350
PARTISAN REVIEW
lated; in the long run it is even a form of such faith; but it is the opposite
of the attitude of the boys who have been going "all out," once a year,
in
lecture and signature-on contradictory crusades-as opportunity presents.
I say nothing here about the political nature of the war because I
lack the experience and talent of a political person. (My opinions, for
what they are worth, I give them only to be ingenuous, are that: Almost
all prepared the war by their arduous corporate labor; any considerable
group might at some times have prevented it by following at horne or
against an invader the tactics of Mohandas Gandhi; since no group could
control its interests to this extent, the (exploited) masses, who were
get·
ting the least rewards and would suffer the worst penalties, might have
alleviated the war in their own interests; and since even this recourse
is
at present in abeyance, it would be best
if
neither warring side had
the
opportunity to exploit a victory, if only the peoples by then had a belly·
ful.) But the point I am here laboring is that the personal action of each
man will follow not his opinions but the life that he has in fact
beea
leading. It is unlikely that the behavior I have been describing will
be
committed by those who have striven to make money or disciplined
their
time in offices, who have watched the Hollywood movies without puzzle–
ment or worn the usual clothes without discomfort. Each habit has ib
own judgments, and people will again act out what they have thought or
been tricked or compelled into thinking, worthwhile. But what I find
cOD·
temptible are those who up to a certain time saw only worthlessness
ill
the usual ways, of commercialism, advertising, adolescence, and then
the
next day were
eager
to be the social spokesmen; how was this possible?
Or how does a friend of literature, like John Ransom, dare to write•:
"The
mentality of sensitive and mature writers is such as to oblige them to
be
Citizens as well as artists. There is good evidence that the writers
u a
group have more of public conscience than other professional groups,
not less. They take part in the military effort. Or if they are not wanted
here, they take an interest in it; an interest so absorbed that it
become~
difficult to manage the detachment, or the innocence, which literary work
exacts." Here is a disgracefully careless set of fallacies! Does not
the
history of great letters show enough men who were willing to be huma
beings before they agreed, as "citizens," to follow those whom it was
their
duty to lead? He speaks of the "innocence" of artists as
if
some
other
persons, presumably the Office of Facts and Figures, knew better
whal
men ought to do; but they too were once only-writers! (It is
curi011
that during the economic crisis he chastised artists for being too macl!
citizens, when their citizenship was nearer to elementary humanity.)
Are
artists a "professional group"? Then no doubt they have a public
c.
science as well as a public face!
5
But it is clear that the artists
he
it
referring to have been
hitherto
at
peace;
they are therefore distracted
lly
the war. I for my part have never heard of such artists! What he
callt
4
"Puhlication and War,"
The Kenyon Review,
Spring 1942, p. 217.
5
What the devil does he think he means by the "public conscience" of an
One would have thought that the essence of "appointing ones·self to he an artilt"
to swear allegiance to form, a super·ego of the soul's own creation.
