shit took less than ten years.
In 2004, that conscientious and attitude-filled newspaper solemnly and openly selected “50 public intellectuals.” The word “public intellectuals” was extremely popular at the time, and people in the academic circle were happy to wear this high hat regardless of their main profession.
Eight years later, in 2012, the New York Times of a certain Eastern country published a commentary saying that public intellectuals - "Their basic value position in speech is opposition... They seem to be shouting for the public, but in fact they are inciting and confusing, hoping that the world will not be in chaos."
In 2017, anyone who dares to call himself a public intellectual on the Internet is simply asking for trouble.
In 1920, the term "The Public Intellectual" did not exist, but similar concepts did exist.
Attention, attention, attention, contrary to popular belief, neoclassical liberalism excludes public intellectuals.
Mises did not like those who "simplified complex theories and instilled them into the public" because in this way "we cannot, through rational discussion, dispel the political ideas that have dominated the public mind for decades."
His disciple Hayek is even worse. In his context, "intellectuals" and "public intellectuals" are almost the same. In his article "Intellectuals and Socialism", he called intellectuals "second-hand dealers of ideas": "All of these people may be proficient in the techniques of spreading ideas, but they are usually only amateurs in the substantive content of what they spread."
The most powerful critic of "public intellectuals" is Richard A. Posner (1939), a leading figure in the law and economics school, a professor of law at the University of Chicago, and a former federal circuit judge. Yes, law and economics is also an integral part of the rise of neoclassical liberalism and can be counted as part of the "Chicago School.".
Judge Posner wrote a book called "A Study of the Decline of Public Intellectuals". In the book, he pointed out that "the market of public intellectuals has become dominated by academic experts, who occasionally venture over the walls of their professional fields and fight on the battlefield of politics and ideology - a battlefield that has not yet been academicized". However, this crossing is usually a failure: "They often say stupid things very sincerely and confidently, and make various predictions that have repeatedly failed."
The views of neoclassical liberal masters of all periods are almost unanimous: public intellectuals are the culprits for the vulgarization of political thought and theory.
In order to appear less ignorant, the ignorant masses need "advanced academic knowledge" to embellish their image. In order for the media to cater to this demand, public intellectuals were born.
Our Master Yuan, the master of neoclassical liberalism, wants to use his "profound academic knowledge" to help the ignorant masses to improve their appearance and make them appear less ignorant. By the way, he can become the most famous public intellectual in the world!
As a public intellectual, he must of course maintain public relations with the public media.
"Mr. Yuan, thank you so much for today. Your Mahjong is really very good. I even won a lot of money from you. I am really embarrassed."
"Mr. Sanders, please don't say that. Mahjong is a game that depends on a person's 'HUI GEN' in addition to luck. The fact that you won so many can only prove that you have a very 'HUI GEN'."
Yuan Yan suddenly knew that this very "HUI GEN" Mr. Sanders was a famous current affairs reporter of the New York Times and a heavyweight in the press conference. If it weren't for Miss Pulitzer's face, he really wouldn't have been invited. So this Mahjong game deliberately lost him a full $500.
"Mr. Yuan, I wish your press conference a success, and I personally think it will be a great success."
"Mr. Sanders, I'll take your advice. So on Saturday..."
"Mr. Yuan, don't worry. I will be as polite to you as you are today!"
