That’s a really interesting take. But it makes me wonder: do you think every intellectual has a moral obligation to be a political actor? Is there no value in just being a witness to history and recording the truth of what it felt like to live through it?
When people talk about Doctor Zhivago, they often focus on how Yuri, as an intellectual, gets swept along by the tides of history and suffers because of forces beyond his control.
But I see it a little differently. Lenin and Trotsky were intellectuals too, yet they tried to create a new world based on their own ideals. Yuri, on the other hand, is more interested in metaphysical questions, art, and the meaning of life.
Personally, I find the intellectual who takes action and tries to shape the world much more compelling.