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culture are in
all
probability generalized responses to the discontents of
life in a thoroughly modernized, wealthy, secular and individualistic
society where making life meaningful requires great ongoing effort
and remains a nagging problem - at any rate for those whose attention
does not have to be riveted on the necessities of survival.
169
Surely, the problem facing contemporary intellectuals is not that they
are trying to make life "meaningful" since, judging by the literature, lit–
erary criticism or philosophy they turn out, they are doing their best to
rob it of meaning.
I believe Hollander takes too idealistic a view of his protagonists.
They are, in fact, motivated not only by the difficulties of coping with
modern life - when were intellectuals happy with the world in which
they happened to live? - but also by frustrated ambition. The distinguish–
ing quality of intellectuals at all times and everywhere has been the con–
viction that they know better and, hence, that they ought to lead the
blind and ignorant masses.
It
is an ambition they rarely have the oppor–
tunity to realize: and when they do get the chance, as in Russia in
February of 1917, they quickly prove themselves unworthy of it. But the
lust for power never leaves, and neither do the pains of unfulfilled
ambition.
Intellectuals have always played a minor role in the United States.
America esteems not thinkers and dreamers but doers, and it treats culture
not as the highest expression of the human spirit but as entertainment
which allows escape from the harsh realities of life. Although relatively
well off and influential in shaping public opinion, especially in political
matters, American intellectuals have no access to the levers of power
which are controlled by people whom they hold in contempt. Their so–
cial prestige is low. I vividly recall my shock when, having arrived from
Poland in 1940 and fervently aspiring to become someday a university
professor, I heard it said, "Them that can, do; them that can't, teach." I
also learned soon after finishing graduate school to explain apologetically
that I was not a "real" doctor, merely a Ph.D.
From all of this I deduce that the loathing of America - not just the
country but the ideal which it embodies - is essentially an elitist sentiment
widespread among intellectuals who detest the American lifestyle because
it caters to the common man and his common, vulgar culture, reducing
them to a powerless caste on the fringe of society. What could Graham
Greene have had in mind when he said that if he had to choose between
living in America or Soviet Russia he would "certainly" choose Soviet
Russia (while, in fact, making his home in southern France)? I think he
meant that under Communism writers were rewarded not only with huge
