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A comparison of social themes & political trends of the 1950s & 1980s shows some marked similarities: conservatism & career thinking are prevailing moods, fear of crime & communism are common, & social consciousness & liberalism have lost public favor. Some conservative intellectuals of the 1950s are still writing in the 1980s, including William F. Buckley, Norman Podhoretz, & Irving Kristol. Dissenting liberals of the 1950s, eg, Irving Howe, Gore Vidal, & Norman Mailer, have retained their positions. It is noted, however, that the radical voices of the 1960s are absent. One explanation for this situation is that many 1960s critics were European, including Erich Fromm, Paul Baran, & Herbert Marcuse; they influenced, but were not essentially a part of US radical thought. A major difference between the intellectuals of the 1980s & those of the 1950s is that the former are mostly academics; by this trend, radical discourse has been limited to within-U forums, & large sectors of the lay public are ignored or alienated. D. Dunseath.

An annotated bibliography is offered of 102 articles in periodicals & social science journals dealing with the role & functions of intellectuals, divided into seven areas: General Aspects, Intellectuals & Society, Intellectuals & Politics, Intellectuals & Capitalism, Intellectuals & Socialism, Intellectual Dissidence, Intellectuals & Revolution. French-, Italian-, German-, English- & Spanish-language contributions are listed. A wide range of scholarly publications is covered. S. Whittle.

Unfortunately, the intelligentsia bear a crucial responsibility for the rise of facist ideology as an extention of the attempts by monopoly capitalism to dominate the globe in the period of imperialism. Since WWII, the new face of fascism has begun to employ new terminology & has modified intellectual tools. Nihilistic cynicism associated with the old reaction, as in Germany, is giving way to nihilistic hypocrisy, flowing from the US (1948). Intellectuals are increasingly falling victim to the prevailing soc demagogery of fetishizing soc problems. The 'fetishization of democracy' fails to investigate who is excluded from the process. The 'fetishization of the longing for peace by the people' takes form of an abstract pacifism that degenerates into passivity & even amnesty for fascist war criminals. The 'fetishization of the nation' blurs the distinction between the just, nat'l life-interests of a people, & the aggressive tendencies of imperialist chauvanism, either 'pax germanica' or 'pax americana.' Finally, there is the 'fetishization of culture' that denies the unity of the culture of humanity & masks the protest of what is dying in particular cultures against what is pregnant with the future. Clearly, 'fetishization' entails a detaching of a given historical phenomenon from its real soc roots & creating an abstract concept to serve as an independent being, a peculiar entity. To counter these tendencies, it is crucially necessary to concretely demonstrate the meaning of a given historical phenomenon in the total process of development, its past & future, its pol'al & econ relationships. In order to halt the growing reactionary current, intellectuals should strive for clarity in the ideological sphere, explain where they stand, in what direction the path of development is going, & what they can do to influence its course. Intellectuals, in order to avoid unconscious support for imperialist aggression & fascist reaction, must reject the position that it is philosophically impossible to orient oneself soc'ly, a theme that is encountered in soc agnosticism & existentialism. A. Karmen.

A NUMBER OF THEMES CONCERNING THE SE POSITION OF THE SOVIET INTELLIGENTSIA, ITS RELATIONSHIP TO THE RULING ELITE, & ITS POLITICAL EVOLUTION IN THE POST-STALIN PERIOD ARE EXPLORED, UNITING, IN THE BEST MARXIST TRADITION, A FIRM EMPIRICAL & THEORETICAL UNDERSTANDING OF THE SUBJECT. THE PARTICULAR FACTORS WHICH HAVE DRIVEN MANY INTELLECTUALS INTO OPEN OPPOSITION--INSECURITY, THE FAILURE OF ECONOMIC REFORM, A SLOW RISE IN LIVING STANDARDS, & REPRESSION--ARE SPECIFICALLY RELATED TO THE WIDER NATURE OF THE REGIME, ITS CONTRADICTORY CHARACTER & INHERENT STABILITY. ARGUING FROM THIS BASIS, OF THE 3 HISTORICAL ALTERNATIVES NOW OPEN TO THE ELITE--GENUINE SOCIALIZATION OF THE MEANS OF PRODUCTION, A RETURN TO THE MARKET, & DETENTE--THEY HAVE MOMENTARILY TAKEN THE LATTER PATH. THIS TURN TO THE WEST, ALTHOUGH IT MIGHT MEDIATE THE INHERENT TENSIONS OF THE SOCIETY, CAN ONLY DO SO FOR A LIMITED PERIOD. DETENTE WILL STRENGTHEN THE ALREADY POWERFUL PROCAPITALIST SYMPATHIES OF THE INTELLIGENTSIA & LEAD THE USSR INTO A POSITION OF IMMENSE DEBT. THE ELITE'S CHICKENS MUST COME HOME TO ROOST; WHEN REMAINS PROBLEMATIC. 1 TABLE. AA.

In Skeptical Thoughts about a Fashionable Theory, Dennis Wrong offers a critique of the concept of the new class. The occupations described as forming this class are not new & are better described as forming an elite. The existence of this group is not seen to significantly affect US social structure. In Skeptical Thoughts from Another Direction, Jean L. Cohen identifies the new class as a concept reflecting the application of Marxist categories to intellectuals. The writings of major adherents of this concept are reviewed & shown to obscure the nature of contemporary society & to work against effective intellectually grounded social criticism. W. H. Stoddard.

An open-ended question was sent to Telos editors & contributors in Jan 1982 concerning the leftist intellectual's role, self-definition, & tasks in the 1980s; the twenty-one responses that were received are presented. Major themes discussed by Rs include the collapse or survival of New Left movements during the 1970s, the role of critical theory & its revitalization in political praxis, involvement in the academy, problems in language theory & use, & the emergence of alternative social movements such as feminism. L. Whittemore.

Marxism has traditionally suffered from a tension between its theoretical identity as an expression of proletarian self-liberation & its practical identity as a movement led by intellectuals. As a result, intellectuals either have become detached from or have taken hegemony over the Wc. In advanced countries, at present, the intellectual occupations have greatly enlarged, magnifying the problem, but the same basic issues remain. Marxism remains valid as a basic philosophy, offering a concept of praxis that overcomes the limits of earlier philosophies. Its application to present society, however, reveals limitations that derive from its origin at an earlier phase of capitalist development, which have to be overcome by a new theoretical approach either within Marxism or independent of it. This needs to be shaped by revolutionary intellectuals playing an organic role within the collective action of the revolutionary forces in society. The history of past approaches to this problem is reviewed as an indication of some possible new approaches. W. H. Stoddard.