aron and french intellectuals

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Raymond Aron and the French IntellectualsAuthor(s): Victor BrombertSource: Yale French Studies, No. 16, Foray Through Existentialism (1955), pp. 13-23Published by: Yale University PressStable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/2929143 .

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VICTOR

BROMBERT

RaymondAron and the

French

Intellectuals

An intelligentsia

s born o be unhappy.-Arnold

oynbee

Karl Marx optimistically

rophesied

hat at the decisive

hourof

the class struggle,

he intellectuals

f thebourgeois

worldwould

rally

o thecause

of theproletarianevolution.

f we

are to trust

RaymondAron, thisfateful our has come: the intellectualsf

France

onsider hemselvesestined

o guide

heworkers;hey

re

seduced

y thehistoric ission

f theproletariatn whom

hey ail

a new Messiah who,

throughuffering,

as assumed

he heroic

role of a collective

aviour ntrusted

ith he redemption

f the

Universe; hey

re

in the

process

of being convertedo a new

religion. f course,

Aron's personalview

s that the

intellectual

belongs

n

the

iteraryafesofSaint-Germain-des-Pres

ather han

with

he

disgruntled

orkers f theParisianRed Belt.Most of

his

recent rticles,many f whichhavebeen collectedn Polemiques

(Gallimard, 955),

and more

ecentlyis

book

L'Opium

des Intel-

lectuels

end

o

prove his oint.

oy

nd

generous

lappingf hands

from he

traditional

ighthavegreeted

is persevering

ffortst

debunking,

hough ome have

been

a littledisturbed y Aron's

sceptical

onclusions

nd

would

have

preferred

n

even

more

ntran-

sigent

tand.

n

a

way,

Aron's

position

s not

an

enviable ne.

He

wouldso much

have

liked

to avoid what

he

describes

s the

outwornlternativeetween

he

Right

nd

theLeft:

he

hoped

not

to

bepigeonholed.

et,

t would

eem hat he

hackneyed

lternative

still aces heFrench,ndthoughheRight o longernjoys alling

itself heRight,

heLeft s

still

ery

much

wareof

being he

Left.

Only

few

monthsgo,

an

entiressue

of

Les

Temps

Modernes

as

devoted o the question,

nd

there

s

much

talk n

France

of

a

Nouvelle

Gauche nd

perhaps

ven

ome

nostalgia

or

he

good

old

days

of the FrontPopulaire.

Needless

o

say,

Aron's rontal

ttack

n

theFrench

ntellectuals

foolsno

one,

east

of all Aron

himself.

verybody

nows

e is not

talking

f all intellectuals,ertainly

ot

of

a

Thierry

aulnier r

of

thecollaboratorsf La Table Ronde.Everbody nowsfullwell

whomhe

means

when

he writes

hat he intellectuals

ave

been

seduced

y

the

myth

f theRevolution

ecause hat

myth

eems

o

offer

mystical

ommunity

o

philosophers

bsessed

y

the

solitude

13







Yale

French Studies

des consciences."n fact, some

of his articles

re outspokenly

aimed gainst

artre nd his group.'

How is one to account or hestrange ttitudef these ntellec-

tuals?How is it

that hese

upposedlylear-thinking,ell-meaning

writers nd

journalistsre so

unsparingn their riticismf the

slightesthortcomingsf the

democracies,nd so

obstinatelyndul-

gent oward

eal crimes o long s

they re

perpetratedor he ake

of

an orthodox

octrine? hese are the specific

uestions hat ie

at

the origin f L'Opium des

Intellectuels.he answer, ccording

to Aron, s the

myth

f

the Left,

he myth f the Revolution,he

myth

f the

Proletariat-three

yths

hat

have

merged nto one

Big Myth

ndowed

with

hypnotic ower.

