256
SIDNEY HOOK
potentialities of the labor movement as an independent political force
in the future. What is now required is a renewed organizing campaign
centered around cultural and political as well as broad economic issues.
2. To the extent that they exercise any influence on political affairs,
the great danger that I see in the posturing and ranting of the so-called
alienated intellectuals and extremist student and Negro groups in Amer–
ican life today is that they are contributing to the growth and victory
of political reaction. It was the riots in Watts and the disorder
in
Berkeley that helped Reagan sweep into power in California. Some of
the leaders and apologists of these events were perfectly aware of
this
and welcomed it on the basis of the most dangerous and historically
discredited of all political principles-"the worse now, the better ulti–
mately." More often than not, the worse is followed by more of the
worse,
if
not the worst.
It is time to speak frankly about the New Left, especially among
the student youth. Television and the modern preS'S have given
this
movement an influence out of all proportion to its numbers. Administra–
tive folly and faculty cowardice have played into its hands. They have
permitted a comparative handful to manipulate a largely passive student
body and to appear as spokesmen of those whose real educational interest
they are actually injuring.
I have been in close touch with student youth in this country for
fifty years. I have never been an admirer of youth as such-in contrast
to so many who have whored after their acclaim-ever since I was
beaten up by my chauvinistic fellow students for opposing our entry into
the First World War. In a long academic career I have met more young
fogies than I have old fools. The radical student movement of my youth
was minuscular, passionately interested in freedom and supremely con–
fident in the power of argument and reason. We never shouted down
those who disagreed with us or refused to give anyone a hearing. Con–
servative speakers from the National Security League were our meat.
Even the radical student movements of the thirties, largely controlled by
the Young Communist League and its dogmas, were at the outset largely
interested in debating important social ideas and programs. They drew
the line only with respect to a dialogue with those socialists and
"Trotskyists" whom they couldn't snare into their popular fronts. Too
many elements of the New Left among the students today, as one
of its twenty-eight-year-old spokesmen has put it, are drawn "to the
absurd and the irrational" and "to a little pot." I am not denying that
they are capable of heroic action and sacrifice. But heroism and sacrifice
are politically neutral. Students the world over of all political tendencies
