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PARTISAN REVIEW
the concept of "Marxist dialectics"? Is it an adequate panacea to repeat
that the "only function of fascism is to aggravate the agony of capitalism"?
If
we are to profit at all from this World Civil War No.
l,
our first task,
an imperative one, is to get rid of all ready-made notions, all remnants
of contemporary scholastic theology. "From the excesses of slavery,"
writes Marceau Pivert, "a new freedom will surge." This is scholastic
theology. For, if Hitler wins, how many decades, how many centuries of
serfdom must we foresee? We are not interested in a liberty that will
blossom in 2548, or even in 2200. "It's true that this world is pretty bad,"
says the average Catholic; "but wait a minute, ten thousand years, for
example; then Christianity will have permeated all human souls, justice
and happiness will have come." I prefer Victor Serge's political realism,
which is neither
Realpolitik,
nor cynicism. When he sketches the near
future, he feels as if mind were "closed up in an infernal circle." Such
is our future, though. In order to shape it, we must face it however ugly it
may be. Many surprises are waiting for us: unless we dissociate politics
from metaphysics, we are committed to dissociate politics from ethics;
unless we think a little more about "liberty" and "authority," we are likely
not to understand how it is possible to foresee "the birth of new republics,
harsh to their enemies, both libertarian and authoritarian." And still,
Serge's forecast might be our truth; his antinomies, our values.
ETIEMBLE
"Dangerous Thoughts"
Editors' Note: War and freedom of
thought have never been easy bedfellows.
This war is no exception. In our last issue
we wrote: "Our main task now is to pre–
serve cultural values against all types of
pressure and coercio7!-. Obviously we can–
not even speak of the survival of demo–
cratic civilization apart from the survival
of our entire cultural tradition. This in·
eludes the fullest freedom of expression
on political matters." It seems to us that
it may be useful, in the struggle to pre–
serve cultural values, to establish this new
regular department, a "listening post" to
give publicity to the more significant in–
stances of suppression of free thought
from month to month. Our readers are
invited and urged to send in material for
this column.
The entry of the United States into the
war caused a number of significant cas–
ualties on the journalistic front. The non–
interventionist news-letter,
Uncensored,
ceased publication because, according to
a note from its editor, Sidney Hertzberg,
"It
is no longer possible to get contribu-
tions to make up our deficits." The Insti·
tute for Propaganda Analysis shut down
"for the duration," and part of its staff,
headed by Harold Lasswell, moved down
to Washington to begin manufacturing, in–
stead of debunking, propaganda. Oscar
Ameringer's radical-populist weekly
The
American Guardian,
widely read for twen–
ty-five years in the south and middle west,
had to suspend publication when its read–
ers protested violently against the editors'
attempt to change its line from anti- to
pro-war after Pearl Harbor.
•
Error of opinion may be tolerated where
reason is left free to combat it.-Thomu
Jefferson: First Inaugural Address.
•
It is important to note that all the
instances noted this month, are cases of
voluntary
suppression. So far, official
censorship, in the field of freedom of
thought and expression, has played little
part. Many editors, publishers and jour–
nalists seem to share the attitude ex–
pressed by the veteran liberal, William
