LONDON LETTER
345
a "third way." Alas, it is no more than a pretense. What remained of
the Socialist International was discreetly buried last year at the Bourne–
mouth Conference; and the program to oppose the tide of Communist
expansion and infiltration by some sort of social-democratic revival,
independently of American economic and strategic backing, without de
Gaulle, without the various shades of Christian Democratic parties
(which,
if
it comes to a show-down, are of course always on the side of
reaction) -such a program sounds very good in an idealistic speech
from a Labor back-bencher, but has about as much bearing on reality
as the pious exhortations to "outlaw" the atom bomb.
But while the idealistic back-bencher at least believes in his own
rhetoric, the realistic Stalinites reap the benefits. For they know that,
as this country is not "ripe" to make a choice openly for Russia and
against America, the best way to prolong the power-vacuum to the west
of the Russian bloc, to keep western Europe defenseless and disunited,
is to proclaim an independent British policy, Britain's mission as a "me–
diator" between East and West, and so on.
I suppose this is a rather depressing letter. Its aim was not to pro–
pose solutions, but to potint out some of the factors which prevent those
countries where humanist tradition still survives, from sticking together
against the menace of the most ruthless tyranny in the history of man.
And also, to point once more to a curious characteristic of our time:
that the most dangerous propagators of this vileness and mental corrup–
tion are neither cynics nor terrorists with bombs-but men of good will,
with strong frustrations and feeble brains: the wishful thinkers and
idealistic moral cowards, the fellow-travelers of the death train. Like
a swarm of gentle rodents, they are gnawing, gnawing away at the roots
in the scorched fields.
ARTHUR KoEsTLER
