Sociology and Freedom Author(s): Peter L. Berger Source: The American Sociologist, Vol. 6, No. 1 (Feb., 1971), pp. 1-5 Published by: Springer Stable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/27701700 . Accessed: 21/10/2011 00:12 Your use of the JSTOR archive indicates your acceptance of the Terms & Conditions of Use, available at . http://www.jstor.org/page/info/about/policies/terms.jsp JSTOR is a not-for-profit service that helps scholars, researchers, and students discover, use, and build upon a wide range of content in a trusted digital archive. We use information technology and tools to increase productivity and facilitate new forms of scholarship. For more information about JSTOR, please contact [email protected].

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SOCIOLOGY AND FREEDOM Peter

L. Berger

Rutgers University : 1-5

The American Sociologist 1971, Vol. 6 (February)

Sociology, greatly to the surprise of most of its older has

practitioners,

the

acquired

of a

reputation

liberating

if not

for

freedom.

at society more Even

a new

large,

authenticity

are directed toward sociology by students who adhere to the radical left.For them, sociology is nothing less than the

arm

theoretical

of

that

praxis,

revolutionary

a

is,

liberating discipline in the literal sense of a radical trans formation of the social order. It is sociology in this latter that has

understanding able proportion

of

been

associated

students

the field

of

the

with

remark

are

who

in western

the

Europe?to

to bar

in order

Even

in this

those

who

and are

now

there

screening job applicants

have

where

country,

where

point

firms in Germany and in France

taken

sociology is established

sociology

courses.

this

is very

recent

indeed.

a few years

Only

outsiders, if they thought of a sociologist at all, thought

of

as

him

a

with

character,

dry

an

insatiable

for

lust

statistics who at best might dig up some data of use to at worst

and policy makers lent commentator)

(in spend

might

of one malevo

the words ten

thousand

quired type

as

an

to conceive imagination either of interest object

after salvation or for the FBI. same. fession

Especially there

among are now

younger serious

of for

this

unexciting seekers

young

It has happened members

of to

aspirants

pro

drastically

different images of the sociologist. There is the image of the sociologist as one of several guru types within in close

the

culture, youth of psychedelia, T-group is also There gospels. carrier least,

of as

a

proximity

mysticism, the image

dismay

pecially

themselves

on

as

and of

the

other

the

sociologist

as

a

(in either direction, de

have Both circumstances). images provoked as enthusiasm. former is es well The image

galling

for psychologists, who

challenged

in what

so

recently

suddenly find

was

a

monopoly

"Freedom delivered January 8, 1970, at the symposium Paper The full and the Human Sciences," University, Chicago. Loyola Uni of the symposium will be published by Loyola proceedings for separate granted University versity. Permission by Loyola of this paper is gratefully acknowledged. publication

February 1971 1

and uates

not

alarm

of

enforcement the new

describe

only

officers, radical

and

naturally, Parsonian

demands

to be

comes

from

sociologists.

are

theory "relevant"

suddenly to the turbulent

Grad commitments of the young. shifting constantly collectors of the Bureau of Applied Social Research, with of multiple correlations impeccable producers error,

hirelings confrontation

This

a

ciology,

could

be

yawning

hear themselves suddenly of the military-industrial and the old between

complex. so new

the ever

was

at the 1969 meetings in

Association

Sociological the various

denounced

if there

gap

generation

fully observed

were

caucuses

San

or

women

liberated

wanting-to-be

Francisco

this

Amid

Hilton.

almost

went

furtively,

novel

furor,

in atrocious be

should

Sociology

an

liberation of the individual; to

struggle

the majority, of inter

business

English. instrument

liquor, and

for

the

if startling, there was indeed

conception however, trine,

as

view

not

liberate

To

society.

In

the

these notions

sociology, of it?the conception his followers. Comte,

quasi-religious and of Auguste Comte

as an sociology that was church

envisaged the new

of

the havoc

exceptions, as Heilswissen

sociology

doc

?mforevolutionary to restore order

few

With

in the anyone

of

origins

a

in the wake

of

ironic.

existential

it should be a weapon

familiar with the history of the discipline,

are

group

of the San

viewing job candidates, drinking publishers' papers

liberated

each

sociologists,

its usual

about

black

leftists,

its thing in the antiseptic corridors

doing

one,

of the

Francisco.

radical

of

militants, and (perhaps most frightening of all)

progress Revolution.

evangelists fashionable

at doctrine and, revolutionary potentially character cocktails Molotov through throwing

the windows of the faculty club pending

to

law

who

dismay, of

with

revolutionary

all the the

purveyors

confronted

to

dollars

greatest

reading

discover the local house of ill repute. It would have re a wild

The Placid

There

ago most

and

Marxists,

afflictions of intel

source

sociologists in terms that could have been borrowed from Spiro Agnew.

