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psychological precondition for radical action is usually far more important
than an "objectively" revolutionary situation - whatever that may be.
The chances for a radicalization of the technical intelligentsia, thus
extending the student revolt, cannot be even approximated. I believe
I have shown there is a chance. Two final questions remain to be
discussed. The first concerns the avant-garde role of the manual working
class itself. Is it so totally exhausted? Periodicities in the conflict of social
classes, phenomena like the bureaucratic regulation of that conflict by the
trade unions, ought not to overshadow the continuing existence of deep
and divisive conflicts of class interest in industrial societies. A radicalized
technical intelligentsia in the labor force, itself in touch with the
In–
tellectuals outside it, may well provide an historical successor to the
nineteenth-century labor aristocracy.
It may be argued, of course, that the labor aristocracy had the
function of leading the unions and the socialist movement into class
collaboration. Yet even if the technical intelligentsia in the past have
been class collaborators, things can't become any worse in this respect.
Besides, history does not repeat itself, and the technical intelligentsia
- in alliance with a working class itself exceedingly technicized - may
turn
out to be a new radical force. It is also likely that with expanding
educational facilities, the new technical intelligentsia will be recruited
increasingly from the workers much more than from the intellectuals.
The entry of the technical intelligentsia into the union movement may
contribute to the unions' re-radicalization. (The evidence from France
points in this direction.) At any rate, barring a rapidly developing
economic crisis, the working class as such seems unlikely to play the role
of an avant-garde. Its very integration in bureaucratic society may,
however, predispose it to respond to avant-garde groups similarly in–
tegrated - particularly if these groups are in daily contact with the
working class and involved in routines comprehensible to it.
In short, the technical intelligentsia may serve as a cultural and
political link between the working class and the intellectuals. Recently,
the working class has been indifferent, often hostile to the cultural
revolution. The student movement on the other hand, believes that its
revolt is part of a process of liberation from a culture become ossified,
authoritarian and inhuman. The psychological effects of their activity,
then, seem as important to many students as political ones. There seems
to be no immediate prospect of this kind of liberation spreading to other
social groups. However, the sharing of a sector of mass culture (one in
which the cultural consumers, for once, do affect what is offered on the
market) by younger workers and students may again point in the direc–
tion of a more open future.
