(10 of 10)
¶ That the opportunity for great progress, especially moral progress, lies before society.
¶ That all attempts, revolutionary or reformist, of progress based on the idea that man is perfectible, will lead to stagnation at best and calamity, at worst.
¶ That political progress means a politics based upon reality policy, skillfully pursued, may well lead to removing the (without the cynical connotation of Realpolitik); that such a Communist threat without total war.
¶ That the American Proposition is still valid and wants restating in its deepest connection with the truths of spiritual freedom.
¶ That the intellectual, whom society needs, must be 1) free to think, and 2) encouraged to press his conclusions on public opinion. That if the public acts on his views and they turn out to be wrong he should not be held accountable criminally. That he should, however, expect the public to hold him accountable and criticize him, perhaps bitterly, for his error. That an intellectual without enough nerve to accept this penalty should get out of the intellectual business.
¶ That the same goes for a journalist.
On its birthday, TIME, the Weekly Newsmagazine, has journeyed back to the eggs of Western thought, in search of the truth that would explain the confusion about the news with which TIME deals. Truly, the demons of unreason abound today, and dreaming has led U.S. society into grave danger. No matter how good in origin U.S. institutions may be, they must, year after year, meet the test of reality in order to survive—and Gnostic dreaming cannot cope with the real threats to our society. As the Twi-speaking peoples of West Africa say: Se wotiri twa a, wo mo dae, which means "When the head is knocked off, that is the end of all dreaming."
* The New Science of Politics (University of Chicago) *This movement held that St. Francis of Assisi was Dux e Babylone of the new age. In the 14th century it inspired Cola di Rienzi to seize Rome. In the 1920s it sprang up again with a pamphlet comparing Mussolini and St. Francis. To stress this "similarity," the pamphlet included pictures of St. Francis talking to the birds and Il Duce stroking his lioness. *Moderate Gnostics divided, some cutting ties with Christianity, some continuing to work inside the churches. For instance, many Fabian Socialists, Gnostics whose dignity does not permit them to run after the bus to Utopia, remain within the Christian fold. *Thirty years ago, TIME's first cover was "Uncle Joe" Cannon. Speaker of the House of Representatives, symbol of practical politics. TIME's 25th anniversary issue cover was Niebuhr, symbol of renewed philosophical and religious vigor. On this, its 30th anniversary issue, TIME has the picture of Korea's Syngman Rhee, a practical politian enmeshed in a struggle that grows form philosophical confusion and error.