American

more

firmly in academia, there are places where the field has taken on a slightly disreputable flavor. All

university to orthodox but

of margins as academic

among

leading activists of the New Left, both in America

image administrators

to

expectations

astonishing

is a

latter

The

lectuals.

discipline. Sociology courses are crowded with students in search of the intellectual tools with which to demolish the hypocritical world of their elders and fashion for themselves, and a new

in the treatment of the metaphysical

and

the French

caused

by

however, (to use

Max

the

Comtian Scheler's

term) did not survive into the classic age of the discipline, the period roughly between 1890 and 1930. None of the

classic sense

have would sociologists notion of of the current

been

to make

able

as

sociology

a

much

vehicle

of

liberation.

personal to understanding As olutionary

praxis,

what

considered

sociology it is noteworthy

a doctrine

to be

some

that

of

of

rev

the great

est classic figures (such as Max Weber, Emile Durkheim invested a good deal of effort in and Vilfredo Pareto) classic

and

they

sociology

(at

to be

in Europe

least implicitly)

refutations was

a

of Marxism.

Most

counterrevolutionary

conservative

doctrine.

Early

a had but reformist animus, strong sociology more to than to secretaries YMCA congenial or revolutionaries Even of salvation. preachers spiritual a at most, this mild motif reformism became, submerged as "value-freedom" es and technical became proficiency

American

was

this

tablished as binding norms within the profession.

changes course, in

this

and

many, Lefebvre,

Marxists-turned-sociologists, in France. This, though,

exert

a

as

such not

does

Henri

explain

why

these individuals and their ideas have suddenly come to such

I strongly that, as suspect there is a strong of ideas, sociology affinity between

influence. powerful in the the case history of chance in the new

is often element and

political

vote

myself

radicalism.

In any

to

speculation

here

I don't

case,

reasons

the

about

to de

intend

for

this slightly bizarre marriage (not the least reason being that I doubt whether it will last long). Rather than to explore historical causes, I wish to look at the theoretical at

question

In what

to wit:

issue,

sense,

ciology be called a liberating discipline?

can

if at all,

strives

for expression

human Every are neither

so

relationship

is not

as

in

the

between as

or

simple,

would

profession

as

cheerful, have

us

freedom

and the

radicals

believe."

conservative I suggest

that

in its implications both propositions

this derstanding between sociology of how

problem

)

Sociology thought.

an

are

institutional

the grasping at least on freedom, also

add here

un

relationship the level of

that the epistemological can

science

empirical

order.

that

and

correct,

or

cannot

deal

freedom is clearly outside the scope of this

with man's paper.

and

should

(I

politics.

entails

for the

is subversive

This,

of

ago

most

course,

of established is

a

today

of

patterns notion

favorite

of

those who would marry sociology to radical politics. A few years

sociologists

would

been

have

shocked

or honestly bewildered by the proposition. Then, it was those with a vested interest in established patterns of thought who (if the inelegant simile may be forgiven) smelled the rat before those who put it there. I recall a remark made to me in 1956 by a barber in the southern town where I had just started my first teaching job. After I told him what I was teaching, he paused (more pensively than hostilely) and remarked, "Oh, I know about so ciologists.

the guys

You're

who

wrote

all

those

footnotes

in the Supreme Court decision on getting the colored into

the schools."

He

was

right,

of course,

in an

extended

sense,

if not literally. I wonder how many of the sociologists who busily gathered all those data on the place of the Negro inAmerica (some of them Southerners living quite comfortably in a segregated society) imagined that they were

providing

the

legitimations

for one

of

the great

so

of the that, most assumptions nor In other reflected upon. that are patterns of thought as

question

of

being

the very

the provides our everyday

which

"the

world-taken-for-granted," the basic and parameters

for

programs

lives. Robert and Helen Lynd, in their classic studies of

Middletown, concept

same phenomenon statements"?statements

their

with

to the

pointed of "of course

that

people

take for granted to such a degree that, if questioned about them,

their

they preface

answers

with

These

course."

