The Academic as the Embodiment of the Modern Revolutionary Proletariat
The Modern Academic has emerged as the embodiment of the Modern Revolutionary Proletariat. It is the Academic who is today the leader of the proletariat—the modern instantiation of class struggle.
by Tim Gill
A spectre is haunting Academia and that is indeed the spectre of communism.
In the janitorial professorial offices.
In the classrooms.
In the graduate labs.
But should this come as any surprise?
The Modern Academic—that is, the Graduate Student, the Adjunct, the Researcher, the Post-Doctoral Scholar, the Professor—has emerged as the embodiment of the Modern Revolutionary Proletariat.
You have heard: The history of all hitherto existing society is the history of class struggles. It is the Academic who is today the leader of the proletariat, i.e. the modern instantiation of class struggle.
The Industrial and Post-Industrial Proletariat labors in the mines, the fields, the shops, the warehouses, the gig economy vehicles. She uses her physico-muscular power to achieve her work. As Gramsci told us, though, it is not that she is no intellectual, but her profession is not as an intellectual laborer.
Instead, it is the Academic who uses both physico-muscular labor and that of the intellect in her labor today.
Intellectual labor, yes surely Gramsci and Marx might say. But what of physico-muscular labor?
Gramsci and Marx had the fortune (or misfortune) of the absence of recent technological advances.
While Marx wrote upon papers in the library, Gramsci scribbled upon toilet papers in the prison.
Today, the Modern Academic must slap upon the computer—either desktop or laptop.
The keystroke is the physico-muscular labor that the Modern Academic must engage in.
Stroking the keys is no facile task. It is visceral. It is guttural. It is often carnage.
Not only this, but the Modern Academic must toil under the weight of the extant literature. This literature lives within the lights of the computer. The Academic stares into the lights. Night after night. Day after day. Yes, it is intellectual, but physico-muscular, too.
Should Marx and Gramsci have understood this immiserating situation, they too would have identified the Academic as the Modern Proletariat—and most importantly, the Leaders of the Proletariat.
Heretofore, we must allow the Modern Academic to lead the Industrial and Post-Industrial Proletariat into the revolution. Should they object, we say close thy mouth and listen. Subscribe to our Twitter feed. Feast upon our blogs. Pay the $39.95 to access the journal articles.
There is no historical movement towards the Revolution. It is not inevitable.
The only path forward is to open the eyes and the ears and listen to the Modern Proletariat.