A doctrine popularized for the masses becomes inadequate against elite ideologies

Evidence

The philosophy of praxis had two tasks to perform: to combat modern ideologies in their most refined form, in order to be able to constitute its own group of independent intellectuals; and to educate the popular masses, whose culture was medieval. This second task, which was fundamental, given the character of the new philosophy, has absorbed all its strength, not only in quantitative but also in qualitative terms. For “didactic” reasons, the new philosophy was combined into a form of culture which was a little higher than the popular average (which was very low) but was absolutely inadequate to combat the ideologies of the educated classes. — Antonio Gramsci, Selections from the Prison Notebooks, 1396

Categorization

• DEFINE: Frames the two-front problem of any revolutionary theory: forging independent intellectuals versus educating masses — a structural dilemma useful as a concept.
• XREF: Pairs naturally with the intellectual-vs-mass distinction Gramsci develops around hegemony; relevant to Islamophobia work on how academic critique reaches or fails to reach lay publics. — connects to: The US religion-versus-communism strategy failed because Islam did not compete with communism for elites; An anticommunist Islam strategy failed because elites preferred communism and socialism — Deepa Kumar, Islamophobia and the Politics of…, 403; Elite-promoted political paradigms can fail to displace mass-held frameworks that later return — Nadim N. Rouhana and Nadera Shalhoub-Kevorkian, When Politics Are Sacralized:…, 453