494
VICTOR BROMBERT
who made the French Revolution," adding even more categor–
ically: "I don't know what the choice of my country will be.
My choice is made: I remain 'an intellectual'''
(Avant le
Proces ) .
This militant pride has many echoes. In a letter to
Le Temps
(3 February, 1898 ) , Jean Psichari proclaims that
intellectuals are the glory of a country like France.
A triple ambiguity, however, seems to attach itself to the
term from its very inception. (1 ) The apparently contradictory
accusation that intellectuals constitute on the one hand a pitiful
proletariat and on the other an arrogant, caste-conscious, self–
styled elite. (2) The reactions of the intellectuals themselves who
oscillate between a feeling of uneasiness (and even of shame)
and the most undisguised pride. (3) The fact that the battle
cries and utterances of contempt from the traditionalist and
nationalistic Right are echoed (and even reinforced ) by other
bellicose cries coming from the Left, revolutionary, interna–
tionalist and equally hostile. This early awareness on the part of
intellectuals of being caught in a cross-fire ushers in one of the
most serious predicaments of the twentieth century.
The crystallization of a concept
In spite of new historical contingencies, the word
intel–
lectual
continues, throughout the subsequent fifty years, to bear
the traces of its ideological origin. The French concept of the
intellectual thus remains bound up with the notion of a social,
political and moral crisis. Better still: it implies
the notion of a
permanent state of crisis.
Given this state of crisis, the intel–
lectual considers it his obligation to intervene. This sense of
moral duty may reach a particularly high pitch during certain
periods (1930-1950, for instance) - but it constitutes a perm–
anent trait. Passionately committed to political thinking, haunted
by dreams of action, he is, according to Benda, a "traitor" to
clerical values
(La Trahison des clerc ).
But significantly,
even Benda fails to live up to his quasi-monastic ideals: not
only does he make specific concessions (such as allowing
