---
title: "We live in a culture in which intelligence is denied relevance altoge… — Susan Sontag Quote #39 | QuotesBy.net"
description: "We live in a culture in which intelligence is denied relevance altogether, in a search for radical innocence, or is defended as an instrument of auth… — a quote by Susan Sontag."
image: "https://quotesby.net/wp-content/themes/quotesby-editorial/assets/og-default.png"
---

> # We live in a culture in which intelligence is denied relevance altogether, in a search for radical innocence, or is defended as an instrument of authority and repression. In my view, the only intelligence worth defending is critical, dialectical, skeptical, desimplifying.

[Susan Sontag](https://quotesby.net/Susan-Sontag)\#39

[Society](https://quotesby.net/Susan-Sontag/society/)[Thinking](https://quotesby.net/Susan-Sontag/thinking/)[Authority](https://quotesby.net/topics/authority/)[Education](https://quotesby.net/topics/education/)[Intelligence](https://quotesby.net/topics/intelligence/)

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## About this quote

What does it mean?Sontag critiques a culture that ignores intelligence or uses it for control, arguing true intelligence is critical, skeptical, and simplifies less.In plain termsTrue intelligence is critical and skeptical, not just a tool for authority.What can you take from it?Defend critical thinking over simple, compliant intelligence.

### Where it applies

- education
- policy making
- media consumption

### Putting it to work

- question authority
- avoid oversimplification

### Questions to consider

- How is intelligence used in your field?
- What counts as real intelligence?

### Another view

Some institutions prioritize practical intelligence over critical inquiry.

## More from Susan Sontag

1. > The charges against most of the people detained in the prisons in Iraq and Afghanistan being nonexistent - the Red Cross reports that 70 to 90 percent of those…

[Permalink to quote \#38](https://quotesby.net/Susan-Sontag/38/ "Permalink to quote 38")
2. > From now to the end of consciousness, we are stuck with the task of defending art. We can only quarrel with one or another means of defense. Indeed, we have an…

[Permalink to quote \#40](https://quotesby.net/Susan-Sontag/40/ "Permalink to quote 40")
3. > The Bush administration has committed the country to a new, pseudo-religious doctrine of war, endless war - for 'the war on terror' is nothing less than that.

[Permalink to quote \#37](https://quotesby.net/Susan-Sontag/37/ "Permalink to quote 37")

## Related quotes

1. > Education: 'In America, educators punish those who actually think for themselves. There is only acceptance for popular opinion.'

[Bryant McGill](https://quotesby.net/Bryant-McGill)[Bryant McGill quote \#74](https://quotesby.net/Bryant-McGill/74/ "Permalink to quote 74")
2. > I don't want a nation of thinkers, I want a nation of workers.

[John D. Rockefeller](https://quotesby.net/John-D.-Rockefeller)[John D. Rockefeller quote \#2](https://quotesby.net/John-D.-Rockefeller/2/ "Permalink to quote 2")
3. > Governmental regulations all carry coercion to some degree, and even where they don't, they habituate man to expect teaching, guidance and help outside himself…

[Wilhelm von Humboldt](https://quotesby.net/Wilhelm-von-Humboldt)[Wilhelm von Humboldt quote \#3](https://quotesby.net/Wilhelm-von-Humboldt/3/ "Permalink to quote 3")

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