Theorists who later dominated academia came from the movement’s margins, not its activists.
Evidence
Those who were politically the most involved rarely found a coherent organizing centre for their activity once the intensity of the mobilization had peaked; those who found such a centre, for good or ill, disappeared into the anonymity of direct political work; few enough finished their PhDs, and those who did rarely gained the academic sophistication to become theorists. Those who became theorists had been, as a rule, only marginally involved in the political movement. — Aijaz Ahmad, In Theory, 269
Categorization
- XREF: Connects to the reader’s strategic-essentialism research: if theory’s institutional voice belonged to movement survivors rather than organizers, the ‘we’ speaking for subalterns is itself a class location Ahmad would flag. — connects to: Marxist intellectuals historically emerged from intermediary classes rather than the people. — Antonio Gramsci, Selections from the Prison Notebooks, 1411; The neoliberal movement abandoned academia for direct campus organizing — Dieter Plehwe, Quinn Slobodian & Philip Mirowski (eds.), Nine Lives of Neoliberalism, 570; Some feminists appropriated the movement to serve individual careers rather than collective change — bell hooks, Ain’t I a Woman_ Black Women and…, 551 (+2 more)
Broader Connections
- Socialist ideas originated among intellectual elites, not the working classes
#exemplifies(0.88) - Marxist intellectuals historically emerged from intermediary classes rather than the people.
#exemplifies(0.85) — Antonio Gramsci, Selections from the Prison Notebooks, 1411 - Some feminists appropriated the movement to serve individual careers rather than collective change
#exemplifies(0.78) — bell hooks, Ain’t I a Woman_ Black Women and…, 551 - The neoliberal movement abandoned academia for direct campus organizing
#contradicts(0.72) — Dieter Plehwe, Quinn Slobodian & Philip Mirowski (eds.), Nine Lives of Neoliberalism, 570