You bring up many important points. The intellectual is not free from the institution, economic coercion regulates his original action, forcing him to conform. It's a bad situation where one cannot speak out for fear of economic retribution. This is a kind of violence we never hear about, Libertarians are fond of pretending like it doesn't exist. Coercion is not freedom no matter how you leverage it. Once theory has grasped the situation it must work its way toward praxis, but this is woefully lacking in intellectual culture. Fascinating that so many roads lead back to Marx. American thinkers only know him through false characterizations, I seldom meet an intellectual who has actually read him. He is the thinker that is most discriminated against in the world. It is all poisoning of the well and no substance.

The intellectual is not free from the institution, economic coercion regulates his original action, forcing him to conform. — JerseyFlight

He is free if he doesn't confuse philosophy with business. No thinker is required to turn their thinking in to a money generating operation.

If we are not contained within social structures we are free to explore ideas where ever they may lead. But if we are not contained within social structures we will have no cultural authority. So even if our freedom leads us to discover "The Truth" it won't really matter, because nobody will listen to us.

My guess is that the best thinkers in human history quietly passed from the scene without anybody noticing they were ever here.

even if our freedom leads us to discover "The Truth" it won't really matter, because nobody will listen to us. — Hippyhead

A point of supreme importance. Who is being listened to and why? No one asks the question, "who should I listen to and why?" Not all thinkers are equal, most practice a futile and self-serving emphasis. Philosophy needs to be liberated from the culture of its commercialization. Philosophy has become one of the surest ways to forfeit one's life to the irrelevant emphasis of abstraction. Thinkers cannot see it because they are after something other than what philosophy has to deliver, namely social validation. But thought is the antithesis of conformity.

The serious thinker must put the question to himself: how do I make my thought serious; how do I become a practitioner of serious thought? Once he has solved this dilemma then he must proceed to the problem faced early on by Nietzsche, "how do I..." no doubt Nietzsche cracked the riddle. I leave off the answer and speak somewhat cryptically, because this is not the kind of conversation one simply throws out to starving philosophers. Those who don't merely want to become calculating machines, will have to find a path beyond the error that presupposes itself to be the highest form of intellectual relevance. You are likely correct:

My guess is that the best thinkers in human history quietly passed from the scene without anybody noticing they were ever here. — Hippyhead

Philosophy needs to be liberated from the culture of its commercialization. Philosophy has become one of the surest ways to forfeit one's life to the irrelevant emphasis of abstraction. Thinkers cannot see it because they are after something other than what philosophy has to deliver, namely social validation. But thought is the antithesis of conformity. — JerseyFlight

Like it!

Nearly all of them are Elitist. They exist within ivory tower circles, — JerseyFlight

Because they are much smarter than the average population. Hence they are called "intellectuals".