"of

socially established patterns of thought provide the in dividual with what we may call his basic reality kit (para phrasing Erving Goffman), that is,with the cognitive and normative

a

to build

tools

in.

live

to

universe

coherent

It is difficult to see how social lifewould be possible with out

this. But are

a

Thus,

by threat

inter

vested

specific

such

legitimated

thought.

and

institutions

specific

also

of

pat taken-for-granted the taken-for-granted

to

quality of legitimating thought patterns can very quickly become a threat to the institutions being legitimated and to the individuals who have a stake in the institutional status

I shall approach the question by way of two seemingly (1) sociology is subversive contradictory propositions: of established patterns of thought, and (2) sociology is

without

indi

of

intentions

nature of things. Alfred Schutz called the sum of these

ests

sociology

challenged there society

in every words, most accept people

terns

"The

has

society

the

of

regardless

vidual sociologists. time,

no for the recent dramatic satisfying explanation can in the conception of sociology. One of point, to certain intellectual Mills sources?C. Wright in Ger the so-called Frankfurt School country,

I have

cial transformations of our time. Put differently, I sug gest that there is in sociology a subversive impulse that

quo.

Sociology, willy-nilly and by its own intrinsic logic, keeps generating such threats. Simply by doing its cog nitive job, sociology puts the institutional order and its critical

under

patterns

thought

legitimating

So

scrutiny.

ciology has a built-in debunking effect. It shows up the fallaciousness of socially established interpretations of reality by demonstrating that the facts do not gibe with the

"official"

view

even

or,

more

simply

relativizing

by

the latter, that is, by showing that it is only one of several possible views of society. That is already dangerous enough and would provide sufficientgrounds for sociolo to become

gists

the Prussian

what

polizeibekannt?of actual

to call

used

authorities

interest to the cognitive if not to the let me

police?and,

add,

every

its cog

has

society

nitive policemen who administer the "official" definitions of

reality.

more makes by

But

directly visible

social

at

sociology, subversive. the manner

fictions.

At

in certain

least

It unmasks

vested the

in which

least

in certain

is

situations,

and

interests

latter

are

served so

then,

situations,

ciology can be political dynamite. A favorite term of the New Left in Europe and Latin America is derived from the vocabulary of psychoanaly in

se?Bewusstmachung Spanish?perhaps This sciousness." the mystifications is and the way necessary to

the

aspect analysis pertains

for

best

is the process of "false

to

as

to

"bringing

con

critique by which are demolished

of social

consciousness"

consciousness for the demystified return I shall revolutionary praxis. shortly to the first As of revolutionary praxis. prepared

question of the term, on

in

concientizaci?n

German,

translated

the

sociology

effects

subversive

consciousness,

it must

in a very

basic 2The

be

of critical

way. American

social that

admitted Anyone

who

Sociologist

it

pursues the sociological perspective to its logical conse quences will find himself undergoing a transformation of

his

this makes of society. At least potentially, in the eyes of the and order. law of guardians sometimes with catastrophic unsafety, produces

tinuity, and of triviality. Each of these flies in the face of some of the fondest beliefs of the contemporary left.

unsafe

It

also

own peace of mind. to consciousness," in this

for his

effects,

"Bringing

have a liberating quality. But leads,

from

apart

quite

its possible

it can

effects,

political

be a rather terrible thing. It is the freedom of ecstasy, in or outside of ek-stasis?stepping standing life?and of and ways assumptions everyday from rou includes also apart this, let us recall, standing is a if there tine comforts and routine Thus, security. sense

the literal

the routine

tween

to

between

relationship the ecstasy

"bringing there liberation,

of

that

the

and

ecstasy

and

consciousness" a

is also

relationship of desperation.

possibility

be

Toward the end of his lifeMax Weber was asked by a friend to whom he had been explaining the very pessi mistic conclusions of his sociological analysis, "But, if you think this way, why do you continue doing sociol ogy?" Weber's reply is one of themost chilling statements I know in the history of western thought: "Because I want to know how much I can stand." Alfred Seidel, a student of Weber's who was also greatly influenced by came

Freud,

an

to

little book

his

more

even

as

Doom.

was

not

only

of sociology and

Seidel's

been,

as

suicide,

but

subversive

politically

there may

other motives

inimical to life itself.Whatever

have

concluded

Seidel

that the combined critical consciousness

psychoanalysis

als

entitled Bewusstsein

appropriately

Verhaengnis?Consciousness

in

conclusion

pessimistic

man

a young

in the

1920s,

was an existential ratification of this view of the "bring ing

to consciousness"

My purpose

should

consistent,

of

sociology.

is not to suggest that sociologists, to be all

a

I have

suicide.

commit

somewhat

on

of mine

lecture

student

perceptive

indeed

does

sense,

the freedom to which

a recent

After

consciousness

him

to me,

remarked

consciousness.

