DANIEL BELL
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was like in those days. The idea was a brillia nt one. The Witnesses
could have se rved as a Greek C ho ru s, es ta blishing contex t, supply–
ing facts, a nd pa ssing judgment. Ye t other tha n as curios a nd
cameos of some few recogni zable individua ls, the dev ice not onl y
fails but mi sleads. There is H enry Mill er , who knew nothing of the
time, j ee ring a t it a ll a nd mirthfull y utterin g the word "luck" as if he
were still trying to shock hi s a udience. And there is Sco tt Nearing,
cau ght in a sixt y-year time wa rp , repeatin g the cliches of capita list
encircleme nt. Roge r Baldwin prov ides some informa ti on a bout the
Palme r R a ids and the pe rsecuti on o f the R eds. And Hamilton Fi sh
(grinning like a j owl y J ack Dempsey) gleefull y tells how the R ed
hunts a ll sta rted . No one ta lks about the Sov iet Uni on - or the fa te of
Zinov iev, shot a ft er the first Moscow Tria ls in 1936 - a nd one un–
identified pe rson , a t the e nd , insists tha t Reed , des pite some intima–
tion , was not di sillusioned with the Russ ia n R evolution a t hi s
death . Even the yea r o f R eed's dea th is never clearl y sta ted . (He died
on O ctober 17, 1920. Six Comintern leaders , headed by Bukha rin ,
gave fune ra l ora ti ons; Bukha rin , too, was la ter executed, a fter the
third Moscow tri al.)
Wha t does the film the n add up to? This is ragtime fo r the
epi gones mournin g the glori ous days they neve r had , the nos ta lgia
for a n Arcadi a n pas t, the days o f innocence a nd idealism , of a n un–
complicated wo rld . There is the hint o f the poss ible cl as h between
the Good Communi st (R eed ) a nd the Bad Wolf (Zinov iev) . But
whe n Emma G oldma n a t one po int , in Russ ia, say to R eed tha t the
Revolution is go ing the wrong way, beginnin g to use immoral
means for its ends, R eed turns on her a ngril y a nd tells her tha t a
revoluti on is not a doll' hou e, but the "real thin g." And one wa its,
expec ta ntl y, lo r the phrase tha t one cannot ma ke a n omele t without
breaking eggs, or a revolution without breaking head .
Thi s is a linge ring pa rt of our time, the eras ure o f hi story: the
"roma nce" o f American communi sm , by Vi via n Gornick, the hymn
to the purit y o f those who have not given up the fa ith ; the muddl e–
headedness o f the recent Write rs' Congress with the nume rous un–
publi shed , "semi skill ed intellectua ls" asse rtin g tha t the truth cannot
be printed in thi s country because bi g bu siness controls publishing;
or the defi a nt de fen ses a bout the ideali sm of the Wea ther Under–
ground a nd the des pera te reasons lo r their turn to terrori sm . Will we
have a film a bout them ? We did : one by Emile d'Antoni o, whi ch
pra ised their revoluti ona ry idea lism a nd courage . But neither tha t
film - nor
Reds -
eve r confront s the co rrupti on o f roma nti cism whi ch
turn s ideali sm into the justifi cati on lo r murder.
