Antonio Gramsci

Gramsci first starts out by determining what an intellectual is. He states that the error in Marx’s text is that people assume that one must be born with smarts to be an intellectual. According to Gramsci, however, this is not true but in fact “All men are intellectuals…but not all men have in society the functions of intellectuals” (Gramsci). This is an important distinction Gramsci makes for he uses this statement to declare that this is why people are better off that other in society. Communism preaches that the aristocrats are only rich because they are born into wealth and so their good fortune is completely because of the luck of their birth. Gramsci says this is not true but in fact, the reason why the bourgeoisie are the leaders of society is because they actually used their intelligence to gain power unlike the rest of society. Gramsci states that “ the supremacy of a social group manifests itself in two ways, as ‘domination; and as ‘intellectual and moral leadership’” (Gramsci). This statement is useful in interpreting Marx’s texts because Gramsci’s view completely cancels out the basis of Marxism, that all people should have the ability to gain power and wealth if they wish to work hard for it. Also, the current society does not allow for this to happen because the upper class is just too powerful and one has to be born into such wealth. Gramsci goes against this by stating that people are only rich and powerful because they chose to work their intelligence to be this way and that all people are born with the same levels of intelligence. The only reason why people are poor is because they chose to lead their lives to be farmers and did not take advantage of the intelligence that they were born with.