The missus and I have been watching a series in Amazon titled The Last Tycoon based on the book by Scott Fitzgerald which I have never read.

It is superbly produced and so far the acting has been good even though it is a bit “cartoonish”, but that is the way that Scott Fitzgerald wrote his characters anyway. And this thing being about Hollywood in the 1930s, do not expect to see a whole lot of realism.

The last couple of episodes we watched, we are shown the contrast between American film making and European film making. Brady-American (the fictional studio portrayed in the series) had attracted Marlene Dietrich and director Fritz Lang to do a movie. As expected, these European intellectuals go on to belittle the American provincialism and the lack of intellectual atmosphere in the movie business and everywhere. And grant you, this is America past the Dust Bowl and in the middle of the Depression, jobs are scarce and yes, racism is the law of the land.

But nobody has to run away to another country like the German Intellectuals had to do.

For all their alleged mental superiority, not a single German Intellectual managed to bring his country back from the quagmire of the War to End All wars. Not a single philosopher or writer or musician or composer got Germany to start rebuilding and transform it into a power.  It was not an actor or a director who retooled and returned German pride. This was managed by a mustachoid ex-corporal and failed painter who brought the masses together to rebuild Germany. So where this sense of superiority comes from? They achieved nothing and probably managed to screw stuff even worse. They had to run away to another country which provided them with food, a roof and a job when they were scarce, but still they put us down because we did not embrace their decadence.

The good part is that they learned the hard way. They learned that it is was the provincial masses who paid for tickets to go see the movies the ones that at the end dictated if they had a job or not. Movies in America were not a parcel for the intellectual where they could gather and circle jerk about nihilism or any other “-ism.” Movies in America are escapism, entertainment, joy, romance and, if the occasional message is sent without being “teachy” or “assholy” so much the better.

They learned the hard way that Americans do not like to be told what to think and will flip you the big bird if you do so.  And our provincialism ended up being the right medicine: It fed the Intellectuals once they figured out and it was the provincials who donned a uniform and liberated their country.

But I will bet you dollars to donuts that these German Intellectuals went to their graves (after a long safe life) thinking we were still wrong and they were still right.

And that tradition continues with out intellectuals today. Flip the bird accordingly.