398
PARTISAN REVIEW
In short, we are caught
in
a difficult period of transition, of
reassessment and rediscovery of values . That is bound to be painful,
but it could be challenging work, a new world to discover, as we go
about constructing the postmodern period. Unfortunately, this ad–
venture has to -take place under the shadow of the awful and brutal
political reality we cannot allow ourselves to forget: that we live in the
time when the future of liberty may be decided for the whole of
mankind.
Many years ago, William, you kidded me that I was "paranoid
about the future ." You could always beat me in an argument, but
I've waited a quarter of a century to make this snappy retort:
"Was
I wrong?"
WILLIAM BARRETT
Dear Will:
It
was always a pleasure to argue with you, regardless of who
won, because both of us were interested in the truth almost as much
as we were in arguing. And
if
you were paranoid about the future,
still, as Delmore used to say, and he was an expert on this subject,
one could be paranoid and right. Anyway, the future has not turned
out so well, and it may be better
to
be paranoid than to be schizoid,
as I am. I seem to have mixed feelings about almost every political
question facing us, particularly the question of the role of America in
the coming period. But I think my own uncertainties reflect the com–
plexities of the situation.
One of the complications is the politically polarized atmosphere,
which makes it difficult even to discuss the issue of American versus
Russian power, and the related issues of the preservation of freedom
and the future of socialism. If one is
anti~Communist,
even from the
left, one is tagged as a conservative; and
if
one is critical of America,
he or she is lumped with fellow travellers and apologists for Soviet
policies.
It
has been particularly difficult
to
maintain a radical, social–
ist perspective-or conscience-in a time when a vocal part of the Left
