Why has the
philosophy of the intelligentsia or activists always needed to blame some evil third
party (petty bourgeoisie, ideologist or master thinker) for the shadows and
obscurities that get in the way of the harmonious relationship between their
own self-consciousness and the self-identity of their popular objects of study?
Was this evil party contrived to spirit away another more fearsome threat: that
of seeing the thinkers of the night invade the territory of
philosophy?
- Jacques Rancière, Introduction to Proletarian Nights
