56
PARTiSAN REViEW
with the same meaning frequently evoke different emotions. Seman·
ticists have sometimes recognized this last, and inferred illegiti·
mately that meaning and emotional effect are totally unrelated. The
result has been very convenient for purposes of argumentation and
polemic.
If
your opponent uses a scientific expression which has
an emotional color (and most words do), just refuse to answer.
Say his words are emotive. It supposedly follows that they are non·
sense, and don't require an answer.* But disputes containing words
l .k
'f . ' '
. ' ' .
1"
'
th
f
lk
I e ascism, commumsm, capita Ism, are not my s or o .
lore merely because they arouse men's passions. Many great scien–
tific statements have been very disturbing. The assumption of a
divorce between the emotive and the scientific controls all of
The
Folklore of Capitalism:
"When we attempt to analyze the actual
operation of creeds in society, we discover the surprising fact that
their content and their logic are the least important things about
them." (p. 21) Precisely because they are creeds or fundamental
beliefs we are told to disregard their logic and content. The utter·
ances of economists, radical and conservative alike, are on exactly
· the same footing as a cry of pain or a bellow of anger. They are
merely evidence, to Thurman Arnold, of some internal disorder.
For empirical refutation he would substitute a pathology of politi–
cal beliefs: an elaborate method of calling one's opponents crack–
pots. This is one of the most effective ways to avoid scientific, politi–
cal, or economic controversy. An even· more effective method is the
attack on "abstraction."
5.
High-order abstractions.
The confusion about abstractions is perhaps the most power–
ful anti-scientific distortion made by Chase and some of the others.
Convinced that the only definitely significant words are those that
name
things
like Bossie, Bessie and Rosie, Chase has called words
such as 'capitalism,' 'value,' 'unemployment,' 'fascism,' meaning·
less. They are all much too abstract. "A thing 'capitalism' is not
to be found stalking with gigantic hooves and horrid scales over
any market place"
(The Tyranny of Words,
p. 274). Nonsense,
there is no such animal. Radicals who hate capitalism, hate noth-
•A
crou
example of thi1 device wu the New
Republic's dhmi18al
of PUTISAN R.Evtzw'• proteat aboat
Hayakawa. The New Republic editors
~erely ret~rned:
"Our rea
den .
~ill noti~«:
th,e,
~manti~ .~ina
in the
foregoing Jetter: 'Vulgarizers,'
'populanzen,'
'baa1c economic and pohucal reahues,
IJherRls.
That
wu
the end of that diacuaaion.
