Stigler believed intellectuals manufacture social problems by denouncing them persistently.

Evidence

Roughly contemporaneously, Stigler complained: “social problems are the creation of the ‘intellectual.’ The intrinsic importance of a complaint against a social system, as judged by later opinion, has little to do with its effectiveness in shifting opinion. If enough able and determined men … denounce and denounce a deficiency, that deficiency becomes grave.” Lurking was a question about what role, if any, economics could play in preventing or at least counteracting the intellectuals’ monstrous creations. — Dieter Plehwe, Quinn Slobodian & Philip Mirowski (eds.), Nine Lives of Neoliberalism, 111

Categorization

• XREF: Connects to the broader canon of ‘intellectuals as a problem’ literature within free-market thought — a theme echoed in later Austrian and Chicago-school critiques of ‘ideas industry’ and think-tank strategies. — connects to: Stigler questioned the very usefulness of intellectuals in a rational world. — Dieter Plehwe, Quinn Slobodian & Philip Mirowski (eds.), Nine Lives of Neoliberalism, 796; Neoliberals selectively attacked intellectuals they disagreed with while keeping their own expertise. — Philip Mirowski & Dieter Plehwe (eds.), The Road from Mont Pèlerin: The Making…, 2166

Broader Connections

• Stigler questioned the very usefulness of intellectuals in a rational world. #expands (0.85) — Dieter Plehwe, Quinn Slobodian & Philip Mirowski (eds.), Nine Lives of Neoliberalism, 796
• Neoliberals selectively attacked intellectuals they disagreed with while keeping their own expertise. #qualifies (0.75) — Philip Mirowski & Dieter Plehwe (eds.), The Road from Mont Pèlerin, 2166