POINTS AFTER ...
TIlEORY
AND PRACTICE. Hans Morgenthau's piece in this issue, the first
of a series on the nature of the crisis in America and Europe, seems
to
us
especially interesting because it does not start with any grandiose preconcep·
tions .
The trouble with most thinking about larger social questions is that it is
caught in the pull toward two extremes: having no theory and having too
much theory. Thus Americans, for
0
bvious cultural reasons, tend to steer clear
of theoretical analyses of the current crisis and to confine themselves
to
pragmatic and piecemeal approaches. On the other hand, Europeans-and
Americans with European habits of thought-tend to overtheorize, usually
drawing on some version of Marxism, to come up with sweeping explanations
of the situation. Hence the crisis is seen by ideologists largely as a crisis of
capitalist or industrial society, and though few thinkers outside the Com–
munist party approach the problem in conventional Marxist-Leninist terms,
still most Europeans on the left appear to believe that Western society is
doomed not only because it cannot solve its own contradictions but also
because it cannot cope with the pressures either of the poor countries or the
rich Arab ones . European non-Communist radicals also seem to take for
granted that socialism is the way out. But so far as I know no one has come to
grips with the question of Russian Communism, other than to have faith that
the parties that claim to represent the new order, like the Italian Communists,
and which are tied either tightly or loosely to Moscow will break those ties . On
the other hand it is not clear whether most socialists can be counted on for
anything beyond a more decent form of existing society-however desirable
that might be.
In America there are some self-styled Marxist academics, whose Marxism
is reserved for the higher speculation, with no consequences for practical
politics and with no personal commitments . Absurd as it may seem, the only
real Marxists in America are the conservatives, who seem to be trying
constantly
to
prove that Marx was right. This administration, particularly, in
