Pseudo-vanguardism lacks organic links to the masses it claims to lead

Evidence

A distinction must be made between two kinds of voluntarism or Garibaldism. On the one hand there is that which theorises itself as an organic form of historico-political activity, and celebrates itself in terms which are purely and simply a transposition of the language of the individual superman to an ensemble of “supermen” (celebration of active minorities as such, etc.). On the other hand there is voluntarism or Garibaldism conceived as the initial moment of an organic period which must be prepared and developed; a period in which the organic collectivity, as a social bloc, will participate fully. “Vanguards” without armies to back them up, “commandos” without infantry or artillery, these too are transpositions from the language of rhetorical heroism … The same distinction can be made between the notion of intellectual elites separated from the masses, and that of intellectuals who are conscious of being linked organically to a national-popular mass. — Antonio Gramsci, Selections from the Prison Notebooks, 820

Categorization

• XREF: Distinguishes organic vanguard from romantic elite connects to Gramsci’s theory of organic intellectuals and to later Islamophobia-field critiques of self-appointed spokesmen.
• DEFINE: Defines voluntarism/Garibaldism’s two senses and the difference between a true vanguard and detached superman rhetoric.
• QUESTION: Worth tracing how this organic-vs-vanguard dichotomy later grounds Gramsci’s account of hegemony.