Online English Test

No modern nation has ever constructed a foreign policy that was acceptable to its intellectuals. True, at moments of national peril or national exaltation, intellectuals will feel the same patriotic emotions as everyone else, and will subscribe as enthusiastically to the common 5 cause. But these moments pass, the process of disengagement begins, and it usually does not take long before it develops into alienation. Public opinion polls generally reveal that the overwhelming majority of ordinary citizens, at any particular time, will approve of their government's foreign policy; among intellectuals, this majority tends 10 to be skimpy at best, and will frequently not exist at all. It is reasonable to suppose that there is an instinctive bias at work here favorable to government among the common people, unfavorable among the intellectuals.

15 The bias of the common man is easy to understand: he is never much interested in foreign affairs; feelings incline him to favor his own government against the governments of foreigners; and in cases of international conflict, he is ready to sacrifice his self-interest for what the government assures him to be the common good. The persistent 20 bias of intellectuals, on the other hand requires some explaining.