The Role of the Intellecutal in American Society

Arthur Vidich  prided himself on being the outsider as it gave him the special privilege of analyzing American society without the handcuffs of federal or state funding restrictions or the limits on free speech that often come from working for government agencies, think tanks, corporations or other institutional employers. On May 11, 1959, Art described the life of the intellectual as the life of loneliness.To be an intellectual he said is "an attempt to live outside the immediate historical experience. The work of an intellectual is done outside the pressures of everyday life"

As a warning of the dangers of bureaucracy to the modern intellectual, Vidich noted, "The two factors that have to be considered are bureaucracy and the specialization of tasks by rank and grade. The bureaucracy promotes the narrowing of the creative mind and dulls the senses leaving little room for independent thought."

As an example of the dangers of institutional thinking Vidich recalled the work of one sociologist who "was refused a grant from one foundation changed the whole course of his interest of study just so he would be abler to win a grant from another foundation."

Source:  The Connecticut Daily Campus, May 11, 1959, page 1.