548
PARTISAN REVIEW
with the silent but obvious support of the entire audience. He would
invariably be crushed by superior reasoning plus practicable threats
against the future career of an undisciplined individual. Given the
conditions of convincing argument plus threats, the necessary con–
version will take place. That is mathematically certain.
The faces of the listeners at these congresses were not too leg–
ible, for the
art
of masking one's feelings had already been perfected
to a considerable degree. Still one was aware of successive waves of
emotion: anger, fear, amazement, distrust, and finally thoughtful–
ness. I had the impression of participating in a demonstration of
mass hypnosis. These people could laugh and joke afterwards in the
corridors. But the harpoon had hit its mark; and henceforth
wherever they may go, they will always carry it with them. Do I
believe that the dialectic of the speakers was unanswerable? Yes,
as long as there was no fundamental discussion of methodology.
No one among those present was prepared for such a discussion. It
would probably have been a debate on Hegel, whose reading public
was not made up of painters and writers. Moreover, even if some–
one had wanted to start such a debate, he would have been silenced.
Such discussions are permitted-and even then, fearfully----only in
the upper circles of the Party.
These artists' congresses reveal the inequality between the weap–
ons of the dialectician and those of his adversary. A match between
the two is like a duel between a foot soldier and a tank. Not that
every dialectician is so .very intelligent or so very well educated:
but all his statements are enriched by the cumulated thought of
the masters and their commentators.
If
every sentence he speaks is
compact and precise, that is not due to his own merits, but to those
of the classics he has studied. His listeners are defenseless. They
could, it is true, resort to arguments derived from their observations
of life; but such arguments are just as badly countenanced as any
questioning of fundamental methodology. The dialectician rubs up
against his public at innumerable meetings of professional organiza–
tions and youth groups in clubs, factories, office buildings, and
village huts throughout the entire converted area of Europe. And
there is no doubt that he emerges the victor in these encounters.
It
is no wonder that a writer or painter doubts the wisdom of
resistance.
If
he were sure that
art
opposed to the official line can
