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PARTISAN REVIEW
influence in deciding American policy, then the outlook is not promis–
ing.
Marxism, however, like all closed monistic doctrines, is over–
simplified. Whatever American businessmen have been and done in
the past, it is possible for them to learn, and some of them have been
learning. The American reality does not, in any case, conform to
the crude Marxian scheme. The "businessmen" of the United States
do not constitute a solid, socially coherent "capitalist class" or "bour–
geoisie."
As
I pointed out at the beginning of this chapter, those
whom we call "businessmen" include a considerable variety of
classes and sub-classes. The economic compulsions which operate
on a "capitalist" in the strict sense of the term (a legal owner
of means of production which are labored on by others) are not the
same as those which affect non-owning managers or engineers. Even
if human actions were altogether determined economically, and if
capitalists were, in the present period of history, prevented by eco–
nomic interest from carrying out an adequate policy in the struggle
against
communi~m
(neither of which suppositions is true), even then
it would not follow that economic interest would affect in the same
way the other, non-capitalist sections of the "business community."
The differing social functions of the various sections permit, indeed
promote, a differentiation in ideas and perspectives. There is no
reason, yet, to despair of the "businessman" as such.
Still further: even if business as a whole, all the businessmen, are
disqualified, it does not follow that the struggle against communism
cannot be correctly conducted. From the second quarter of the nine–
teenth century- from the Civil War almost without challenge-until
a decade or two ago, the businessmen (in the broader, vaguer sense)
were in fact the dominant or ruling class of the United States. During
the past generation, however, there has not only taken place a social
differentiation within the business community. New groups from the
population (some of them socially related to the managerial groups
developed within business) have been rising to positions of influence
and power. These prominently include: the leaders of the organized
labor movement (or "labor managers"); the governmental adminis–
trators (operating the gigantic governmental machine which has be–
come by far the chief single element in the national life); various
professionals; and the soldiers, or rather the leaders of the soldiers.