I want

Rather,

out

to point

that

the relationship between sociology and freedom is not as or

simple,

as

as

cheerful,

the

in

radicals

the

profession

would have us believe. Yes, there is a liberating quality to the discipline of sociology. Yes, there are situations where sociological understanding can be liberating in a own values) morally political and (at least in terms of my in the service

sense?as

significant

that

ren

can

sociology

der to the liberation of American blacks from racial oppression. But for individual sociologists, the discipline can

to consciousness

bring

that

the world

of

aspects

are

a freedom that, in the extreme profoundly disturbing and instance,

evokes

cases.

Put

have

as

differently reason good This have.

terrors.

a

hangup on order, don't you?" I conceded the description, but I added that my "hangup" was not arbitrary or in advertent. Behind it is the conviction that sociology leads to the understanding that order is the primary imperative of social life. There is the additional conviction (which I cannot develop here) that this fact is rooted in the fundamental

constitution

a

in

Society,

is

essence,

not

that

is,

the

order

of

imposition

only

lead to

anthropology must

on order."

"hangup

that

of man,

sociology but philosophical

upon

the flux of human experience. Most people will first think here

American

what

of

of

trol"?the

imposition or of groups?and, will radicals understand,

individuals that

"hangup ever, are

on

incidental

only

no

Beginning matter how

and

my with, disagree how external controls, of of society's imposition social institution, every

aspects

with

order.

language,

or

"nonrepressive"

life abhors

social

as nature

disorder

This has the directly political rare

and

always

an

is

"consensual,"

it will be clear

imposition of order. If this is understood, that

con

"social

deviant upon power it is in this sense course,

and

Coercion

order."

call

sociologists coercive

a vacuum.

abhors

implication that, except for

the brief periods, invariably disorder than those of stronger

are

of order

forces

there

further,

and,

in

are fairly narrow limits to the toleration of disorder any human

society.

of so much of social life, 'meaninglessness9 as source of so-called the decried currently for a condition in is fact necessary 'alienation,'

"The

and

individual

both

collective

sanity."

more benign view of the existential possibilities of socio logical

a

theory, sociological sure have "You

The left,by and large, understands that all social order is precarious. It generally fails to understand that just be

cause

threat is an ary

to their

order.

anthropologically can movements

will

societies

of this precariousness to violence instinctive

The

any idea

react or

fundamental of "permanent

with

almost

long-lasting revolution"

revolution Indeed, fantasy. if they successful succeed, only

absurd be

and succeed fairly rapidly, in establishing new structures of order within which people can settle down with some of

semblance

and

social

can

revolution

cultural

the grotesque

failure

psychic as serve

in store

Tse

safety. Mao a textbook

for any

Tung's of

example

revolutionary

praxis

that fails to grasp this point. the in* Sociology is conservative in its implications for The imperative of continuity is closely related to, but stitutional order. This second proposition, put differently, not identical with, the imperative of order. I suppose that, means that sociology, far from leading inevitably to finally, it is rooted in the simple fact that people have latter in most one to ex feels a necessity If one has children. revolutionary praxis, actually inhibits the children,

policemen of way logical human

three

truly Kierkegaardian

once to

point

community:

3 February 1971

can the

of

suspicious can be made

show

of

fomenters

to be

imperatives

revolution

sociology

economically

in my

which,

imperatives

understanding

more, be

opinion,

present of order,

in of

as by socio every con

the

plain

past

to

them

and

to

relate

the

to

present

the

is past. If one loves one's children (and I take it that this the

case

has

with

to project

want

possessed even

people,

most

have who people the future whatever

them),

one

will

one things good few own there are very life?and in one's have who most the pos among oppressed, into

sessed nothing good at all. Conversely, if one loves one's current

(the

parents

crisis"

"generation

notwithstanding,

I am inclined to think that this, too, is something of an anthropological constant), one will not finally want to

disparage

everything not if one

especially not who

constituted to have

ask what

to be

quently,

whatever stake

in

there

are

a

our

are

the

continuity limits not only

I have

to

this.

ognize limits settle

dimly

control.

have

to

result, to social

(most of

out

society

the

of

rec

to

about they

dismay, over which

experiences

a

a

As

as

their

on

and

fail

children) find

they

Soviet

the must have

regime

with the institutions of the family and of religion are in in

structive

this

groups

violent

of redemption

of

that man's

facts can

facts

tolerate

the

human

attention a

only

condition?namely, is limited and

span amount

limited

the that man

of excitement.

