My ideals of an intellectual,
Would be one that seeks the truth and backs up with evidence, acknowledges the limit of his knowledge by qualifying that in his statements and beyond reproach in terms of bias but of course in the real world he doesn't exists because no matter how truthful as long as it is against the viewpoint of some people he will be accuse of bias. If people don't like what they hear they won't listen to you no matter how good it is for them. So as Solomon says the seeking of knowledge is futile but then again if we can save that one person I guess seeking knowledge is not that bad.
But then again no one can attain to the ideal intellectual because for one everyone of us absorb all kinds of influence that will inadvertantly colour our thoughts and we can never be as objective as we want. Some people try to do away and reject their beliefs and principle in the hope of achieving objectivity and sometimes at the expense of the truth so in the end instead of serving truth the means become an ends and no one benefits.
Finally no one can achieve this state because we cannot attain all and perfect knowledge. We will never know the real motive for an action and even if that person admits to a certain motive sincerely we can never be sure if he was led subconsciously by something else though in his conscious mind he believes that tht was the motive. So maybe Bush was really out to help the Iraqis and sincere but how are we to know we are not Bush but then even he might not know his subconscious reason or he might not tell us the real motive then it would very premature to judge a man. One can be seriously misled. Maybe John Kerry is really is nice and sincere person who cares for people and you will really like him if you get to know him( I figure this is true for everyone if you get to know them well...come on wouldn't you like someone who live the simple life and always keeps a picture of mum at his bedside? Well that someone is Hitler) so I guess personal attacks on thatperson will not lead him in the right and it might close his ears to you even if you hold the truth that he needs to know.
I guess the Biblical approach is correct. Approach with love, kindess, and gentleness and give him the benefit of doubt that he is seriously misled about 'choice'. This is our best hope. However it doesn't mean we can sit quietly at the side and be passive at the same time there should be concrete action.
So the ideal intellectual does not exist but one that knows what and why he believes and act on it( no one likes an armchair person0 is our best bet.