In his book, Intellectuals and Race, the great economist Thomas Sowell excoriates intellectuals for their role in promoting statist social engineering schemes. Sowell defined “intellectuals” as “a particular occupation—namely, people whose work begins and ends with ideas. It is an occupational designation, rather than an honorific title, and implies nothing about the mental level of those in that occupation.” They may or may not be smart, but their occupation involves peddling ideas to justify state interventions. Murray Rothbard describes these meddling intellectuals as “court intellectuals.” As David Gordon observes, “It’s well known that Murray Rothbard thinks that intellectuals play a crucial role in getting the public to accept the state.”

Peddlers of statist ideas are able to influence public debate to a great extent through the media and education system. Sowell notes that “the tendencies, preconceptions and conclusions of the intelligentsia spread through the media and educational institutions from the schools to the universities.” He credits these intellectuals with spreading the nostrums of what he calls “make-believe equality”:

Many people who advocate what they think of as equality promote what is in fact make-believe “equality.” In economic terms, taking what others have produced and giving it to those who have not produced as much (or at all, in some cases) is make-believe equality.

Make-believe equality is sometimes referred to as “equity” or “substantive equality.” Its supporters believe that equality is not “real” unless people are made equal through various state interventions. It is ironic that the make-believe equality produced by artificially equalizing selected group outcomes is described by its supporters as “real equality”—the only type of equality which they consider “real” is that artificially constructed by the state. In his book, The Quest for Cosmic Justice, Sowell argues that this make-believe equality aspires to a vision of universal and timeless justice which is unattainable, costly, and ultimately harmful.

One harmful effect of make-believe equality Sowell identifies is that it provokes hostility and resentment among different groups. Envy becomes the overarching social and political ideology. As he explains, “Ideological crusades in the name of equality promote envy, the principal victims of which are those doing the envying.” In his view, the phrase “social justice” is merely the “more high-toned alias” of envy, and functions as a mask for constantly making unwholesome comparisons between different groups.