ABSTRACT
Alvin W. Gouldner begins his analysis by defining "generic ideology" as a "belief in the potency of ideas." Gouldner suggests that the hidden or tacit ideology of the ideologue is the overestimation of the power or potency of ideas. Gouldner's analysis of the radicalization of intellectuals and the important role of the vanguard party in facilitating and channeling a consciousness appropriate to the emancipation of the proletariat is a master stroke of sociological analysis. Intellectuals, with their special or unique speech variant of social theory, continued to be of abiding interest to Gouldner during the mid- to late seventies. The new technocratic consciousness, declaring itself ideology-free with its grounding in facts and technical competencies, undergoes a transition whereby old-fashioned ideologues are jettisoned in favor of newer generation technologues. In reference to the New Class, Gouldner "can think of no epithet Chomsky uses that are altogether unjust.".
