LETTERS
To the Editor:
Leon Wieseltier writes
(Partisan
Review,
3, 1982) that I am "serene"
about developments in Poland and
have learned nothing from them
("Chomsky never learns"), citing
my statement that the lessons to be
drawn from the imposition of mar–
tial law are "virtually none." He
omits the explanation, namely, that
what I referred to as "the tragic
events in Poland " merely confirm
what had long been obvious, in par–
ticular, the extreme hostility of
Leninist regimes to any indepen–
dent workers movement , surely
obvious from the earliest moments
of the Bolshevik revolution when
Lenin and Trotsky dismantled the
Soviets and workers councils and
instituted the "militarization of
labor." In short, we cannot "learn"
what we have always known. By
Wieseltier's logic, I must also be
"serene" about El Salvador since
for similar reasons , I see no
lesson~
to be learned from U.S. involve–
ment there.
Wieseltier's irate reaction to
these truisms indicates that what
happened in Poland did finally
awaken him to realities that had
long been obvious to others, who
therefore had nothing to learn from
them . Nothing in my remarks pre–
cluded such a possibility.
Wiesel tier is also indignant
about my observation that the liber–
tarian left always rej ected the desig–
nation of Leninist regimes as a form
of "socialism" or "communism"
on the grounds that "socialism w'ill
be free or it will not be at all"
(Rocker). He writes that " with this
semantic trick Chomsky slips by the
experience of whole societies." The
logic is, to use his words; "breath–
taking," and applies with equal
(i .e., zero) force to everyone who
dismisses with contempt the self–
designation of these regimes as
"democratic. "
Noam Chomsky
Cambridge, Massachusetts
To the Editor:
Leon Wieseltier is not known
for sobriety, intelligence, honesty, or
decency. This is not intended as a
slur. It isjust that I don't know any–
thing about Wieseltier and have not
consulted anyone else to whom he is
known.
Partisan Review
has chosen to
publish Wieseltier's statement that I
am not known for anticommunism.
I would like to know the context.
Whom did he consult to discover
how I am known , or not known?
What does he know about me?
It
seems possible that Wiesel–
tier's ignorance about me is as pro–
found as my ignorance about him.
That is my guess. On the other
hand, if he has evidence for his
implied slur, it should be published.
Then I could deal with it.
Aryeh Neier
New York ,' New York
Leon Wieseltier replies:
Noam Chomsky's objections to
the Soviet system are unobjection–
able. But American involvement in
El Salvador exercises him much
