Will Rogers -- American Intellect? Research Paper

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This, in combination with his slick use of language, and ability to use up-to-date sland and invented words to fit his needs, linked him not only with the cowboy tradition, but speech and mannerism of the American South. Because of this easy going style -- and ability to cut through the extraneous and find the base truth in the matter at hand, allowed him to move through social classes in all countries, standing for the virtues of a self-made-man, with the obvious respect for capitalism, utilitarianism, and faith in the progression of humans (Brown, 1979)

The standard definition of an intellectual is a person who uses intelligence (thought and reason) in a critical way to analyze issues and give not just a summation of rote memorization of facts, but of analysis and synthesis. Was Will Rogers an intellectual? How could he not be -- he meets every standard, and then some. In fact, the ability to break down the overt and unnecessary trappings of society, to "call it like he saw it," probably made him one of the most honest intellectual philosophers in American history. While he did not dwell on some of the more heady matters of the existentialists, or probe the newly developed science of physics, his ability to cut to the chase and express the types of feelings shared by many Americans, both poor and middle-class, not only endeared him to those classes, but to anyone who appreciated honesty. For one to express America's foreign policy as "Our foreign policy is an open book -- a checkbook;" the idea of the economic mess as "If stupidity got us in this mess, then why can't it get us out?" Or even to describe the American political system so accurately it even fits contemporary cultre as "The average citizen knows only to well that it makes no difference to him which side wins. He realizes that the Republican elephant and the Democratic donkey have come to resemble each other so closely that it is practically impossible to tell them apart; both of them make the same braying noise, and neither of them every says anything.

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The only perceptible difference is that the elephant is somewhat the larger of the two" (Yagoda). It is in the simplest of phrases that the true intellect arises; the truisms that, if considered, are more true synergistically than apart -- clearly the mark of a true American intellect.

REFERENCES

Give a Trougth to Will. (1922, November 13). Retrieved December 2010, from the New York Times: http://query.nytimes.com/mem/archive-free/pdf?res=9D00E5D61F39EF3ABC4B52DFB7678389639EDE

Will Rogers. (2009, April). Retrieved December 2010, from Will Rogers Website: http://www.cmgww.com/historic/rogers/index.html

Brown, W. (1979). Will Rogers and His Magic Mirror. Chronicles of Oklahoma, 57(3), 300-25.

Roach, F. (1980). Will Rogers' Youthful Relationship With His Father. Chronicles of Oklahoma, 58(3), 325-42.

Sterline, B. (1990). The Best of Will Rogers. New York: M. Evans.

Yagoda, B. (2000). Will Rogers: A Biography. Norman, OK: University of Oklahoma Press......

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