Intellectuals cut off from popular passion become a bureaucratic caste unable to make history

Evidence

The popular element “feels” but does not always know or understand; the intellectual element “knows” but does not always understand and in particular does not always feel. The two extremes are therefore pedantry and philistinism on the one hand and blind passion and sectarianism on the other. Not that the pedant cannot be impassioned; far from it. Impassioned pedantry is every bit as ridiculous and dangerous as the wildest sectarianism and demagogy. The intellectual’s error consists in believing that one can know without understanding and even more without feeling and being impassioned (not only for knowledge in itself but also for the object of knowledge): in other words that the intellectual can be an intellectual (and not a pure pedant) if distinct and separate from the people-nation, that is, without feeling the elementary passions of the people, understanding them and therefore explaining and justifying them in the particular historical situation and connecting them dialectically to the laws of history and to a superior conception of the world, scientifically and coherently elaborated—i.e. knowledge. One cannot make politics-history without this passion, without this sentimental connection between intellectuals and people-nation. — Antonio Gramsci, Selections from the Prison Notebooks, 1497 (#expands, via linked claim)

The merit of an educated class, because it is its historical function, is to lead the popular masses and develop their progressive elements. If the educated class has not been capable of fulfilling its function, one should speak not of merit but of demerit—in other words, of immaturity and intrinsic weakness. … Did they at least attain the end which they set themselves? They said that they were aiming at the creation of a modern State in Italy, and they in fact produced a bastard. They aimed at stimulating the formation of an extensive and energetic ruling class, and they did not succeed; at integrating the people into the framework of the new State, and they did not succeed. The paltry political life from 1870 to 1900, the fundamental and endemic rebelliousness of the Italian popular classes, the narrow and stunted existence of a sceptical and cowardly ruling stratum, these are all the consequences of that failure. A consequence of it too is the international position of the new State, lacking effective autonomy because sapped internally by the Papacy and by the sullen passivity of the great mass of the people. — Antonio Gramsci, Selections from the Prison Notebooks, 503 (#corroborates, via linked claim)

Categorization

• XREF: connects to: Intellectuals who detach from popular feeling become a bureaucratic caste, not true intellectuals — Antonio Gramsci, Selections from the Prison Notebooks, 1497; Caste reform cannot succeed while the Brahmin intellectual vanguard opposes it. — Ambedkar, B R, Annihilation of Caste_ The Annotated…, 971; Intellectuals who remain detached from popular passions become a caste, not leaders — Antonio Gramsci, Selections from the Prison Notebooks, 1497 (+4 more)

Broader Connections

• Intellectuals who remain detached from popular passions become a caste, not leaders #expands (0.95) — Antonio Gramsci, Selections from the Prison Notebooks, 1497
• An educated class that cannot lead the masses fails its historical function #corroborates (0.92) — Antonio Gramsci, Selections from the Prison Notebooks, 503