THE
DISCONTENTED CLASSES
65
chists, for socialists and liberals, for professors teaching evolution or
economics; and it takes either a case-hardened and sometimes dis–
ingenuous naivete about Communists or a subtle strategic decision
about where to draw the line to musteI much enthusiasm for the
defense of intellectuals who plead the Fifth Amendment. In this situ–
ation, the defense becomes at best a rear-guard action, but cannot
hope to be a "positive" program-a demand on the basis of which
political identities can be reshaped.
Where do the college-bred young stand in all this? In the late
'30s they were offered blood, sweat, and tears in the fight against
Nazism. Most were ready to accept this burden. But the fight against
Nazism was made real by its domestic opponents: one saw almost all
that was despicable-anti-Semites, fascists, Europe-haters, the bigoted
and the crack-pot-lined up on the pro-Nazi side. Today, the pathetic
passel of domestic Communists cannot be compared with these fascists
who organized street gangs or shook down businessmen ; and many
of the Communists' allies are decent, if misguided, "liberals who
haven't learned." In international politics, we must accept alliances
with despots no more savory than our erstwhile domestic fascists.
Thus, the young are asked to fight international Communism not on
the basis of street experience but of what they are taught. Cool in
spirit generally, they can hardly be expected to show enthusiasm. In–
deed, a holding game against the Communists is a reality and a pros–
pect to sober the most enthusiastic. The question of appeasement
that most thoughtful Americans could reject offhand in the pre-atom–
bomb era now becomes more insistent intellectually even while it
becomes outlawed politically.
If
we leave substance aside, and consider the tone of politics,
we realize that the loss of initiative by intellectuals is coupled with
a change of emotional accent. The conservative and ascetic program
just sketched is not avant-garde; it is dull; there is no hope in it of
saving the world; it assumes that our part of the world is well enough
and only wishes the Communists-and the Communist-hunters here
at home-thought so too.
Demands are the basis of politics: the demands of a group or
class, formulated by its intellectual leaders--or, more accurately, the
demands create and identify the group or class which then is led.
When a group is either satisfied or exhausted, ,,,,hen for whatever
