[Eqbal Ahmad] Intellectuals, Ideology & the State

What role do intellectuals play in society? Are they apparatchiks, yes men and women or do they challenge the half-truths, mendacities and fabrications of the rich and powerful? Noam Chomsky explored these themes in his famous essay, “The Responsibility of Intellectuals." published in The New York Review of Books during the height of U.S. aggression in Indochina. Chomsky unambiguously declared, "It is the responsibility of intellectuals to speak the truth and expose lies." He called them the "new mandarins" who are subservient to the ruling class and use their privileged position to advance their careers. They provide the cover for the crimes of state, articulating the underpinning and embedded ideology. For their services, they are well rewarded with endowed chairs at the best universities, frequent media appearances and fat book contracts. In this program, Eqbal Ahmad examines the work of intellectuals such as Chomsky, Antonio Gramsci, Edward Said, I.F. Stone, Rabindranath Tagore and others and the relationship of knowledge to power. Recorded at MIT.