28
PAUL JACOBS
interval between his two visits. He, as I , had the impression of a produc–
tive and scientific machine of unparalleled strength and complexity, which
was under the guidance of men of little wisdom, and in grave danger of
going out of control.
Such a prospect is not new in our history. Several times in the recent
past our national power has gotten ahead of our ability to manage that
power. But these periods in which we have thrown our weight around on
the international scene have been followed by pauses for reflection and for
bringing official thought abreast of a new reality-such were the final
months of Kennedy's Presidency. Today, when the last intellectual dis–
senters have left the Administration, it is hard to see where a similar
corrective will come from.
Possibly from our young people-but I doubt it. America's radical
youth prefers to opt out of the national consensus rather than to find
realistic ways of influencing it. And in the present situation I cannot
blame them. While the violent rhetoric of so many of the young grates
on my nerves, I appreciate the desperation behind it. To be a young
and sensitive and intelligent American today is not an easy experience. Or
rather, it is so easy to join the national rat race and swallow the national
bilge, and so difficult to find an alternative that has real promise for the
future. As a teacher and a father I can think of no reassuring answers to
offer the young. I can suggest only that they not be frightened, that they
stick to what they believe and that they try to live in such a way that
the world outside will know that the America of President Johnson is not
the only America there is.
Paul Jacobs
Madness surrounds us on all sides. In New York City, 60 per
cent of the population expressed their deep racist fears by voting against
a Civilian Review Board which called for only the mildest form of ac–
countability from the police. Across the country, in California, one-third of
the population in the state voted, frantically, against those State Supreme
Court justices who had ruled unconstitutional a referendum repealing a
law against housing discrimination.
The Negroes are becoming frantic, too, in response to what they