Butwhyhas the hypnosis een so effective?gain,Aron has

ready nswers. ver

since

the

Revolution f

1789, the prestige f

theLefthas been

o great n France hat ven ts

foeshave adopted

its vocabulary.

deological

onfusion

as beenthe

result. he Com-

munists

ery

hrewdly

earned

arly

n

the

gamethe

art

of posing

as the

rightful

eirs

o

eighteenth-century

ationalist

hought. hey

knew hat

heFrench

n

general

ove the

word

revolution,"or t

gives hem he llusion

f

perpetuating

heir

ast

grandeur. s for

the

ntellectuals,hey isplay particular

ondness or

he term s

wellas for heconcept ecause,ntheir uestfor erebraltimula-

tion

n

politics,

hey

re

chronically

ttractedo

extremes:

eform

seems

o them

oring

nd

prosaic;

evolution

ppears

o

them xcit-

ing

and

poetic.

Just s theesthete

enounces he

philistine,

o the

Marxist

hinkerenounces

he

bourgeois.

rtist

nd

ntellectualhus

feel t one n their

ightgainst

common

nemy.

Moral

non-con-

formism

ecomes

literary

heme,

nd

the notion f

revolt

ne

of the

commonplaces

f art.

The

fecundity

f

upheavals

s an idea

withwhich

many

Romantic

nd

post-Romantic

ind

has

toyed-

and it is not surprisinghatthemyth f theRevolutionhould

serve

s

a

refuge

or

topian hought

nd

play

he

part

f a

mysteri-

ous

ntercessor

etween

hereal and the deal.Add

to this certain

nostalgia

or

outworn

hristian

reams,

nd

it

becomes

lear

why

the

Proletariat

hould

have

replaced

he Messiah nd

given

ise

to

refreshed

illenaristic

opes.

Of

course,

here s

also a scientific

It is

only

fairto

recall, however,

hat

during

he later

1940s

and into

the

1950s

Sartre,

arfrom

being

the

darling

f the Communists,

as a

positive

bugbear

o them.L'Hurnanite

enounced

is

Dirty

Hands

as "a

dirty

lay,"

and

his essay

on "Materialism

nd

Revolution,"

ecently ublished

n

trans-

lation Literarynd Philosophical ssays,Philosophical ibrary, 955), can

still

awaken

the enthusiasm

f

so stout an

anti-Communist

s William

Barrett.-But

we cannot

trace

here Sartre'spolitical

evolution,

o rich

in

nuances,

cruples,

mbiguities

nd frustrations,

r

decide to

what

degree,

and

with what particular

ualifications,

he term

fellow traveler"

may

be

applied

to him

today.

14








VICTOR

BROMBERT

quest

or

scientificccount

f

history.

ut most

mportant

erhaps

(according o

Aron) are

someprivate

reoccupations:he

ntellec-

tualshavefinancialifficultiesinRussiathere re State ditionsf

writers'

orks);

hey

would

iketo

play political

ole,

utfeel

hat

they re

preachingn a

desert;hey

annot tand

ndifference,

ndcon-

sequently

elcome

heprospect

f

being

ersecuted;

hey

re

proud

and

cannot

ear

o

see France's ulture

ontaminatedithAmerican

ideals.Naive

utopianism,sense f

frustration,little ose

f

masoch-

ism, mbition

or

power, opefor

materialdvantage

nd a

hidden,

thoughctive,

ristocratic

hauvinism-these

re the

ravaging

auses

of

he

maladyhat

Aron

diagnoses.he

symptomsre

serious: istor-

tion f

mind

ndabdication

o

totalitarian

odes f thinking.

Perhaps

Aron's

analysis

ppears

omewhat

ver-simplified.

ore-

over, he

diseasehe

diagnosess

notreally

new

one.

