MYTH AND HISTORY
21
and value is still strong. "Fascism is going out of fashion as a mode
of thought." To humanity and freedom belong the future!
Such, in sum, is Mann's eloquent counterstatement to the parti–
sans of political automatism to whom all cultural change appears as
the mechanical reflex of political activism, while politics itself, de–
tached from the movement of culture and thought, becomes
1'art pur
of Party leaders.
Three major political judgments emerge from Mann's theory of
"conservative revolution": 1. That the mass dissemination of revolu–
tionary ideas, regardless of their truth or falsehood, constitutes a
"lying propaganda" which must lead to the destruction of culture and
individual development. 2. That the defeat of the Nazis will be the
resu!t of a cultural act of conservation, restoring social equilibrium
through the revival of Christianity and individual metaphysics–
though this may require some physical assistance on the part of the
Democratic nations, which, of course, represent these principles.
3. That the socialist order will be attained through culture itself with–
out the aid of, and even in conflict with, Marxism and the materialist
analysis of history.
In .view of the seriousness
of
these judgments, it becomes neces–
sary
to examine the origin and meaning of Mann's "values of
Art" .
and the method by which he attempts
tJt~
solution of historica.l prob–
lems.
Specifically, we must endeavor to learn what he means by the
freedom and creative power of the individual in the modern world,
and
what supports the process of change he calls conservative revolu–
tion.
His attitude· towards science is also important
in
determining
why he makes no distinction between true and falSe "propaganda".
To estimate the solidity of Mann's thought, we must return to the
general philosophy of values upon which his writings are based.
The
Analogical Technique-
A.
Introduction to Modern Myth-Making
Mann's narrative ·method is something more than the manner
m
a school or the individual tech@que of a great artist. In the
luger
sense, it belongs to a type of research and speculation that has
M1
extremely influential in recent years. Any one familiar with the
.ntings
of Freud and his disciples is aware of the vogue for symbolic
~retation
and analogical patterning in contemporary thought.
degree to which a myth-making impulse dominates Mann's novels
ltressed by William Troy in his recent essays in
Partisan Review.
