AN EXCHANGE
41
possibility because it necessarily restricts other possibilities. Call the
possibilities "imaginative." And call the carrying-out of
one
possibility
the
bureaucratzz;ation
of the imaginative. Some imaginative possibility
(usually at the start Utopian) is bureaucratized when it is embodied
in the realities of a social texture, in all the complexity of language
and habits, in the property relationships, the methods of government,
product~on, and distribution, and the development of rituals that reen-
force the same emphasis.
"It follows that, in this "imperfect world," no imaginative possibility
can ever attain complete bureaucratization.
Even capitalism, as Sombart
has pointed out, has not attained its "ideal" perfection.
Capitalism
would not be ideally perfect until we had a monetary equivalent for
everything, until every last bit of material exchange among friends were
done for profit, until every casual greeting were given at a price (and
that price as high as the traffic would bear).
"In bureaucratizing a possibility, we necessarily come upon the
necessity of compromise, since the human being is not a complete fit
for
any
historic texture. A given order must, in stressing certain em-
phases, neglect others. A bureaucratic order approaches the stage of
alienation in proportion as its "unintended by-products" become a
stronger factor than the original purpose. The heightening percentage
of alienation corresponds with an intensification of class struggle be-
cause, at the point where the accumulation of unintended by-products
is becoming impressive and oppressive, there will be a class of people
who have a very real "stake in" the retention of the ailing bureau-
cratization. From this you get a further alienation-as the dispossessed
are robbed even of their spiritual possession, their "right" to be obedient
to the reigning symbols of authority.
"Obedience to the reigning symbols of authority is in itself natural
and wholesome. The need to reject them is painful and bewildering.
The dispossessed struggle hard and long to remain loyal-but
by the
nature of the case, the bureaucratic order tends simply to "move in on"
such patience and obedience. Eventually, sectarian divergence becomes
organized (as thinkers manipulate the complex forensic structure, to
give it a particular emphasis in one direction). But those in possession
of the authoritative symbols tend to drive the opposition into a corner,
by owning the priests (publicists, educator~) who will rebuke the op-
position for its disobedience to the reigning symbols. The opposition
abandons some of the symbolic ingredients and makes itself "ready to
take over" other symbolic ingredients.
"Insofar as it can unite in a new collectivity, progressively affirming
its own title to the orthodoxy, tendencies toward the negativistic, satan-
istic, sectarian, disintegrative, and "splintering" fall away. But insofar
as Its own imaginative possibility requires embodiment in bureaucratic
fixities,its necessary divergences from Utopia become apparent.
"Many persons who scorn the very name of Utopia become wounded
as the "imperfect world" of bureaucratic compromise is revealed. They
