proposition for our world. I'm not, ob–
viously, suggesting an intellectual but
enthusiastic Fabianism nor a roll-up–
your-sleeves-and-let-us-plant- some- sym–
bolic-corn-saith-Wallace approach. I
think hard-pressed intellectuals must
come up with not a creed or code but
an intellectual idea of socialism that
will stimulate the thinking of other in–
tellectuals ... an idea that will gradu–
ally be reshaped and molded and will
express a true socialist conception of
our age. I don't think just a few minds
can do that; I think it will take many.
I think even you people, much as you
hit at the way other people fall back
on the old platitudinous symbols and
conceptions, are in somewhat the same
way letting yourselves down easily and
trying to push forward an easy answer
that lacks all dynamism. We're not at–
tempting to sell the mass of mankind
our new approach-we're only trying
to sell ourselves. This is a fatal time
for slickness.
'What I suggest is this: after Mac–
donald left, PR went through an edi–
torial revision that resulted in a much
better magazine. More accent on cul–
tural and less weight on political arti–
cles. That, I feel, was right and needed.
Since I believe you are for the idea
that the prime quality of a civilized
world is a subtle evolving appreciation
of cultural values, let us say that, as
you have done, you should emphasize
more and more the best cultural work
possible, including Sartre and the
others whom you occasionally take a
crack at.
The second and really important
point is that you should definitely at this
point resort to an idea or technique
which you have used effectively in the
past. That is, the symposium, "Failure–
of-Nerve" style. More than ever, I
would now like to see in PR a series
of creative-political articles dealing with
the way in which thinking people be–
lieve a dynamic forceful (Third or
731
Eighteenth "Force"-who cares!) vi–
tality can be put back in the theory
of socialism that is now dying on its
feet. A purely "scientific" (that is,
economic) belief in socialism is not
enough. It is not enough simply because
not a sufficient number of people will
go for it but because it represents using
the old-type socialism without thinking
out the manner in which it should be–
come dynamic in our society. My God!
Surely we are not reduced to mum–
bling old passwords! Surely we can
think out how and why socialism should
operate in this age so that it will be
effective and urgent and cogent. How
I hate practicality, but right now so–
cialists had better work at being prac–
tical about their socialism l
Allan Anderson
Toronto, Canada
There is no point in dealing with
"the question of war and militarism"
as such, because we in the United States
cannot unilaterally disarm in the hope
that Stalinism will then see the light
of reason. That course is nothing less
than an invitation to even more ag–
gressive tactics on the part of the
Kremlin. The rearmament program
now undertaken by Congress and the
Administration is nothing but a re–
sponse, and a belated one at that, to
the provocations of the Soviet govern–
ment and the world Communist move–
ment.
As for Mr. Clement's doubt that
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