In his book The Intellectuals, Paul Johnson does a deep dive into Jean Jache Rousseau, Karl Marx, Leo Tolstoy, Jean-Paul Sartre, and other leading thinkers and cultural elites of Modern Western Civilization. These are the heroes of leftist elites and are revered for their secular philosophies and intellects. Paul Johnson's work is remarkable because he shifts the focus away from their writings and onto the logical conclusion of their thinking, their lives.  

In a lofty speech honoring the life of Rousseau, it was Robespierre who said he was "the one man who, through the loftiness of his soul and the grandeur of his character, showed himself worthy of the role of teacher of mankind." He went on to praise him for "transforming our morals, customs, laws, feelings, and habits." 

What Paul Johnson discovered by examining their lives was a wake of destruction. They denied God and everything holy and eternal. They rejected established morals and ethics, replacing them with their own versions of morality, ethics, and ideas about society. Yet, their own personal lives, their families, children, women, relationships, and finances were a train wreck. 

"A wise man’s heart inclines him to the right,

But a fool’s heart to the left.

Even when the fool walks on the road, he lacks sense,

and he says to everyone that he is a fool."

-Ecclesiastes 10:2-3 

Solomon (the Preacher) calls these intellectuals fools. In Ecclesiastes 10, he describes the dangers and maps out some of the traps that wise people will want to know to avoid the path of the fools. Consider the examples in our culture that you allow to be trend setters or influencers in your life. Are you following fools or people of wisdom?