Rod Hay wrote:  
> Prabhu Guptara and John Medaille, in my opinion, are overestimating the  
> influence of intellectuals. The peasants of France did not rebel because  
> of anything that Rousseau or Diderot wrote. The rebelled because they  
> thought their condition unbearable.  
  
  
"the ideas of economists and political philosophers, both when they  
are right and when they ar wrong, are more  powerful than is commonly  
understood. Indeed, the world is ruled by little else. Practical men  
... " and so forth ....  
  
Paul  A. Heise