Unquestion-

ably,

many

ntellectuals-and ot only

the

rankand file

of

Les

Temps

Modernes

and

Esprit-have

been attracted

to

the views

of the

Left, nd even

he

xtremeeft.

ver

ince he

middle f

the

nineteenth

entury,

rance

haswitnessed

steady

roletarization

f

its

ntelligentsia.n

1860,

thebrothers

oncourt

lready

otedwith

somebitterness

hat

thenew

generationf

artists

nd

journalists

no longer elonged othewell-to-doourgeoisieas did thegenera-

tionof

1830) but

that,

ompelled o

fight or

tsbread,

hisnew

boheme

ived,

strugglednd

hated ike a

true

proletariat.

ules

Valles,

in

his trilogy

acques

Vingtras, as drawn

the

pathetic

caricature

f

youngmen f

humblerigins

ushed y

their

mbitious

parentsnto

he

eaching rofession

here hey

wouldfind

mediocre

and

unstableositions.

true ntellectual

roletariat

hus

ame nto

being,

nd

finally

ed to

syndicalist

rganizations

uch

as the Con-

federation

Generale

des

Travailleurs

ntellectuels nd the

Com-

pagnons e

l'Intelligencefoundedn

1921). This

ocial nd

political

consciousness as furtherntensifiedy ideological trugglesnd

was

brought

o

a

climax

y

crises

uch as

the

Dreyfus

ase

which,

in

the

words f

Thibaudet,

as a real

ntellectual

empest.

fraid

to

take sides with

njustice nd

with

he

privileged

lasses,

fraid

above

all

to

prove

oo moderate

n

their

hinking,

he

ntellectuals

became

ncreasingly

shamed

f

their

pathy,

f

their

nefficiency

in

the

field of

political

action.

The

Ligue

des

Droits

de

l'Homme

seemed

an

unsatisfactory

nswer.Flattered

y

the

Communists,

impressedy

the

promises,

f

not

by

the

results,

f the

Soviet

experiment,ufferingromwhatNizan has called social original

sin, they

willingly

losed their

yes

to

criminalmethods.

hey

developed

philosophy

f

the lesser

evil.

Romain

Rolland,

n

spite

of his

polemics

with

HenriBarbusse

1921-1922),

in

spite

of

his

cry

n

tyrannos

ecame onverted

o

Bolshevism

nd wrote

15







Yale

French Studies

to the

anarchist

ibertairen

1927 that

Russia was

in

danger,

that he

mperialist

oalitionwas

tryingo crush

t, that

not with-

standing ts errors nd even its crimes,Russia representedhe

greatest, he

most

powerful,he

mostfecund

hope

for modern

Europe.Without

er,no liberty

asthinkable

and in

handwith

thisnewfaith

went

taste

ormartyrdom.he

God that

ailed,

collection f

essays

by

re-convertednd

redeemed

onverts,mply

demonstratesow,

n

various ountries,

en ike

Arthur

oestler,

Ignazio

Silone,

RichardWright,

ndre Gide,

StephenSpender

attempted

o cure

themselves

f

their enseof

social

guilt y deny-

ing the

very

alues hey

helddear, nd

were

emptedo submit

o

a

party iscipline hich

would ive hem

elief

nd satisfyheir

eed

to bear witness y providingn intellectual artyrdom.oestler

describes hiscult of the

"prolo,"

his

obsession

f all

the

Com-

munistntellectuals.

arely

olerated

n

the

Party, hey

ttemptedn

vain

to imitate

he

archetypal,

road-shoulderedorker f

the

Putilov

actories,ave up

wearing

ies,made sure

their

ails were

dirty

nd

did

their

estto

castrate heir

hinking.et

they id

not

succeedn

resembling

he

deal omradevan vanovich.

he

phenom-

enon

was

not

limited

o

any

single

ountry.

n

a

recent

ook,

Czeslaw

Milosz

has described

he Polish

ntellectuals'

ostalgia

or

the masses,2 heirreadiness o swallow the "Murti-Bing"ills

imported

rom

he East and

scientifically

repared

o

soothe he

anguish f

decadentnd

tormentedouls.

