Benjamin argued intellectuals should lend their technique to the proletariat, not the bourgeoisie.

Evidence

Now, at the end of his essay, Benjamin had asserted the opposite. The only audience for the most advanced and daring products of the avant-garde in any of the arts had been the upper middle classes. What mattered, howeverand the surrealists had taken this point seriouslywas to put intellectuals in their proper place as technicians by putting their technology at the disposal of the proletariat: only the proletariat was dependent on the most advanced state of technology. — Rolf Wiggershaus, The Frankfurt School, 212

Categorization

• XREF: The technician thesis is the core of Benjamin’s position in the 1934 ‘Author as Producer’ essay; cross-link to the Brecht debate. — connects to: Benjamin rejected the autonomy of intellectuals, siding with the proletariat over Geist. — Martin Jay, The Dialectical Imagination: A History…, 1514; Marxist theory was authored by and centered on the bourgeoisie, not the proletariat.; Marxism was a theory about the proletariat, not a theory produced by proletarian intellectuals — Cedric J. Robinson, Black Marxism_ The Making of the Black…, 2432 (+2 more)
• DEFINE: Defines the surrealist-derived notion of the intellectual as technician whose technology is placed at the proletariat’s disposal.
• yield-rescued: below the book’s yield-target cutoff, included anyway for connecting to: Benjamin rejected the autonomy of intellectuals, siding with the proletariat over Geist. — Martin Jay, The Dialectical Imagination: A History…, 1514; Marxist theory was authored by and centered on the bourgeoisie, not the proletariat.; Marxism was a theory about the proletariat, not a theory produced by proletarian intellectuals — Cedric J. Robinson, Black Marxism_ The Making of the Black…, 2432 (+2 more)

Broader Connections

• Proletariat and intellectuals need each other mutually for revolution #complicates (0.78) — Dirk Braunstein, Adorno’s Critique of Political Economy, 266
• Marxist theory was built by bourgeois thinkers studying bourgeoisies, not proletarians #complicates (0.73) — Cedric J. Robinson, Black Marxism_ The Making of the Black…, 2432