WHAT or who is an intellectual?  If you were to go by a Guardian listing of the top 300 British intellectuals, which includes the likes of Michael Gove, then the term might appear meaningless.

[[{"fid":"17278","view_mode":"inlineright","fields":{"format":"inlineright","field_file_image_alt_text[und][0][value]":false,"field_file_image_title_text[und][0][value]":false},"link_text":null,"type":"media","field_deltas":{"1":{"format":"inlineright","field_file_image_alt_text[und][0][value]":false,"field_file_image_title_text[und][0][value]":false}},"attributes":{"class":"media-element file-inlineright","data-delta":"1"}}]]In this short book of essays, marking the half century since Noam Chomsky’s powerful anti-Vietnam war article with the same title in the New York Review of Books, Nicholas Allot defines the intellectual as applying to those privileged to have the “training in reading texts critically, looking up sources … and the time and job security to be able to do so in the sustained way that it takes to expose the lies of the state and other powerful agents.”

Few could deny that Chomsky’s worldwide reputation as linguist, philosopher, cognitive scientist, historian, social critic and, above all, political activist virtually defines the intellectual.

The six essays in this book, complemented by Chomsky’s own replies and commentary during a question-and-answer session held at a University College London conference in 2017, explore what has changed over the last half century and assess the role of the intellectual in our contemporary Orwellian world, where revealing truth has to contend with newspeak and fake news.

With the increase in university education, radio and TV have become overcharged with would-be intellectuals. As Jackie Walker, hounded out of the Labour Party in the organised campaign against her for alleged anti-semitism, observes: “It takes more than intelligence to see beyond the prevailing ideas of the ruling class … to present alternative narratives and other perspectives.”

In the discussion on relations between those whose responsibility is to speak truth to power, there are essays on the roles of propaganda, the media and the abdication of that responsibility and, as one contributor comments, it is impossible to imagine that public intellectuals the BBC admired 50 years ago, such as Bertrand Russell and AJP Taylor, “would ever be given significant air time now.”

In an exchange between Chris Knight and Chomsky on the latter’s questionable position working  as the “moral conscience” speaking from “within the belly of the beast” in the US technical and scientific military establishment MIT, it’s perhaps understandable that Chomsky is fiercely self-defensive in explaining the nature of his theoretical, non-military, work within the institute.

There is little in this anniversary compilation that gives cause for optimism, except the determination of those who, like Chomsky, continue to challenge the barriers of evasion and deceit we face daily.

The Responsibility of Intellectuals, edited by Nicholas Allot, Chris Knight and Neill Smith, is published by UCL Press, £15.