ABSTRACT
This chapter views with grave concern the attitude of the Western intelligentsia to its society. It is Jean-Jacques Rousseau's view that such treatment is inherent in civilized society, which multiplies random contacts based on utility rather than on affection, and that it becomes more and more widespread as contacts increase and interests overlap. Karl Marx's view is less philosophical, more dependent on history. The chapter discusses three parts of the history of the Western intelligentsia during the last ten centuries. During the first period the intelligentsia is levitic; there are no intellectuals but those called and ordained to the service of God. In the second period we witness the rise of a secular intelligentsia, kings' lawyers being the first to appear. Then, in a third period coinciding with the Industrial Revolution, people find a fantastic proliferation of the secular intellectual, favored by the generalization of secular education and the rise of publishing the status of a major industry.
