Description
Underhill surveyed the place of the intellectual in Canadian politics in the last century. Before World War I, he said, the intellectual saw their role at that of the cleric, and after the war, as that of a critic of the establishment in search of the truth. More recently, the intellectual had become a means of legitimizing the existing institutions and beliefs of society. But, Underhill warned against the danger of the intellectual being corrupted if they allowed themselves to become a part of the power elite to achieve popularity and acceptibility. Surveying the Canadian landscape, he concluded that both Canada and politics needed more and better intellectuals, which would counter the failure of governments to convince Canadians of their interest in them. He linked this political role to the prevailing status of business and economics at the centre of Canadian society, while Canadian people bcome 'economic sawdust.'
