468
PARTISAN REVIEW
ing can be fractured by a denial
of his insistences but his own silly
pate.
He is of course, in the justice
of his three points intellectually
unassailable. That isn't his weak–
ness nor is it the way to show him
up. Neither does it indicate the
harm he does nor point out the
surprising identity of his affiliates,
that is to say, the over-all quality
of his remarks.
To protect ourselves against the
limitations contained in the utter–
ances of men such as these a cor–
rective is needed, a means must be
found whereby we make allow–
ances for them. We must go be–
yond them.
III
For it .is quite correct for men
like Dewey and Eastman, in the
specific instances stated, t() protest,
intellectually, as we have wit–
nessed. But it is equally impor–
tant, intelligently, not to take them
completely at tbeir Nord. Not
surely to take them seriously hav–
ing the democratic motive in mind.
It must never be forgot that their
arguments are not real but illus–
trative only in a narrow area
which does not directly concern
our present crisis. Dewey with his
"instrumentalism" should under–
stand this. As Aldous Huxley said
recently of the novel as contrasted
with the essay, the essay gives only
the few selected high notes of the
scale whereas the novel will run
the gamut of the entire keyboard.
I wish by that merely to introduce
the symbol of the whole and its
parts.
Understandably the first attack
upon an argument such as I pre–
sent will he under the guise that
what I say constitutes an attack
upon learning. On the contrary
it is a plea for greater learning.
I do not reject, I accept and strive
to simplify.
To win the war for Democracy
and the peace after it we must
as far as possible make use of all
agencies, as did Lincoln and Wash·
ington before him. Lincoln's re–
ply to the prohibitionist who pro–
!ested that Grant was a heavy
·drinker and should be removed
from command of the troops, that
he wished he knew the brand
Grant was using that he might give
it to the rest of his generals, illus–
trates what I have in mind. There
are grave indictments to be leveled
against the Russian state in the
name of the democratic liberties
-but what kind of wire are they
using for their concentration
camps to make them so effective
against the Fifth Column?
Let us make full use of what
Dewey and Eastman are saying
but to make proper use of that
material we must know precisely
what we have hold of. We must
comprehend how it is allied with
other thought and other acts which
we detest.
Formerly we spoke of despots
and tyrants now called dictators.
They all had their own ideas of
"order". These intellectuals of
ours are all too frequently cut
from the same cloth and if fol–
lowed too rigidly the effects upon
the democratic framework would
be disastrous, as Washington when
he refused a "crown" at New–
burg in 1783 knew only too well.
We forget the old language,
what it implied, what it was meant
to designate when we made use of
the solid term, bigot. Small minds
too narrowly restricted to a single
viewpoint are always more dan–
gerous to a democracy than any
enemy attacking from the outside.
They too we must use.
W.
C.
WILLIAMS
