His Holiness The Dalai Lama once remarked: “It is most remarkable that India, since independence in 1947, has maintained the noble tradition of investing noted thinkers and scientists with the nation’s leadership.”

He was of course referring to individuals such as Mahatma Gandhi, Jawahar Lal Nehru and Manmohan Singh who have been both scholars and successful leaders and administrators.

Historically, America has seldom stooped so low. But in this month’s US Presidential elections, voters have again moved away from a history of anti-intellectualism and achieved another milestone in democracy.

Barack Obama seems to have started a trend. Once again, during the current campaign, the president-elect has not been limited in terms of political acceptance by revealing to have a brain in his/her head!

It can be said that by putting brilliant intellectuals into government you may end up with a perfect bureaucracy.

Nevertheless, the Obama experience shows that the experiments may well be worth it, and certainly preferable to the dumbed-down alternative.

Now, US voters have again elected someone for President who (in the words of Nicholas Kristof) is “an open, out-of-the-closet, practicing intellectual.”

This may be a trend, but don’t count on it. Voters stay alert – the mind is like a parachute, it works best when open.

ANALYSIS >> SYNTHESIS: How this scenario came to be

“An intellectual (from the adjective meaning “involving thought and reason”) is a person who tries to use his or her intelligence and analytical thinking, either in their profession or for the benefit of personal pursuits.”

www.Wikipedia.org

“An intellectual is a person interested in ideas and comfortable with complexity.”

Nicholas D. Kristof