[lbo-talk] Inorganic Intellectuals and the Mythical Ideal of theMarxist Tradition (Re: Moderation)

[wrobert at uci.edu]

Actually, the primary figure that Gramsci identifies with the category of
'organic intellectual' is the entrepeneur.  One can think of Thomas
Friedman as an organic intellectual of the CEO class for instance, or Noam
Chomsky of a certain activist subculture.  I think that the problem with
the term 'organic intellectual' is that people get caught up in a
discussion of authenticity around the term 'organic.'  This is a
conversation that Gramsci would not engage in, and would have no patience
with.  His main project was to replace a hegemony of the northern
proletariat over the traditional intellectuals of the south in the eyes of
the southern peasantry.  Let's leave the question authenticity to the
Heideggerians.....

                              robert wood


> Class is a relation and a process, not an identity, a categorization of
> life styles, a job description. No empirical description, therefore, can
> reveal class. It has been a long time since I read Gramsci, cut I will
> venture a hypothesis -- the concept of "organic intellectual" is
> relevant only during periods of heightened class conflict. In other
> periods such might or might not exist, cut would be invisible, even to
> themselves, if they did exist. "Intellectual," too. is not an identity
> but a process.
>
> Carrol
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