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c.
P. SNOW
in its present condition of prosperity, to begin to understand how
a peasant country thinks. This is even true of a country as sophisti–
cated as India. India is the test case of the present world.
2. The
V.S.
is the richest and most privileged country on earth.
It is dangerous, and probably in the long run fatal, for the
V.S.
to
associate itself with pockets of privilege in less advanced societies.
This has happened, and has done great damage. In emerging coun–
tries there is a tendency, even for people not ill-disposed to the
V.S.,
to regard America as the centre of world conservatism. The
V.S.
could survive for a long time in this position, but not in a way that
those of us who love you would wish to see.
3. Not much, I think, except as an intermediary or an inter–
preter. The real world dialogue seems to be between liberal capitalism
(symbolized by Kennedy and to some extent by English figures such
as lain Macleod) and emerging Communism (symbolised by Khrush–
chev and more precisely by the younger men of the Soviet thought–
Adzhubei and writers like Tvardovsky). Each of these major con–
centrations of power will suffer major pressure from more extreme
forces- the extreme right in the West, the Stalinists in the East. It is
difficult to see how in the next two decades democratic socialism can,
in these circumstances, perform a primary function.
4. The West has been very lucky. We have been able to spread
considerable prosperity over largish populations, particularly in the
V.S.
Linked with this prosperity are certain values and liberties,
some of great importance. It is probable that the fringe countries of
North-Western Europe (Scandinavia, Holland, Great Britain) have
reached a higher degree of political and civil liberty than any
societies in history. I don't think anyone knows how inextricably
these liberties depend on our existing political, social and economic
institutions.
5. Disastrous. I have no doubt the cold war has done the West
more harm than the East. It has stifled our social imaginations.
Without our knowing, we think less freely than we did thirty years
ago. Often we have to shut off our insight. In England at least, no
social thinker of any power has emerged since the war.
6. Either the objectives are negotiable or, following Ivan Kara–
mazov, I return God my ticket. For the alternative is nuclear war.
Further, unless we achieve some sort of nuclear disarmament, again