The disease

Aron

iagnoses

was

already

iagnosed,

n

1929,by

Emmanuel

erl: the

ntellectual

is attractedo Communism

ecause,

n

bourgeois

ociety,

e

smells

the odor

of

death.3 he

very

ons of

the

bourgeoisie,

ike

Hugo-

Raskolnikov

n

Sartre's

Mains

sales,

suffer

rom

he

stench,

eny

their

amily

ies nd setout to

forge

or hemselves

fresh

irginity.

Many

dmirers

f

Sartre

ave

been

disturbed

y

the

nebulousness

of his

social

metaphysics

nd

appalledbythe ncreasingoredomwhich manates rom he thicklyluttered,ndigestibleagesof

Les

Temps

Modernes.

ven

ome

haracters

n

Simone

e

Beauvoir's

Les

Mandarins rotest

gainst

his

apparent

sthetic

bdication:

Lambert

bserves

itingly

hat

Dubreuilh's

Vigilance

read:

Les

Temps

Modernes)

has

given

up printing

ovels

nd

short

tories

in

order

o

stuff

ts issueswith ocial

documents

nd

reportages.

Perhaps,

n Beauvoir's

ost-war

orld,

he

ntellectual

ecretly

eels

or fears hat

he

has

no

longer

nything

o

contributeo

art or

thought.

In the

country

f

Diderot,

ictor

Hugo

and

Jaures

t is

assumedhat ulturendpolitics ohand n hand.For a long ime

Paris

took

itself

or Athens.

Athensno

longer xists,

hat's

fin-

2

The Captive

Mind,

New York,

Knopf,

1953.

-Mort

de

la

pense'e

ourgeoise,

aris, Grasset,

929.

16








Yale French Studies

minorityoes nothave

a chance, hat he ntellectualo longer as

any part to play, noranythingo say, thathe is

powerless,hat

literatureas lost ts rights,hat ne can onlywritemeaninglessr

harmful ooks.But in spiteof thistemporaryefeatism,

e does

not capitulate.till onvinced

hat here s no longer

ny salvation

for he ndividual,ubreuilh nce more hrowsll

his energiesnto

thepolitical attle. ike a true ragic ero,he knows

e is doomed;

his s a lucid ndpainfulwarenessf hehopelessness

fhisposition

and thefutilityf his action. et he organizesnother

eekly aper

and goes to his inevitable

oom,fighting.

Raymond

ron's

ook

and Simone e Beauvoir's ovel ppeared

during he same iteraryeason 1954-1955); but t is not merely

thischronologicaloincidence

hat uggests juxtaposition

f the

twoworks. n differentevels,

nd with ifferenteans,

hey iscuss

very imilar roblems-only

eauvoir's ovel s a useful orrective

to Aron's tudy. he problem s not quite as simple

s he seems

to imply.Aron'sfears

re very egitimate,is generalizationsre

pertinent,

is

point

f

view

s

thatof common ense.

"Politically"

speaking,

ne feels tronglyempted

o

agree.Only, ome of the

premises re more omplex

hanAron makes hem ut to be. To

beginwith,

hat s an "intellectual"?

ron, ery apidly,ffersome

definitions:n thebroad ense ftheword, hecategoryncludes ll

the

non-manual orkers.

n a

narrow

ense,

t

is

limited

o the

liberal

rofessionslawyers,

octors, eachers).

n

a

still

narrower

sense,

t

comprises

he

artists,

he cientistsnd the

popularizers

f

knowledge.

f

one

is

to

apply

social

criterion,

ne arrives t still

another

efinition.

rom

moral

oint

f

view,

he

definitionnvolves

a

problem

f

objectives

obviously professor

f

Law

is

more

of an

intellectualhan

lawyer);

rom

he

conomic

oint

f

view,

it raises he question

f whether

"dilettante"hould

be

included.

Aron eems obelieve hat he ntellectualsre thosewho translate

opinions

nto

heories,

ho

are

not

satisfied ith

iving,

utwant o

think

heir

xistence.

