THE INTELLIGENTSIA
273
Quantum mechanics, Hormonology and Psycho-analysis, Leninism
and Behaviourism, Aviation and Wireless, Expressionism and Sur–
realism-a completely new universe had taken shape in the library;
and the dazzling light it radiated drove the intelligentsia half crazy
by its contrast to the anachronistic, dusty-musty traditions still gov–
erning everyday conduct and beliefs. What a historical opportunity
for de-bunking and
re~building;
but where were the allies to carry
it out? The sensitive membrane vibrated wildly; but there was no
resonance-body attached to it. Utopian striving during those two
decades was monopolized by the Third International, whose blue–
print for the European revolution was shaped on the conditions of a
country with 80 per cent illiterates and a ratio of rural to urban
population of ten to one. During the two decades of its existence the
revolutionary movement was focussed on and governed by that semi–
asiatic dictatorship. Its European extension needed not intellectuals,
but a ruthless and uncritically obedient bureaucracy. The few mem–
bers of the Western intelligentsia who were accepted into its ranks
lost first the right, and soon even the desire for 'independent thought';
they became fanatic sectarians and Party-hacks, while the best among
them met a tragic end. Particularly tragic was the fate of the revolu–
tionary intelligentsia in the country where revolution seemed almost
within reach, Germany. Liebknecht and Luxembourg were mur–
dered in '18, Paul Levy committed suicide after his expulsion from
the C.P., Ruth Fischer, also expelled, vanished into obscurity, Toller
hanged himself in New York, Muehsam committed suicide in a Nazi
concentration camp, Max Hoelz was drowned under dubious cir–
cumstances in Russia, Heinz Neumann, the last surviving C.P. leader
who came from the intelligentsia was liquidated.
But the bulk of the Western intelligentsia were never admitted
to this bloody Olympus. They were not wanted, had to remain
fellow-travellers, the fifth wheel to the cart. The intelligentsia of
the Pink Decade was irresponsible, because it was deprived of the
privilege of responsibility. Left in the cold, suspended in a vacuum,
they became decadents of the bourgeoisie.
It
was nobody's fault; for
they were the mirror, not the light.
I am neither trying to whitewash, nor to accuse. The intelligent–
sia is part of the social body, its most sensitive part; when the body
is ill, the skin
de~elops
a rash. The deterioration of the intelligentsia is
as much a symptom of disease as the corruption of the ruling class or
the sleeping sickness of the proletariat. They are symptoms of the same
fundamental process. To sneer at the intelligentsia and, while de–
priving it of the responsibility of action, shove on to it the respon-
