PARTISAN REVIEW
of
his
contemporaries was that they cut their historical ties in order
to join
him
in universality.
What is the origin of this miracle by which, at the very moment
he was setting up abstract freedom against concrete oppression and
Reason against History," he was going along in the very direction of
historical development? First, the bourgeoisie, by a tactic which
was characteristic of it and which it was to repeat in 1830 and 1848,.
joined forces, on the eve of taking power, with those oppressed classes
which were not in a condition to push their demands. And since the
bonds which united social groups so different from one another could
only be very general and very abstract, it aimed not so much at ac–
quiring a clear consciousness of itself, which would have opposed
it to the workmen and peasants, as to have its right to lead the oppo–
sition recognized on the grounds that it was in a better position
to make the established powers know the demands of universal
human nature. On the other hand, the revolution being prepared
was a
political
one; there was no revolutionary ideology and no
organized party. The bourgeoisie wanted to be enlightened; it wanted
the ideology which for centuries had mystified and alienated man
to be liquidated. There would be time later on to replace it. For the
time being, it aimed at freedom of opinion as a step toward political
power. Hence, by demanding
for himself
and
as a writer
freedom of
thinking and of expressing his thought, the author necessarily served
the interests of the bourgeois class. No more was asked of him and
there was nothing more he could do. In later periods, as we shall
see, the writer could demand his freedom to write with a bad con–
science; he might be aware that the oppressed classes wanted some–
thing other than that freedom. Freedom of thinking could then
appear as a privilege; in the eyes of some it could pass for a means
of oppression, and the position of the writer was in the way of becom–
ing untenable. But on the eve of the Revolution he enjoyed this
extraordinary chance, that he did not have to do more than defend
his profession to serve as a guide to the aspirations of the rising class.
He knew it. He considered himself a guide and a spiritual chief.
He took his chances.
AB
the ruling elite, which grew increasingly
nervous, lavished its graces upon him one day only to have him
locked up the next, he had none of that tranquillity, that proud
mediocrity, which his predecessors had enjoyed. His glorious and
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