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McCarthyism. Here is an opportunist politician capitalizing on the public frustration that inevitably followed the failures of Gnostic politics. McCarthy's "methods" are indeed deplorable and ought to be curbed by Congress. But the real danger will not be met by the present hysterical exaggeration of McCarthy's effect. Public distrust present of Gnostic hysterical intellectuals exaggeration of could become distrust of all intellectuality. No worse calamity could befall U.S. society, which, because it is so intricately specialized, needs intellectuality as no society did before. The way to meet the threat to intellectuality is by the kind of intellectual guidance to the public that does not end in disappointment, frustration suspicion and fear.
The American Proposition. In its early decades the U.S. succeeded brilliantly in explaining itself to the world. Notably this is not the case today. When the U.S. tries to make friends and influence people, its propagandists are inclined to talk about automobiles, bathtubs and pop music. The Arabs, the Chinese, the Russians aren't listening. Last year in a memorable article Charles Malik of Lebanon begged the U.S. to approach the Arab world at the level of the great truths of Western culture, of the institutions of freedom that reflect those truths. The U.S. has not done so partly because of disagreement among the intellectuals as to the fundamental American message. In consequence, U.S. propaganda languishes. Can former success and present failure have to do with this contrast, the men who wrote the Constitution had a profound regard for the essential truths of Greece and of Christianity, and a passionate interest in the actual history of politics and in the live of actual men; have too many Gnostic U.S. intellectuals been too busy constructing dream worlds out of men that never were?
The Second American Revolution. Material for a restatement of the American Proposition lies in the Second American Revolution, the reorganization of the nation's economic life the last 40 years. The Gnostic intellectuals may not have noticed, but whole new patterns of organizing work, of the relations of management and unions, new "communities" of enterprise have emerged in U.S. society. Intellectual analysis his change would help to form new adjustments of business and government and a new understanding, at home and abroad the contemporary American scene.
PROGRESS WITHOUT DREAMS
The theme of a thousand contemporary U.S. speeches: "Unless moral progress catches up to material progress, it's all up with us. What are moral science's chances?
The first condition of intellectual progress is an end of mostic Gnostic dreams and this condition has started toward fulfillment. For the last 50 years, the positivist approach to knowledge has been rotting away from the top, losing its self-confidence,