It is an expression of a basic
weakening of Western Europe's sense of purpose, capacity to
lead, and to govern itself. Above all, it is the source of a
profound divorce between the ruling people and the young
talents.
Even if it does not affect the general public, which tends
to react against highbrow pessimism, the overall mood of
Western societies is shaped by a general cultural tendency.
West European values are not rejuvenated in a convincing
way. No model of civilization emerges from the present-day
drifting culture, no call for reform and pioneering. Ritualism
and self-pity remain the basic undercurrent behind the
arrogant radical criticism that prevails on the surface. Vague
utopias certainly do not counterbalance the stronger
apocalyptic nihilism that forms the texture of our vanguard
culture. On the other hand, there is no possible dialogue
between the ruling elite and the new generation. Fragmenta-
tion and stratification, which were stifling traditional class
society, seem to perpetuate themselves through new cultural
cleavages. Other regulatory mechanisms which we cannot
distinguish yet may be at work. A new blossoming may well
follow this long hibernating process. But we must face the
fact that we are now in the most vulnerable part of the cycle
of change or, to put it a better way, of the process of
transition to post-industrial society.
At the present time, a significant challenge comes from the
intellectuals and related groups who assert their disgust with
the corruption, materialism, and inefficiency of democracy
and with the subservience of democratic govemment to
“monopoly capitalism.” The development of an “adversary
culture” among intellectuals has affected students, scholars,
and the media Intellectuals are, as Schumpeter put it,
“people who wield the power of the spoken and the written
word, and one of the touches that distinguish them from
other people who do the same is the absence of direct
responsibility for practical affairs.” In some measure, the
advanced industrial societies have spawned a stratum of
value-oriented intellectuals who often devote themselves to
the derogation of leadership, the challenging of authority,
and the unmasking and delegitimation of established
institutions, their behavior contrasting with that of the also
increasing numbers of technocratic and policy-oriented
intellectuals. In an age of widespread secondary school and
university education, the pervasiveness of the mass media,
and the displacement of manual labor by clerical and
professional employees, this development constitutes a
challenge to democratic government which is, potentially at
least, as serious as those posed in the past by the aristocratic
cliques, fascist movements, and communist parties.