It

would eem,however,

hatnot

one

of

these

definitions,

aken

separately,

s

fully atisfactory.

he notion f a cultural

lite

s

much

oo

broad

concept

when

pplied

o advanced ountries

uch

as

France.

A

psychological

efinition

ould soon

degenerate

nto

caricature. professional

efinitionoes not take nto ccount he

sense

f

vocation,

he

oncern or

values,

he

triving

or

bjectives:

itneglectshe thical spect

f

the

question. ny ttempt

t a social

definitionends obe arbitraryndeven ectarian:tthrowsogether

without

istinction

rofessionals,

ureaucrats,

hite-collar

role-

tarians,

nd reduces

ll these

ategories

o a non-existentommon

denominator.

he

moral

definition

ails to

point

o the

degree

f

social

responsibility

nvolved.

he

philosophico-historical

efinition

18








VICTOR BROMBERT

(such

as theone

provided yArnoldToynbee)

proves o be

alto-

getheroo absolute

nd too detached rom he

political

ontingencies

of a

given eriod.4 s for hepolitical efinition,t raises delicatequestion: o not he ntellectualsffirmheir oliticaltand yreac-

tionrather han hrough

dhesion o any given

olitical arty?

Is there hen o common enominator?

incent erger, he

hero

of

Malraux' Les

Noyers de l'Altenbourg,

observes, during

the

symposium hich rings

ogetherhilosophers

rom arious oun-

tries, hat hese

aces o

diverselyndprofoundly

haracteristicf

the

different

ations o which

heybelong,nevertheless

esemble

each

other.

Myfather iscovered

o whatextent he

ntellectuals

constituterace."But a "race," f

course,

which s to be recognized

through oral atherhan hysical raits.

One

hesitates

o

undertake

his

moral ortrait.

ensibility

odeled

on

thought;aithn

the fficiency

f deas as anorganizational

orce

in

the tangibleworld; he utilization

f

culture s an instrument

for criticizingradition;he

unselfish,ratuitousursuit f

truth,

but,

imultaneously,hepursuit f a

humanitariandeal; the

trans-

mission r

preaching

f

moral

values; the sensation, ow

proud,

now

humiliated,

f existingutside

he social

framework,ndyet,

on

thewhole, n obvious

ympathyor he

aboringegmentsfthe

country nd a consequent ttractiono leftist olitical arties;

feeling

f "not

belonging"

nd

of

impotence;

ealousy

of men

of

action;

he

cult

of

revolt,

ometimesven

of

anarchy;

he

nearly

obsessive earof

finding

imself n

the

side

of

injustice; ostalgia

for hemasses

oupled

with he

complexes

f

a

"fils

e

bourgeois"

ashamed

f

belonging

o

the

privileged

lasses-these

onstitute

nly

some of

the

more

permanent

raits f that

strange reature,

he

intellectual,

nd

particularly

f

theFrench

ubspecies.

The

son of Vincent

erger

iscovers,

o

the

tuneof the 1940

defeat,

hat n intellectual

s not

ust

a

person

o whombooks

are

necessary,ut nyman o whom n idea,elementaryhoughtmay

be,

can become he

guiding

rinciple

f

ife.

Perhaps

ven

certain

brand

of asceticisms

the

appanage

f the

ntellectual.

he

man-

darin, ccording

o

Simone

de

Beauvoir,

s a kind

of

puritan:

he

very

dea of

luxury ffrights

im. n

spite

of

failures

nd humilia-

tions,

e

obstinately

eturns

o

his

self-assigned

asks.Ascetic n his

cultof

work,

e

proves

o be

equally

scetic n his

relations

ith

fellowmen:

not so much

with oncretemen

as with

humanity,"

toward

whichhe feels

unequivocallyesponsible. othing

ould be

more haracteristichan he cruplesfone Sartreanero Mathieu

inLes Chemins

de

la

Liberte)

who blames

nd even

nsults imself

fornot

uffering

nough

or

he

far-away,nonymous

ictims f the

Valencia

bombing.

