POSSIBILITIES .FOR POLITICS
but a blend of both (economically speaking), then what will be the
motivating urge toward the kind of political reformation Mills desires?
In such an eventuality, there may be time but not "political time."
This problem seems especially acute in view of another. The favored
international position of the U.S., its dominant role as chief producer
and creditor in the world, allows it a considerable degree of maneuver–
ability
vis-a-vis
the labor movement. Temporarily, there
is
room for it
in American capitalist economy, for there are still vice-presidencies to
hand out. And for the intellectuals there are not merely "fascinating
career chances" but an even more enervating spiritual bureaucratization.
Still another factor that tends to narrow the chances for a new
political formation is the tremendous effect Stalinist Russia has on
American domestic politics.
If
the present international crisis drags on
as a chronic irritant, it can only make for timidity and hesitation at
home. One can argue plausibly that the only way to break large num–
bers of people in Europe and Asia from Stalinism is to offer in this
country some dynamic counter-attraction to its pseudo-radicalism, but
how to lodge this idea in the minds of even the more alert sections of
the American labor leadership is a problem, indeed.
Perhaps, however, the most serious obstacles to Mills' perspective is
the atomization and demoralization of the anti-Stalinist left. The radical
intellectuals have lately come to underestimate their powers, limited as
those are; I would guess that if there were some kind of regroupment of
the anti-Stalinist left (which is, at the moment, not very likely) it might
effectively prod certain sections of the labor movement in the direction
Mills proposes. The small failures of energy and will in New York have
their repercussions in Detroit.
These are
genui~e
difficulties, but it is the very large merit of
Mills' book that it provokes one to think of the possibilities for politics
in this country. There are no easy, pat answers these days, yet it seems
to me that for those who accept the general desirability of Mills' pers–
pective fiis book is a welcome beginning.
Irving Howe
1359
