432
PARTISAN REVIEW
niques with a view to shifting the world balance of power without
open resort to war. That is all, and it is quite enough to keep us occu–
pied for many years to come. Ultimately it may be possible to resolve
some of the purely political problems at a higher level;
if,
that is to
say, there is no world war with nuclear weapons. But even
if
this par–
ticular nightmare can be got out of the way, the world of 1970 will
still be very different from that of 1945.
For the politics of 1970 are the politics of a situation in which
the uncommitted countries will have to choose between two alternative
ways of solving their basic problem. It may be as well to recognize that
the Communist alternative is a genuine one, in the sense that it offers
a political and economic model that is attractive to the governing
elites of undeveloped countries.
It
may also be helpful to realize that
the United States is a conservative power at grips with a revolutionary
rival; there is nothing to be gained by trying to mask this fact. Talk of
"permanent revolution" sounds silly coming from apologists of an in–
stitutional setup which even by Western democratic standards is fairly
conservative. The West does not in this age stand for a radical recon–
struction of society. We cannot offer sweeping solutions or drastic re–
arrangements that take no account of individual liberties, and people
or nations who want to make
tabula rasa
of all existing institutions
should be frankly advised to take their troubles to the rival firm–
though with a caution that they will be fortunate if they emerge from
the experience with a whole skin: not perhaps a very inspiring or heroic
stance, but one that is in accordance with the realities of the situatipn
in which we find ourselves.
I trust that these remarks-notably the foregoing-will be thought
permissible in a visitor from Europe who at times finds himself wonder–
ing whether his hosts are aware how old-fashioned the United States
looks to the rest of the world in this troubled era.
It
is odd that so
conservative a country-I speak of social attitudes and institutions, not
of technology-should at times encourage a pseudo-revolutionary rhetoric
in its public representatives, while clinging to mid-Victorian ideas and
values in its actual way of life. There is no disgrace in being on the
conservative side, and it is probable that we should all be better off if
the United States recognized its true function in this era as being
somewhat similar to that of England during and after the Napoleonic
age. At any rate it is pretty obvious that in the present world cleavage
it is the USSR which attracts the forces of radicalism, while all the
upholders of tradition-from the Vatican to Arab kings and Moslem
dignitaries-gravitate towards this country. One has the impression that