One cannot ufferor

what

one

wants

o,"

is

4A Study of

History,

V-VI, OxfordUniversity

ress,

1939.

19







Yale French

Studies

the bitter

emark f

Mathieu.

But

it is a

bitter

emark recisely

becausehis

"role"

as an

intellectual

eems

o

incite im

o

givean

account f man'stragedy.ubreuilh,n Les Mandarins,skshim-

self:"What

does it

mean,

he fact

that

man never

eases

talking

about himself?

nd why

s it

that some

men

decide

to speak

n

the name

of others:

n other

words,

what s

an

intellectual?"

ut

the very uestion

mplies

he answer:

he intellectual

s precisely

the one who

has decided

o speak,

nd

speak

up, in

the name

of

humanity.

Primarily

witness,

he

ntellectual

lso

considers

imself

nvolved,

perhaps

uilty,

articularly

hen

the suffering

s

distant

nd the

victimnaccessible.uchfunhas beenmade fthis ense f"global"

responsibility.

n

a

symposium

rganized

y

Partisan

Review

on

the ubject

f Religion

ndthe

ntellectuals"

February-May

950),

JamesAgee

mockingly

escribes

hesepoor

peoplewho

have

been

badgered

alf

out

of

theirminds

by

"the daily

obligation

o stay

aware of,

hep

to, worked-up

ver, guilty

owards,

ctive

about,

the

sufferings

f

people

at a great

distance

orwhom

ne can do

nothing

hatever."

e scornfully

eferso

this

cute ense

of

social

responsibility

s a sort

f

playing-at-God

He

being

n

exile)

over

every

ittle

ccident r incident,

ith he sense

of virtue

ncreasing

in ratio o thedistance. houghRaymond roncan hardly e said

to

speak

for he Christian

aith

n the wisdom

nd

mercy

f God

(and

in

the

ultimate

eign

f

ustice),

he

too

considers

t somewhat

pompous

nd llusory

o

worry

t

a

great

istance

bout he

peasants

of

India who

do

not

eat enough,

he

mistreated

egroes

f

South

Africa,

he

worker-priests

ffected

y

the

Papal

decision

or

the

ex-Communists

ursued

y

McCarthy.

ut

one

thing

othAgee

and

Aron

eemto

forget:

o

speak

up

forothers

vidently

lso

implies

to

suffer

or

and

with

others-to

suffer,

nd

sometimes

ven

to

expiate.Primarily witness,he intellectuallso wishes o be a

martyr.

ince

God

is

in

exile,

who

remains

o

give

an account

f

human estiny?

and

in hand with

incere

cruples

nd

authentic

humilityoes

an immense ride,

he modem

ntellectuals'

ybris.

Maybe

t is

this

verypride-the

pride

of

suffering

nd the

pride

of

persecution-that

xplains,

etter han

ny

other

ingle

act,

he

undeniable

ttraction

f themillenaristic

ream-theories

f

Marxism

and the

immanent

acredness

f the

proletariat.

he

intellectual

rediscovers

he

antique

myth

f the

redemption

f the

Universe

throughuffering.

There

s

another

spect

f

the

relationship

etweenhe

ntellectual

and

theextreme

eft

which

Arondoesnotconsider-and

ightfully

so,

for

t does

not

nter

nto

he cheme

fhis

polemics.

he

mystical

marriage

f the

ntellectual

ith he

extreme

eft

really

ests

n

a

20








VICTOR

BROMBERT

basic and

mutual

misunderstanding.f one examines hat

marriage

moreclosely, ne soon

discovers hatthe proletariannd revolu-

tionarylementsf theLeftnever eased expressingheir ontemptanddistrustf the"egg-head." rthur oestler escribes ith reat

vividnessheatmosphere

f suspicionhat eignedn theparty

ells

and

themental orturesndergone y him and his fellow

ntellec-

tuals: barely olerated,heir osition as somewhatkin to

that f

the "useful ews" uring

heHitler

egime

who werepermittedo

survive nd wore pecial

rmbandsto prevent heir eing

entto

a

gas chamber y mistake. he workers erethe "Aryans"

f

the

Party.

