Organic intellectuals must arise from and stay in contact with the masses

Evidence

This means working to produce elites of intellectuals of a new type which arise directly out of the masses, but remain in contact with them to become, as it were, the whalebone in the corset. — Antonio Gramsci, Selections from the Prison Notebooks, 1224

Categorization

• DEFINE: Gramsci’s famous figure for the organic intellectual: ‘whalebone in the corset.’
• XREF: Core vocabulary for the toolkit, directly feeding later Islamophobia readings on organic vs traditional intellectuals. — connects to: Intellectuals should ground analysis in history, culture, and socioeconomic reality.; The Catholic church maintained ideological unity by keeping intellectuals and masses doctrinally joined; Organic ideologies organize masses while arbitrary ones only produce individual movements — Antonio Gramsci, Selections from the Prison Notebooks, 1342 (+12 more)
• corroborated: 2 independent passages support this claim — Antonio Gramsci, Selections from the Prison Notebooks, 1224

Broader Connections

• Genuine political knowledge requires sentimental connection between intellectuals and the people #corroborates (0.90)
• Organic intellectuals arise from technical-educational elaboration of labor. #expands (0.85)
• Organic intellectuals must both advance theory and transmit it beyond their class. #expands (0.80)
• Organic elites express their social mass while volunteers detach themselves from it #corroborates (0.80)
• Every communication medium depends on shared organic conditions among participants #expands (0.72)