Hoover Institution Senior Fellow Dr. Thomas Sowell published a book entitled Intellectuals and Society. In his book, Sowell examines a group of people who influence public policy, debates and other institutions. The talk Dr. Sowell gives in this video goes into elements of his book. It includes discussion of some of the personalities profiled in it along with a look at President Barack Obama.

Dr. Sowell also discusses environmentalists too as they are very much intellectuals in that they think they are the enlightened ones who should run society or run other people’s lives. The only difference is that environmentalists can back their words up with activism in order to make you do their bidding. Not only is the road to hell paved with Ivy League degrees, as Dr. Sowell quips, but hell on Earth is achieved by people thinking they know what is best for others.