Author: Joshua Bascoe

One thing that I found interesting on page 31 of the chapter on “The New Class as a Speech Community” is when it said, “in addition to having friendly, informal, or intimate ties with one another, they are also more likely to reside and vacation in the same neighborhoods and ecological areas, as well as intermarrying frequently with one another”(Gouldner 31).
Here he is talking about intellectuals. This really resonated with me because I remember a discussion we had in class about why intellectuals are not in charge of our country if they are so intelligent. One thing we talked about is maybe one of the reasons is because of their lack of charisma and that personality also matters when we elect people to run our countries because they are the face and representatives of millions of people. Here it says that intellectuals mostly spend time with each other which is why it seems like the reason they are not in these types of positions is because no one who is not considered an intellectual really gets to interact with them because they do not step out of their imagined community. Another quote from the same chapter that supports this is “the deepest structure in the culture and ideology of intellectuals is their pride in their own autonomy, which they understand as based on their own reflection, and their ability to decide their course in the light of this reflection”(Gouldner 33). This suggests that maybe intellectuals do not want to get involved in their nation’s politics which is why they much prefer to exclusively mingle with each other. People looking at this from an outside point of view may deem this as them thinking they are above others but we do not know what their true intentions are. Another thing we talked about in class that I found interesting was the fact that the intellectual class is growing in the western world and if you live in western society you have to trust intellectuals. This is something that I never thought about before I heard it in class and it made me realize how under the radar intellectuals are because you would think that we would know the people who create the things that rely on everyday, however it is safe to say that most people don’t even pay any mind to that. It is crazy to think that most people are putting their lives in the hands of people who they don’t know. I also found it interesting that intellectuals originated from the church. I found it interesting because the ideas that people in the church were studying are very different from the ideas that intellectuals probably study today. Although, it does make sense at the same time because back then when monks and priests were trying to find religious answers, they had to really think deeply and think about things that others did not just like how intellectuals decontextualize ideas. All in all they are practicing the same thing just in different contexts.

One thing that caught my attention while reading “Thesis Eleven: The Alienation of Intellectuals and Intelligentsia” was when Goulder said, “According to Marx and Engels, then, some intellectuals are radicalized by their “contemplation” and theoretical comprehension of history”(Gouldner 58). I am curious to know what he means when he says theoretical comprehension of history. Does this mean that they form their political opinions based on how they perceive history? One thing that I am questioning is the statement, “to participate in the culture of critical discourse, then, is a political act”(Gouldner 59). Is it a political act because someone using culture of critical discourse means that they are considering themselves as part of the intellectuals who use culture of critical discourse as their language. I am confused on how a use of grammar would be tied to politics but the only thing I can think of is what I stated above. It makes sense that the essence of critical discourse is in its insistence on reflexivity because there is constantly changes in grammar and you have to adjust on the fly to how the language is being used in certain contexts and also to keep it exclusive because they want to make sure that people on the outside are not in the loop of the language. There is a good chance that information can be leaked every once in a while so they have to be ready for that and act accordingly.

A concept that I really did not fully understand until we touched on it in class was how CCD is not necessarily applicable to all types of intellectuals. It is applicable to the types of intellectuals who are in fields like the technical intelligentsia because technical intelligentsia are types of intellectuals involved with science and in science there is no gray area. You are either right or wrong and you have to prove it. Since CCD says if you want to make claims you have to have proof this suits these types of intellectuals very well. On the other hand, the more artistic types of intellectuals do not necessarily involve themselves in the CCD because it does not make much sense for their line of work. Something I found interesting was how we talked about how the Idea of CCD goes against how the sociology community treats Bordeau because whatever he said people would believe because of his sacredness. No one would dare question anything he said even if he had no proof for some one the claims he made. This just shows that there are exceptions just like anything else in life. The last thing we talked about that got me thinking was the relationship between the power that intellectuals desire and the power they dont feel they have. Since they do not get the social recognition for the work they do, especially in western society they do not feel like they have much power and they want more respect. This is understandable but the problem is that a common trait of intellectuals is that they alienate themselves from the non-intellectuals because they feel like they are above others. Their high regard is probably one of the reasons they do not get the respect they want because they don’t really give others the chance to learn about them and interact with them.