PAUL HOLLANDER
121
point leads to the most likely explanation of the persisting appeals of
socialism: the search for faith or redeeming values in Western socie–
ties. Evidently neither the return to more traditional religious values
nor the various innovative spiritual gropings of recent times have
provided intellectuals with lasting satisfaction and met their needs
for meaning, sense of community, and social justice. Hence social–
ism, a much bedraggled ideal (and the associated secular human–
ism), is all they are left with .
The two books by Feher, Heller, and Markus! (Hungarian
emigres of comparatively recent vintage) and
Confiscated Power
2
by
d'Encausse are enlightening additions to the literature on socialist,
or, as some of these authors call them, "Soviet type" societies. That a
reviewer in 1984 should praise books for providing essential infor–
mation about such societies is a good indication of the surprisingly
limited progress which has been made in understanding such political
systems in the West. Thus grotesque stereotypes and profound mis–
understandings, embedded in vast undifferentiated ignorance, are
still plentiful today in the media and among the educated public and
politicians.
Let me mention here only two recent and related developments
which tellingly illustrate the continued public misapprehension of
the nature of Soviet type societies. One is the spread of the unilater–
alist sentiment and the other, less well known but even more reveal–
ing, is the so-called Ground Zero Pairing Project in this country .
The major flaws of unilateralism have been dissected often enough
(among others, by Sidney Hook in parts of his volume here re–
viewed).
It
should suffice to say that it is wrong because:
(a)
it
assumes that
Western
disarmament will, once and for all, remove the
threat of nuclear war (ignoring the possibility of such a conflict be–
tween Communist regimes);
(b)
it invites the alternative of nuclear
war or submission to Soviet power (better red than dead).
The Ground Zero Pairing Project seeks to match American
towns and cities with what are (mistakenly) assumed to be their
Soviet counterparts and establish informal, nongovernmental con–
tacts between citizens of such "matched" communities in the belief
1.
Dictatorship over Needs.
By Ferenc Feher, Agnes Heller, and Gyorgy Markus. St.
Martin's Press .
$27 .50.
Hungary
1956
Revisited.
By Ferenc Feher and Agenes Heller. Allen
&
Unwin .
$28.50.
2. Confiscated Power.
By Helene Carrere d'Encausse. Harper
&
Row.
$19.95.
