REPLY
Sirs:
Messrs. Arvin, Davis, and Aaron have
raised several important questions. As
for their specific reservations about my
writings, I cannot, in the space al–
lotted me, defend my reading of Mel–
ville, or my use of words like "liberal";
I refer interested persons to the texts
at
ISsue.
In speaking of man's "dependence on
society" (not my phrase) I was attack–
ing a pious cliche. The true idea that
"we are members
01le
of anothu" need
not be defende·d from me. I perceive,
however, that it mllst be defended from
the gentlemen at Smith Col/ege, since
in
common with many modern liberals
they believe that all men are m'llmbers
ant of another,
except liberals.
Thus
they regard the question "Was I ago a
'progressive'?" as ludicrous, which
whatever the answer, it is not. If it is
silly
to
mention [ago in the same breath
with "progressive" or "liberal," it is
equally silly to connect these words
with Othello, Hamlet, Anna Karenina,
Don Quixote, Job, and Ahab-in short,
with any of the great images of man
and his career on earth. If it is silly
to do this and if, in discussing the
words of Father Zossima, we are "as
far from liberalism as may be," then
so much the worse for "liberalism."
1 do not know where, in the above let–
ter, the laudable desire for clarity
ceases and the concern
to
kup liberal–
ism aloof, pure, and mindless (like the
white whale) begins.
If, as
[
hope, our skeptical, secular
liberalism is to survive, it must be a
comprehensive, sharp, and open view
of life, not simply an acceptable stance
vis-Ii-vis certain limited moral and po–
tential issues. Perhaps M IlSsrs. Arvin,
Davis, and Aaron agree with this in
principle. Let's hope, however, that the
Confidence Man of the 1940's has not
223
urned out to be the Liberal Who Has
Officially Reassessed Libllralism And
Found It Good.
Ric;herd Chese
New London, Connecticut
LlSEZ LES' ARTICLES DE
ANDRE BRETON
ALBERT CAMUS
DAVID ROUSSET
JEAN PAUL SARTIE
dans les numeros d. fevrier 1949 d.
" hebdom~daire fran~ais
d. New York
Abonnements:
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I
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