Freelance intellectuals are structurally predisposed toward political extremism

Evidence

Five reasons may be advanced for the hypothesis that free-lance intellectuals are more receptive to political extremism than are other types of intellectuals. First, the free-lance intellectual… has been dependent on an anonymous and unpredictable market. He has had to start his enterprise anew every generation, and as a result is in an anxiety-arousing position similar to that of the first-generation small businessman. Much more rooted and culturally integrated are those intellectuals who enter into old and stable organizations, such as universities. Second, free-lance intellectuals tend to have fewer institutional responsibilities than intellectuals in professional organizations, and therefore are less likely to be committed to central institutions. Third, rewards are much less certain to be forthcoming for the free-lance intellectual, the form of reward less predictable, and the permanence of the recognition more tenuous … Fourth, free-lance intellectuals … tend to be more dependent on their audience, over which they have relatively little control, and to feel greater social distance from it, in contrast to, for example, the professor in relation to his students. Fifth, free-lance intellectuals suffer more when there is an over-supply of intellectuals. In general, a condition of chronic overcrowding of the professions engenders large numbers of discontented and alienated intellectuals of all kinds. — Hamid Dabashi, Brown Skin, White Masks, 318

Categorization

• XREF: Market-dependence of free-lance intellectuals parallels Milgrom’s analysis of how market structure shapes behavior, though here in political rather than trade terms.