COMMENT
NEO·HISTORY.
Two recent events that had nothing else in common
raised some questions about historical accuracy, particularly in the
form of recollection.
It
almost seems as though we have a new genre:
neo-history, which is the product of revision by recollection.
I
The new revISionism made a splash in the appearance of a
traveling circus, an intellectual one, that showed up in the
Nation,
the
Soho News,
and was picked up by
La Republica
in Rome. The
Nation
has been promoting a revival of New Left thinking, while the
Soho
News,
which is not known for its contributions either to culture or to
politics, has been trying to stir up interest with juicy news and
opInions.
The subject consisted of some remarks by Susan Sontag at a
protest meeting against martial law in Poland, indicating that like
some other intellectuals she herself had not been sufficiently firm or
consistent in her stance against communism. She equated it with
fascism in its repressive and barbaric nature. "Communism," she said,
"was fascism with a human face." Both the
Nation
and the
Soho News
rushed to get comments on Sontag's statement by a strange
assortment of writers. Among the commentators, Diana Trilling,
Mary McCarthy, Nathan Glazer, and Seymour Martin Lipset were
figures of some distinction and political experience. As for most of the
others, one had to ask what their credentials were to judge Sontag's
views except the ability to bring confusion to a hyperbolic statement.
Many of them conceded that communism was bad, but it was
redeemed by the idealism of its origins and that of its more simple
adherents. Besides, some of the commentators complained, wasn't
America also bad, in that it upported reactionary regimes. In answer
to Poland they trotted out El Salvador- an ancient tactic in replying
to condemnations of Soviet oppression. On the other hand, the
French commentators, Bernard-Henri Levy, Julia Kristeva, and
Felix Guattari, who only yesterday discovered Gulag, had the nerve
to lecture American intellectuals for their tardy anticommunism.
Some of the others wrote lengthy disquisitions on the mistakes of
American foreign policy. Edward Said added to contemporary history
by comparing Solidarity with the PLO. The best statements were by
