DANIEL BELL
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"contri bu tions" to soc ialism. Bu t these are idiosyncratic episodes,
and which of the W it nesses would have known about them?
Wha t fin a ll y ma kes the film corrupt is tha t it perpetuates the
"legend" of J ohn R eed , the roma n tic revolutiona ry who supported a
j ust cau se a nd wro te a book tha t, like the imprinting o f a grey
gosling by a spurious mot her , fo reve r stamped a n image onto
History. Yet, lackin g a ny di sta nce or hi storical judgme nt , there was
no one to ra ise the obviou ques ti on about the
chutzpah
o f thi s call ow
ma n , lacking a ny knowl edge o f the wo rking cl ass or of hi story,
play ing with red fire a nd becoming a member of the Executi ve Com–
mittee o f the Communi t Interna tiona l as the "representa ti ve" o f the
Ame rican wo rkin g class. As Wa lte r Lippma nn , a classmate of R eed
at H a rvard , wrote o f hi m in 1914:
H e assumed that a ll capita lists we re fa t, bald a nd unctuous, tha t
re formers were cowardl y o r scheming, tha t all newspa pers a re
co rrupt. ... H e made a n ef o rt
to
be lieve tha t the worki ng class
is not composed o f m iners, plumbers a nd workingmen ge nerally,
but is a fin e sta tuesque gia nt who sta nd s on a high hill facing the
sun .... H e ta lked with intelli ge nt tolerance about dynamite,
a nd thought he saw a n intima te connection between the cubi sts
a nd the I. W .W. H e eve n read a few pages o f Bergson .
In the roma ntic wo rl d o f J ohn R eed , as it was a nd is fo r ma ny
innocents, the wo rld was a nd is di vided be tween Red s and Whites.
Bu t wha t o f the ma ny o ther shades of the spec trum? One can let
some of these shades speak.
Reed's contribution
to
hi sto ry was
Ten Days That Shook the
World,
hi s eyewitness account (though he spoke no Russ ia n a nd took
ma ny of hi s facts from wha t he was told or from next-day newspa per
accounts) of the fa ll o f the Kerensky gove rnment a nd the victory of
the Bolshev iks. In tha t book R eed reports one o f the mos t fa teful
phrases in revolutiona ry hi story, a phrase tha t migh t have been
uttered a t the fi rs t R evolution a nd is fa ted to be repeated endlessly,
since History has no memory, a t all revolutions. (Needless to say, no
Witness eve r quotes the e wo rds.)
It is the ni ght of November 7th . The Congress of the Sov iets of
Workers a nd Soldiers' Deputies is opened in the great mee ting hall
of the Smolny Palace. T he M enshev iks, led by M a rtov a nd Da n ,
warn tha t one pa rty alone cannot seize power , otherwi se the
revolutiona ry democracy will coll a pse a nd civil wa r erupt. But the
speakers a re hoo ted down by soldiers who, bra ndi shing their rifles ,
shout tha t power is onl y won a t the Front a nd on the stree ts. R eed
writes:
