410
GEORGE LICHTHEIM
But having said this, one is bound to qualify one's comparatively
hopeful prognosis in at least one important respect: it does seem
necessary to introduce a distinction between the "revisionism" of the
intelligentsia and that of the technocracy. The former group is gen–
uinely concerned with humanist values. The latter desires efficiency
rather than liberty, and
is
quite willing to cooperate with an authori–
tarian-even a totalitarian-regime, as long as its own privileged
position is guaranteed. One notices signs of such a cleavage in the
U.S.S.R., and doubtless we shall have further occasions to differentiate
between "modernization" and genuine "liberalization." As intellec–
tuals, needless to say, we are concerned only with the latter. Mere
bureaucratic rationality
is
not enough. The technocracy is an im–
portant ally against the irrational tendencies of a totalitarian regime;
but not a very reliable ally. Being t1ae predestined ruling stratum of
the new planned and centralized order, now arising before our eyes
in East and West alike on the ruins of the old bourgeois society, it
has the self-confidence characteristic of every socially privileged group :
it can afford to wait. Unlike the humanist intellectuals who spearhead
the "revisionist" movement, the true technocrats are not impatient, nor
are their aims precisely those of their intellectual allies and outriders.
[((Ideas of the Future" continued on Page
467J