This

attitudes not a

new one. It is verycharacteristic

hat

Proudhon,ne of therare ocialistwriterso have comefrom he

lower lasses thoughMarx calledhim a petit-bourgeois

ocialist),

refusedll his ife o be

consideredn intellectual.o lesssignificant

was the ttitudefthe

French elegates o theFirst

Congress f the

Workersnternationaln

Geneva 1866): pointing o the danger

of

the rganizationeing

nvaded nd undermindedy

unscrupulous,

ambitious

nd privilegedchemers,hey sked for he exclusion

f

all

intellectuals.ar from ccepting hem, he

revolutionaryeft

tends o consider hem s

enemies r as subversives.id not

Lenin,

in 1907, refer o them s cowardlymenials f thecounter-Revolu-

tion, as self-satisfied

arcissi namoured f the dung-heaps hat

surround

hem? he

violence f the one orrespondso theblackest

phaseof thereaction

fter heruthlessrushingf the1905 insur-

rection. evertheless,hebitternessoward he ntellectual

emains

a

constant act.Theyare contrastedo the manualworkers nd

accused

of

plottingo use the gnorantroletariats an instrument

for

selfish ains. Bakuninrepeatedlyffirmshe

impossibility

f

convertingo socialismhe arrogantnd cast-consciousaristocrats

of

the intellect." arl Kautsky dvises he Party o protect

tself

against hese uccess-hunters.ubert agardelle,n a speechdeliv-

eredto a

group f

socialist tudentsn 1900, refers o the

ntelli-

gentsia

s a

"floating"

roup,withbourgeois ympathies

nd

con-

tempt or heworkers,n search f power, sing olitics or

elfish

aims and

devoid f a

practical ducation. ccording

o

him, hey

can onlybe used as

spokesmen,s phonographso propagate

he

wishes nd the

decisions

f

the

proletarian

ovement.

aul

Lafargue

goes

even

further,nd in

Le

Socialisme

et

les

Intellectuels

1900),

bluntly

tates that

the intellectuals

ossess

neither

sense

of

solidarityor civiccourage, hatthey re merely it to be the

clownish

ntertainersf

a paying lientele. n 1912,

after

ome

resoundingrticles n

the Bataille Syndicaliste, eorges

Yvetot

decided

o exclude

he ntellectualsrom heC.G.T. (Confederation

Generale u Travail)

underpretexthat hey elong

o

secondary

21







Yale French

Studies

professions,isplay o group

nterest,nd havenot ufferednough.

To be sure, hedanger f fascism,nd in particularhe

Spanish

civil war, changed he tuneconsiderably.ut the sharp riticism

leveled

at the intellectuals

y socialists nd Communists

like,

rankled n their onscience. onsidered aithless,rrogant,

eady

forcompromise,hey uffer

rom he contemptn which hey re

held. In the wordsof Sartre's ero Mathieu, heyfeel

"innocent

and guilty,oo severe nd

too ndulgent,owerlessnd responsible,

boundup with veryone

nd rejected y all." Is Brunet

ot there

to

remind im that he is

only a watchdog f the bourgeoisie?

But strangelynough, ven

Brunet, he Communist,eelsuneasy:

"Intellectual.ourgeois,"e mutterso himself.Separatedor ver.

Try s I may,we willnever avethe amememories."

You are not

one ofus," says heCommunistaigneux o his party omrade,

he

young rofessor ourdan in Marcel

Ayme's

Uranus).

