Stelian Tanase on Romania's intellectuals

In an interview with Andrei Manolescu, Romanian political scientist Stelian Tanase talks about intellectuals in Romania's neo-capitalist system. "The intellectuals are among the big losers ... because the main problem for today's intellectuals is that there's no demand for their products. When you don't sell more than 1,000 copies of a book - and I'm talking about a successful book here - you start asking yourself why you bother writing, not necessarily because you're vain but because all authors need to provoke a certain response to realise their true value, and under these conditions an author doesn't receive the necessary support. Many intellectuals earn their living doing other things and lower their value as a result. This is not opportunism but a form of survival in a society that doesn't provide sufficient prestige."

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