Perhaps

the physiological foundation of this is the need for sleep. Be this as it may, social life would be psychologically intolerable if each of its moments required from us full attention,

deliberate

volvement.

I would

in emotional high status of a sociological

and

decision, thus give

the

axiom to this proposition: Triviality is one of the funda mental requirements of social life. It is sociologically, an thropologically, and perhaps even biologically necessary that a goodly portion of social life take place in a state of dim

awareness

the

institutional

tivity. Put empting

a

or

semisleep. Precisely the order "programs"

for

this

reason

ac

individual's

simply, society protects our sanity by pre large

number

of

choices?not

only

choices

of

action but choices of thought. If we understand this (the understanding has been worked out systematically, by the way, in the theory of institutions by the contemporary German sociologist Arnold Gehlen), we shall see that there are limits not only to disorder and discontinuity but to the of "significant frequency take more "meaningless seriously or "mere in social routines"

events."

rituals," life?simply

We

shall

then

forms," "empty rec through

ognizing that were social life in its entirety to be charged with profound meaning, we would all go out of our minds. The

"meaninglessness" as the rently decried

of source

so much of

of

so-called

social

life,

cur

"alienation,"

is

in fact a necessary condition for both individual and collective sanity. The currently fashionable left ideal of full participation in the sense that everybody will partici pate in every decision affecting his life,would, if realized, constitute

a

nightmare

comparable

must

tried

fall asleep. to explicate

to unending

sleepless

in

radical that

the horror

of

bent

the conservative

change

and

praxis.

I think

tionary

for

analysis, adds up

that

the actual

himself

to commit

hesitant

similar

soci

of

processes

sized that

the

institutions or

right,

orably

the

of

If all

of revolution.

status

it should

quo

inevitable.

empirically

ar

be

or historical empirical

propensity, in that the conservatism question It is not a conservatism based

kind.

to revolu

can

conclusions

to a conservative

be

is of on

the

are

a

peculiar conviction

sacred,

The

this

empha

inex

aforemen

tioned subversive impulse of sociology precludes this type a

it is Rather, the status quo for new social

conservatism.

on

based

of the pessimist. two the subversive about propositions thus resolves itself the conservatism of sociology

tion

between

ness

and

the

conservatism

as well as about in society It is, if you wish, orders. The contradic seeming

the conservatism

imperative of triviality is also, I suspect, rooted in basic

unrealizable, on

goes

approximation

rived at, by way of sociological

into

The

gives

certain

about skepticism various programs

"The has no doctrine sociologist to bring into the political arena."

some

a

that

ology by pointing to some basic imperatives of social life that should make the sociologist skeptical of notions of

of

regard.

endless

its realization would signify. It is one of the mercies of human nature that, finally, all participants and all I have

to have

but

disorder

revolutionaries

The

order.

though

the

discussants

Conse

for violent change

of disorder, usually to govern down the

gained

social

don't

noticed, Successful

social

the

of

discontinuity. Enthusiasts whom,

(however

level of intellectual sophistication)

it is anthropologically "discussion"

from where

to history.

hostages

means

parent

the parents' world? children of one's own,

of them but

become

will

only come. Children

they

that

comes

ness. Fortunately,

our

stance: a irrational but by no means paradoxical care a man acts stance thinks who but daringly of

fully.This, of course, is exactly the kind ofman whom our young revolutionaries will call a fink. So be it. It is prob ably one of the unavoidable blindnesses of youth to fail to see

be in society may, for some, carefully acting to preserve their little apple result of wanting simple it may but for others, motivated carts, differently, quite sense concern to avoid reflect a carefully thought-through that

the

less pain and to protect the good things of ordinary life. is some

There

irony,

in the fact

though,

a

that

generation

that has made a culture hero out of Albert Camus should extol his Rebel at the expense of his hymns of praise to the ordinary beaches.

of ordinary

pleasures

men

on

sun-drenched

Sociology, therefore, is a liberating discipline in a very specific way. There can be no doubt about its liberating effects

on

least

At

consciousness.

potentially,

sociology

may be a prelude to liberation not only of thought but of At

action.

the

same

time,

however,

sociology

up

points

the social limits of freedom?the very limits that, in turn, provide the social space for any empirically viable expres sion

of

freedom.

