THIS AGE OF CONFORMITY
25
problems solved, man is then on his own, to make of his self and
his
world what he can.
The literary prestige of Original Sin cannot be understood with–
out reference to the current cultural situation; it cannot be under–
stood except as a historical phenomenon reflecting, like the whole
tum to religion and religiosity, the weariness of intellectuals in an
age of defeat and their yearning to remove themselves from the
bloodied arena of historical action and choice, which necessarily
means, of secular action and choice. Much sarcasm and anger has
been expended on the "failure of nerve" theory, usually by people
who take it as a personal affront to be told that there is a connection
between what happens in their minds and what happens in the
world; but if one looks at the large-scale shifts in belief among intel–
lectuals during the past 25 years, it becomes impossible to put
all
of
them down to a simultaneous, and thereby miraculous, discovery of
Truth, some at least must be seen as a consequence of those historical
pressures which make this an age of conformism. Like other efforts
to explain major changes in belief, the "failure of nerve" theory does
not tell us why certain people believed in the '30s what was only to
become popular in the '50s and why others still believe in the '50s
what was popular in the '30s; but it does tell us something more im–
portant: why a complex of beliefs
is
dominant at one time and
subordinate at another.
v
In the preceding pages I have tried to trace a rough pat–
tern from social history through politics and finally into literary ide–
ology, as a means of explaining the power of the conformist impulse
in our time. But it is obvious that in each intellectual "world" there
are impulses of this kind that cannot easily be shown to have their
sources in social or historical pressures. Each intellectual world gives
rise to its own patterns of obligation and preference. The literary
world, being relatively free from the coarser kinds of social pres–
sure, enjoys a considerable degree of detachment and autonomy.
(Not as much as it likes to suppose, but a considerable degree.)
That the general intellectual tendency
is
to acquiesce in what one
no longer feels able to change or modify, strongly encourages the in-
