In this week’s discussion, one of the topics was on the potential cause of the “problems” that we saw. We went into a lot of historic backgrounds, and analyzed that potentially, the overproduction of intellectuals is one of the main motives
Maybe it is because current and past societies were structured in a way that limits social mobility. There are few ways for people to ascend the socio-economic ladder. For example, it is probably easier for a poor family’s child to go to college and then get a good paying job with their degree than to start one’s own business or through some other way to get a good paying job or just magically join the higher class.
The fact that people all want to become intellectuals (go to colleges) even when the results might not be worth it (not high enough payment as expected), might indicate that they had no other easier way to move upward along the social hierarchy. Rereading the chapter assigned for this week, I also noticed that Gouldner commented the same on this fact. Social blockade for upward mobility contributed to the alienation of intellectuals. Moreover, I think there is an interesting process going on. So, because of blocked ascendence, people choose to become intellectuals, hoping to have a better chance for ascendence. Yet, the reality is that they are still being blocked. Being an intellectual may have helped in some ways for ascendence, but if there are then too many intellectuals, there will be the same problem of blocked ascendence. Blocked ascendence not only contributed to the alienation of intellectuals, but it also led to “an increase in the political activity by the New Class and in open acts of confrontation with authority” (Gouldner 63).
We then talked about how having too many intellectuals could potentially be a huge problem for society, especially when these intellectuals are unhappy. Since these intellectuals are well-educated, it won’t be hard for them to come up with plans to attempt to destroy the current society and have a “new society” that places intellectuals at better positions, like having more social influence or actually being “in charge” of the society. This is in line with what we have learned earlier about the intellectuals, that they are also actively seeking for power.
Another interesting thing I found in the reading is about intellectuals’ reliance on using words or ideas as their weapons. This stems from their tradition of CCD, and also explains why they view censorship as so much of a bad thing. This also creates another incentive for the intellectuals to seek more power, as media and publications were largely, and still are, controlled by the ruling class that has money and political power, instead of intellectuals.
I have some questions about Ersatz Religion: why does God appear so much in this text? I understand that religion played a hugely important role in the history of western societies. But is it possible to analyze the intellectuals and their traditions and thinking by controlling for the possible effects of religions?