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osophy, has "muddled through" with a genius for which the Eng–
lish were supposed to have a patent, to standards of justice which
may be favorably compared to those of European nations. It has
also preserved a higher degree of social peace than most of these
same nations, with the possible exception of Britain and the Scan–
dinavian countries. It has achieved these results without too much
help from the intellectuals, whose schemes were usually too abstract
and too dogmatic to fit into the pragmatic patterns of American
democracy.
Thus the two primary fonns of earlier intellectual criticism
have lost their significance or relevance. But this fact offers the
intellectual life of America no excuse for complacency. No intellec–
tual life, worthy of the name, can be at ease with the massive spirit–
ual, moral, and cultural crudities, which seek to make themselves
nonnative in a civilization. The peril to American life is particular–
ly great because we have, without apprenticeship, suddenly be–
come the most powerful nation on earth, fated to wield hegemonic
power, in a vast alliance of nations. We have been placed
in
this
position in a tumultuous period of history in which no clear path–
way from insecurity to security is discernible and in which the
sense of frustration is therefore very great. Weare forced, more–
over, to face a ruthless and intransigent foe, whose calumnies against
us are so shockingly beside the point, that even the most critical
and sophisticated patriot is tempted to become an uncritical one.
But this temptation must be resisted. For we are almost in
greater peril from the foes within than from the foe without. The
foes within are the spirits of hysteria, hatred, mistrust, and pride.
We are engaged in such a perpetual liturgy of self-congratulations
about the vaunted virtues and achievements of the "American way
of life" that we not only make ourselves odious to the world, but
also rob ourselves of the political wisdom required to wield power
in a world which refuses to be made over into the image of America.
Furthennore our frustrations and our hatred of the foe have created
an hysteria through which public discussion of foreign policy has
practically ceased, the foreign policy has been frozen into inflexible
rigidity, and our cherished liberties are being engulfed. History
has not revealed a deeper irony than the destruction of the spirit
