Where Are the Intellectuals in the Syrian Revolution?

One question that has been asked regularly during these early months of the Syrian revolution concerns the role of the intellectuals. The question is sometimes posed as a demand for explanation, especially insofar as the consequences of the revolution seem to have made the role of the intellectuals even more limited than it had been at the start, for various reasons that can be discussed. The voices spinning in this orbit might accuse intellectuals of a lack of courage and having a bias towards or even being indistinguishable from the dictatorship, of hiving themselves off from the people in order to live in ivory towers. But placing all intellectuals in the same basket like this would be a mistake, just as we cannot view any stratum of society in terms of such a collective logic.