30
PARTISAN REVIEW
No. What is honor? A word. What is that word honor? Air. A trim
reckoning!''
THE CRISIS
OF THE WORD
The almost daily reminders that the fine words of
bourgeois ideology, whether in the mouth of a Roose·
velt or a Petain, are so much air have naturally had
an effect on popular consciousness. The process began long before the
war; it has been going on, in fact, since the Great French Revolution, and
with unparalleled intensity abroad since 1914 and in this country since
1Y29.
By now, bourgeois democracy has broken down so completely as a
social and economic system that increasingly large sections of the popula·
tion have lost all faith in it. They just don't believe the words any more.
From the viewpoint of the bourgeoisie, this is a very serious matter.
"The characteristic of the attitude of the younger generation which most
disturbs their elders," said Archibald MacLeish in his famous Association
for Adult Education speech last summer, "is their distrust not only of all
slogans and tags, but even of all words, their distrust, that is to say, of all
statements of principle and conviction, all declarations of moral purpose."
MacLeish, who as the Librarian of Congress and the confidante of Presi·
dent Roosevelt is himself not the least securely entrenched of these 'elders,'
is quite properly concerned over the impotence today in America of what
he calls "The Word." This mystic entity, which he capitalizes throughout,
MacLeish seems to conceive of, much as Hitler does, as a sort of medicine
man's charm which can
of itself,
regardless of its relationship to reality,
sway men to action. To reject The Word as the young men of America are
now doing, is "to stand disarmed and helpless before an aggressor whose
strength consists precisely in destroying respect for the law, respect for
morality and respect for The Word."
Now, of course, Hitler, far from destroying respect for The Word,
has exploited it more successfully than any demagogue in history. What
MacLeish is really complaining about is that Hitler's Word has shown
itself so much more potent than
his
Word as to -destroy "respect'' for the
latter. Hitler has won the youth of Germany, as is well known, by per·
suading them that fascism offers them what they want from life, that it is
worth fighting and dying for.
(If
respect for The Word is the mark of a
healthy society, as MacLeish implies, then Nazi Germany is the high point
of civilization.) This is a lie, but it is believed. MacLeish's complaint
seems to be that
his-and
Roosevelt's-lies are
not
believed.
THESE MAD
GERMANS
•
One way of looking at fascism is as the
systematization
of
the brutalities, contradictions and lunacies of monopoly
capitalism. (That in the process of Bystematizing them,