Like King

Philip'shaunting ords n

Verdi'sDon Carlo ". . . ella

giammai

m'am6 " hat wareness f the gulf hat eparates hem

rom he

proletariatchoes n their

minds nd contributesery argelyo what

Aroncalls the estrangement

f the ntellectuals.

Estrangementrom ll quarters: he ttitudeftheRight

s hardly

more avorable.imone

e

Beauvoir,n an article

n

contemporary

rightisthoughtLes TempsModernes,ssues112-113.114), shows

that

the

bourgeoisielso

distrustshe intellectual.

here

exist,

f

course, ourgeoisheorizers,

hosewhom he

Marxists

isparagingly

call

the

peddlers

f

illusion.To be sure,

rationalisthought

as

been

for

the

bourgeois

orld

n instrument

f

liberation;

ut

this

very ationalisthoughts

also a double-edged eapon.

The bour-

geoisie

displays

oward he

ntellectual

n ambivalent

ttitude:

he

very

ntellectualshomost rdentlyombatMarxism

re considered

with

uspicion.

he

word

intellectual"asily ssumes,

or he

Right

as well as the Left,a pejorativemeaning. he "solid" citizen

(Sartre's alaud), rememberinghe ow

esteem n which

e is

held

by

rtistnd

philosopher

ince

henineteenth

entury,

onsiders

hem

as

non-conformist,rodigal ons,

forever

n the

verge

f

denying

their

rigins.

As for the

more outspokenly

eactionarylements,

their

ttitude

s even

more

iolent.

douard

Berth,

n ardent

oyalist

and

sympathizer

ith

he

Action

ranqaise,

ave

vent o

this iolence

in a

long-forgotten

ut

significant

ook,

Les

Mefaits

de l'Intellectuel

(1914): comparing

he ntellectuals

o

ignorant

nd

pedantic

chool-

masters,esees n them n anti-heroicaste hat ttemptso mpose

on

the

modernworld

nauseating

umanitarian

deals,

denies

the

age-old eroic, eligious,

ilitary

nd

nationalistic

alues,

nd

strives

to

replace

hese

by

a

morality

f cowardice.

22








VICTOR

BROMBERT

"An intelligentsias born

o be unhappy," rites rnold

Toynbee.

And it is

perhaps he

causes of thisunhappiness

hat Raymond

Aronhas failed o analyze n his book.The socialmetaphysicsf

Sartremay

be nebulous;

e, and his followers, ay

be too quick o

denounce

elative lls and

too ready o ignore

oncrete roblems

through

"proudwill o

think or ll ofmankind."

nquestionably,

a

kindof

Promethean

ybrisharacterizeshe modem

ntellectual.

But

that

ybriss only ne

aspect fthemodem

rometheus.or

he

is also

sincere ndprofoundlyumble.

evere oward

imself,e

is

aware

hathis

tragedys notexclusively

personal

ne. Caught p

in

a drama f deas,he

nevertheless

eels solated nd lonely.

ike

Vigny'sMoses,he suffers

rom eing

misunderstoodnd from ro-

voking ostility.n a world n which verythings being ategorized

and

defined,

e findst

difficult,etnecessary,o

define nd

situate

himself. e

choosesto

take sides,and through

his choice

only

provokesurtherension

etween

xtremes. is idealism, isquest

for

absolutes,make him

an easy prey

to imaginarycruples nd

arbitrary

olutions. oliticallypeaking,

e may rr-and

Aron

may

be as

justified

n his alarm

s he is in his ronic tatements

bout

he

incorrigible

aivete f

thosewho willalways e the

first o

fill

he

concentrationamps.The

ironymaybe

prophetic.ut

s

thealarm

really ustified?hat s anotheruestion. ronhimself aswritten,

in

an article

or he

Figaro

itteraire

September

7th,1952),

that

revolutionariesuch s

Sartre ave

neveryetdisturbedhe leep

of

any banker.

erhaps, fter ll,

this

s

not a

political

roblem?

23

aron and french intellectuals

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