GEORGE STADE
873
Late one Friday afternoon, while Dupee and I were finishing
off a stack of midterms, sipping on a bottle of Slivovitz given him by
an admirer, I began to argue, apropos of practically nothing, that all
revolutions were futile or worse, that without their revolutions
France and America would still be pretty much as they are, or bet–
ter, that without its revolution, Russia might be a monarchic welfare
state, like Sweden, say. Dupee put down his glasses, looked at me
with those blue eyes that no one who has been fixed by them ever
forgets, and said , "Ge-or-ge, you're a political imbeshill, you know
that , don't you?" I have always treasured that remark: it absolved me
from speaking out on the political questions of that day, none of
which struck me as accurately formulated. Shortly afterward, the
riots of 1968 broke out.
I think it is fair to say that no one behaved well during those
rousing times, not the student radicals, not their faculty fellow
travelers, not their student opponents, not the police , not the admin–
istration , certainly not the Left-liberal faction of the Ad Hoc Com–
mittee of the Faculty, to which Dupee and I belonged and whose
well-meant muddling made everything worse. For a few years after–
ward, like everyone else I hung around with, I made speeches, signed
petitions , helped pay for ads, swelled a protest or two, and voted for
McGovern . His defeat ended my brief career as a direct participant
in politics. Thereafter I read, thought, observed, and held my coun–
sel. In the usual way, my reading and observation only confirmed
my prejudices . Here, for the sake of other political imbeciles, are a
few of them:
1. That government is best which governs least. In a recent
issue of
Partisan Review
Erazim Kohak says this: "The basis of what
we call the cultural West is precisely the conception of the human as
a sovereign moral subject, and the state simply as an administrative
arrangement designed to serve but not to be the bearer of value."
If
that is so, the United States becomes less and less a part of the
cultural West every day. On this issue, the Right and the Left are
like the rival gangs of my adolescence: antagonistic, but kindred.
Both agree that it is the function of the state to impose morality; the
dispute is over which morality and who gets to impose it.
George Orwell once noted that increasing collectivization was
inevitable, although he didn't like it. Death is also inevitable, but in
most cases it is worthwhile to do what one can to stave it off.
Re-read
1984
with your mind as free as possible of such labels