This

alas,

perspective,

is not

It

simple.

requires intellectual effort and is not easily harnessed to political passions. I contend that the effort is worth it and that it will serve well precisely those political purposes that

come

abstract

from doctrines

a concern of

for

living

men

rather

than

for

liberation.

So much for sociology as a discipline. What about the a sociologist? A good case can be made that there is crisis of freedom in the world today. What is to be the place of the sociologist in this crisis? While the place of sociology and the place of the soci ologist

are

not

the easiest way

identical,

to explain

they

are

interrelated.

Perhaps

the difference is in terms of 4The

American

Sociologist

so-called

term

that Weberian

"value-freedom,"

has

that

become a sort of middle-echelon devil in the conceptual hell of the sociological left.The discipline of sociology, I as

insist

as

emphatically

must

I can,

value-free?how

be

ever difficult thismay be in some situations. The moment

manipulation.

nothing instrumentarium

of the discipline, not be being,?must

human

living

ologist?a

becomes

a part of the The practitioner

and

aganda,

it ceases in principle, but prop ideology,

to be value-free

ceases the discipline to be a science and

operation sciousness" ghostly ments crete

can

that and

simultaneously of abstract

science.

of about

But

state

course, made, statement about The

in dis

of

is a methodological sociology of the the value-freedom

perhaps

it

is

observations with a little homily. We that

return

may were

to the two

here

conjured

up

to

appropriate

the the

one;

is sociologist these conclude

earlier?that

of the sociologist of the sociologist

as the antiseptically neutral technician and that of the I think sociologist as the fiercely committed partisan. that the sociological left has been very largely right, ethically speaking, in its denunciations of the former type (even if it has been unfair in individual instances). In an age in which not only freedom but the very survival of man

in

is

jeopardy,

there

obscene

is something

about

the scientist who claims that he is not responsible for the uses to which his science is put. This is not to deny in any way the right of individuals to live the theoretical life or

to abstain

ever,

can

be

from

engagement. political more exercised acceptably

This by

right,

how

Byzantinolo

is too much gists than by most sociologists. Sociology linked to the agonizing dilemmas of our time to permit

most ests

its practitioners in detachment from of

5 February 1971

their to pursue of the struggles

theoretical

their

inter

fellow-men.

at

times

disclaim

po

I

It

however,

the

be

may

partisanship to it comes

that

emphasize

of sociologists

this

ferociousness.

considerable

Camelot.

Project

considerations,

when

example,

the

to contribute

is the

fierce.

quite

view

Pentagon's

is

equally has

no

that

intelligence

be, the foundation of his discipline. This well

of

reactions tend to be of

sociologist

critical

be

my

and con

to

important doctrine

arena. What redemption to bring into the political

of

he has

is, or

should

is a political as

are of pas a methodological There mandate. plenty well the sociologist and may participate available, to politics some contribution distinctive of them. His as

sions in

be

should ical

images

about

these

Latin America, my own political stress,

a

two

of

that

cede

con into

revelations

the

lowed

For

(in an

"false

cannot

organizations

lief in the political partisanship

value-free.

himself These

are

reference.

of

value-freedom statement

transforms

value-freedom

about frames

ethical.

faith")

"bad

embodiment

called

be

relevant

litical responsibility for his work?a point that has been us the on debate that fol very forcefully by impressed Because

of political the soci

The moment he is, he betrays his humanity and

It is clear, beyond that, that the sociologist in the employ of politically

his

consistent,

intelligence?to status

of the lengers a revolutionary

the

of crit application to and any chal yes,

unswerving status quo, Indeed,

quo. movement

(an

a

when option

joins sociologist I have indicated

not normally prescribe), his most important to it will be his ongoing critique contribution political tomost ofmy Put it. of differently,my principal objection radicalized colleagues is not that they are engaged in the I would

of "bringing

business

not doing enough of it. To whom will such a conception role career

appeal? in any

not

see

themselves

as Messianic

such

are

among are still

types today.

my

to

those

Evidently kind of establishment?and

both

sociology

found,

that

has

represented

strongly

I have

its own

there

however, are

that

are

they

of the sociologist's who

a want simply not to those who

It is all

figures.

students, to commit

willing reason son. And

but

to consciousness"

too

clear

and

not

least who

others?those

themselves seductiveness.

that

in American

militantly

to

rea