NEOCONSERVATISM
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services. Now suddenly comes the arrival of quotas and goals,
affirmative action, and a form of advanced ethnic political patronage
in which what is being sought for is more, not the good but the
more. And at this point most people in society feel that an elemental
standard of justice has been either violated or made obscure. Now
that is an area in which one can show the linkage between a
philosophical conception that is not trivial, a set of empirical
observations, and a comment on public policy.
Norman Birnbaum:
The sense of justice exists, but its structure,
content, and concrete application varies from group
to
group in such
a way that we do have political conflict and controversy of an
implicitly philosophical nature.
Joan Axelrod:
Nathan Glazer, I imagine that your transition from
socialism to neoconservatism has been a gradual one. I was wonder–
ing if you cou ld briefly outline the little bends and twists along the
road that have brought you this far. And do you think this move–
ment, which is really a nonmovement, is going to last?
Nathan Glazer:
No, but fortunately I can give you a reference for the
first question. It is a book of essays I published called
Remembering
the Answers.
I will mention one key moment. It was when I read the
first issue of
Dissent,
maybe in 1956, and I found one socialist
attacking another socialist for having sold out. I won't say who the
two were; they're both well known sociologists. But as I knew at the
time, the first one was making more money than the second. I felt
that was a rather odd form of polemic which turned me somewhat
against the first socialist who was attacking the second. I must
confess I've seen some of it in Norman Birnbaum, whose insinuation
was that we are serving power. I don't feel we do.
Henri Zerner:
I have a very distant point of view. I'm not a native, so
I'm a little puzzled. The alternatives seem to be between liberalism
and neoconservatism. Now it seems to me to be pretty clear that
neoconservatives are very liberal. My question would be rather
to
the
representatives of liberalism, which is that since liberalism seems to
have posed very serious problems, and many liberals apparently go
so far as to talk about the failure of liberalism, which I would
sympathize with, maybe the alternative is not neoconservatism, but
rather a left.
William Phillips:
Since both representatives of liberalism here call
themselves democratic socialists, they probably ought to make some
effort to exp li cate and defend these positions. But that ought
to
be
the subject of a future
Partisan Review
panel.
