THE FUTURE OF SOCIALISM: V
The Socialist Imperative
VICTOR SERGE
PARTISAN REVIEw's symposium on the Future of Socialism compels
us to a rigorous examination of conscience-necessary after the ex–
perience of recent years.
A
deep-rooted natural aggressiveness inclines
us to condemn the vanquished together with the weak. We must
recognize that after twenty years of setbacks, socialism today-al–
though still sustained by the European masses-faces an alarming
situation. But we must be objective too; these defeats and this weak–
ness are part of the wreck of all the ideologies at a great century's
end. Is conservatism, founded on the belief in the future of capitalism,
any better off? Does liberalism, economic and political, continue as
a vital force? Doesn't Christianity endure events rather than influence
them? Is anarchism more than the emotional idealism of a very weak
minority? True, there remains totalitarian Communism.... It is
enough to consider this context, to realize what the crisis of socialism
involves in the way of positive possibilities.
I maintain that, in an age of mass destruction and inhumanity,
to think clearly we must distrust our primitive fascination for physical
power.
The destruction of values is extremely easy, compared with
the creation of values.
A
creative intelligence, a city built up by
generations, can be destroyed in an instant. But against thought,
against the city, this destruction proves nothing. I maintain that, in
principle, defeat is not testimony enough against the intelligence; it
is
sometimes the natural penalty of error or madness, but not always
nor inevitably so. Other criteria are necessary to judge the worth
and vitality of an ideology, although we must still take into account
the profound emotional significance of losses, of defeats, of victories
and their apparent causes.
I am surprised that no observer has remarked the most im–
portant psychological aspect of the Russian Revolution, although
we are still undergoing, and very markedly, the consequences. Until
1917, throughout history, the poor and the exploited had been eter–
nally beaten. For the first time, through the advent of Bolshevism, this
