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PARTISAN REVIEW
ward from the party core-and that is to manipulate them in such
a way as to further the party's struggle for power. Ideas and values
are thus not considered as ends in themselves but only as weapons for
political bludgeoning. In the inner circle of disciplined Stalinism the
instrumentation of ideas is wielded according to the party version of
Marxism-a secular faith to which the comrades have sworn absolute
fealty. For these fervent believers the truth has been given once and
for all, hence to them ideas are either adaptable to current party ends
or to be dismissed as hostile to the class interests of the "proletariat."
There is no need to meet opposing concepts on their own ground,
for their logical truth or falsity is irrelevant by Stalinist standards. The
problem is "to unmask" them, that is to say, to discredit them by
exposing their origin in the class structure. No recognition of the fact
that the truth of ideas is in no sense identical with the explanation of
their origin is allowed to discourage the Stalinists. In the
New Masses
the job of smearing and discrediting is done on a crude level, while
in a journal like
Science and Society
the job is done with considerably
more finesse, as its contributors are drawn from the followers of
Stalinism in the academy. The two magazines share the same general
orientation, but in the latter the language and tone are more elevated.
Here too, however, ideas are measured by one criterion, and that is
whether their role is "reactionary," a protean concept, or "progres–
sive," a concept even more protean.
Both the intellectual who holds a party-card and his brother who,
for strategic reasons, holds no such card, conceive of themselves as
missionaries whose function is to soften up those liberal members of
the intelligentsia who are peculiarly susceptible to the party creed.
Of course, the creed is never presented in an abstract manner; wor–
risome issues of the day, especially as they refer to international
affairs, are used as the basis for persuasion. No group since the
early Christians has displayed such dogged devotion to propaganda.
They have surely taken St. Augustine's dictum to heart, for they
work on the assumption that in order to understand one must believe.
And their belief in the rightness of their cause passeth all understand–
ing to those not under the spell.
These fellow-travelers are to be found in every segment of the
social structure. The avowed party-member stands self-exposed and
is therefore not as effective as the fellow-traveler who operates in an
academic outpost or in some liberal journal. The latter understands
how to discover the weak spots of the free-floating liberal. He is adept
in exploiting the liberal ideologically, for he has steeled himself to
