Intellectuals as a Political Class

A conference named “Intellectuals and Civil Society” took place in Minsk at the beginning of December. Both organizers and participants of the conference think that the meeting has given a new push to a discussion among Belarusian intellectuals and civil activists. A lot of people have been moved. By what in particular?

An Intellectual Is a Consumer

“The conference has become not only a presentation of informal intellectual groups that exist in Belarus, but the real beginning of a conversation about the role of an intellectual and his responsibility for the things happening in the country. It is vivid even now that a lot of people have been moved by that conversation”, said Tatsiana Pashavalava, the head of Centre of Social Innovations.

People “have been moved” by the discussion not just about the role and responsibility of an intellectual, but about the definition of an intellectual itself. According to Uladzimir Matskevich, the head of methodological seminar of Agency of Humanitarian Technologies, an intellectual is “not a producer of some intellectual product, but first of all a consumer”. An intellectual reads intellectual texts, understands them and accepts or not ideas promoted by those texts.

A New Political Class

Intellectuals are now a political class, that promotes the ideas and projects of running a country and engage the others for the realization of those projects, says Uladzimir Matskevich and his supporters.

“There is no need to make contrapositions of intellectuals and civil society. Intellectuals produce some public products that all the society consumes”, says Andrei Yahorau, one of organizers of “Intellectuals and Civil Society” conference and an expert of Agency of Humanitarian Technologies.

Representatives of public organizations get used to using the pattern of “three sectors” of a society, of which the first is state authorities, the second is private business and the third is civil society.

“Intellectuals are present in every sector. And it does not matter which of the sectors provides an intellectual a job. An intellectual is not a servant neither for a state, nor for business or civil society. If an intellectual serves to one of the sectors he or she becomes an expert, or an analyst, or whoever else, but not an intellectual any more. An intellectual is a person who performs the work for all the society and makes the results of that work public”, says Andrei Yahorau.

An Intellectual Feels Responsible for What Happens

“We have confronted the unacceptability of such a point of view all throughout three years already, from the very moment we proposed our Strategy 2006. Some politicians and public activists find our views unacceptable, as they were taught on classical retellings of the “three sectors” theory and they cannot figure out themselves, what civil society is like today”, says Andrei Yahorau.

Tatsiana Pashavalava agrees to that point: “We have several stereotypes from Western textbooks that overwhelm the views on civil society. The majority of programs for civil society are dedicated to “those who implement”, but not to “those who think”.

These stereotypes are very strong in Belarus due to the “inferiority complex” Belarusians have because of “our complex history”, Tatsiana Pashavalava believes.

“That is why many people think we have just to use Western models, as nothing like this is being invented and suggested in our country, and there are no good intellectual products of our own in Belarus. I think our work today is to change this stereotype. To do so, we have to realize the principle thing, and that is we are responsible for everything happening in our country and we can change the situation. In fact, this is one of the main definitions of intellectuals, I mean the feeling of personal responsibility for what happens”, Tatsiana Pashavalava says.

A Discussion is a Good Start

Such a discussion has arisen a strong interest for a new point of view among representatives of public organizations and intellectual groups.

“The conference itself and the process of thinking over its results can really become a good start for discussing new points of view on interrelations between intellectuals and civil society”, Zmicer Rahachou, a chairman of “Historyka” Youth Public Organization, told Eurobelarus.info.

Zmicer Rahachou thinks that Uladzimir Matskevich’s speech at “Intellectuals and Civil Society” conference seemed to be “a spectacular self-presentation”. It is obvious that Mr. Matskevich’s ideas draw real interest.

“The thesis about intellectuals becoming a separate political class needs detailed grounds. Nevertheless, these ideas is very interesting for me personally and I would like to learn more about them. It is obvious this can become a good start for a discussion, which can be useful for development of relations in intellectual groups”, Zmicer Rahachou says.

Andrei Aliaksandrau
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