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PARTISAN REVIEW
In real life, in real time, animal behaviorists tell us, in real mo–
ments a child would be sodomized among the apes - if it lived; how
else could they test or locate the gender and friendly or unfriendly
character of the albino mutant? A species defines itself by its sexual
behavior among the examples of itself, male and female. What the
apes do to each other they will do to the child. And the child, ifit sur–
vives, will be treated as older than it would be among humans be–
cause of the disparity in its size to that of apes: and how would you
compare maturity between the two species? The child would have
been disciplined to walk and sit and to eat and feel and think like an
ape - what other kind of care and interest can a group of apes possibly
show to a creature in its midst?
If
the child still survived and grew to
be larger than the apes, what would he know? He would not have
been allowed to develop outside the cultural reality of the apes, and
he might or might not have been grateful- or rebellious and vindic–
tive and suspicious and dangerous later, if he survived and was able
to have his way.
This is real time we are talking about, not aesthetic time. Words
and ideas refer to real time, actual time, ordinary time, moment by
moment, and to people and creatures living in that time moment by
moment.
Words and ideas refer as well to the foreshortened time (and
vision) of thought and argument where nothing is real except argu–
ment and the synopsized and perhaps confused sense of consequences
and of the future that argument contains.
But, Jesus how I like the lie, the other truth, the fantasy of
Tarzan, the simplicity of it.
In civilized discourse, we Americans, when we say
world peace,
what are we talking about in terms of real time? Unalterable armistice
between Russia and us?
A worldwide federation of socialist states under the leadership
of a Gandhi figure, a Mahatma Gandhi figure?
After all, Islam, if it does not become socialist, presents the
problem of a culture having no cultural distaste whatsoever for war.
One perhaps ought then ask what peaceful socialist states do we
have . Sweden, of course . And then? Africa presents us with Ethiopia.
Asia with Cambodia. Do we treat these as primitive areas?
If
we
mean by world peace a connected program of truces, a global armi-
