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8/14/2019 Comrades lay off!!.pdf
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220 HARPER'S MONTHLY MAGAZINE
that faculty is beginning to atrophy with-in me. For a normally endowed creature
conversation with the comrades becomes
increasingly impractical.
You cannot forever, with convictionand without nausea, keep agreeing that
the Soviet Republic is in every particular
absolutely swell. Yet if you inadvert-ently utter such a gentle criticism of that
perfect state as a reference to a few good
features of America might imply, you dis-
cover that you have not only deeply
wounded and unpardonably insulted all
your fellow-workers but that you have re-
vealed yourself to be a swank and sub-versive fraud. And so you search for
some slight morsel of conversation which
might leave your comrades' tender feel-
ings intact. You seldom find any.
Suppose, for instance, that in order to
prove the genuineness of your proletari-
anism you show them the piece of Wool-
worth jewelry that you wear as proudly
as a shield upon your breast. Do they ap-
plaud you? Not much. They finger
your bauble avidly until they find upon
it the microscopic legend "Made in Italy."
Then you learn to your chagrin, and the
deafening of your ears, that the thin dime
you spent only yesterday has already been
converted into a lure to keep the Wool-worth waitresses in Detroit from sitting
down any longer; a fabulous robe for
Barbara Hutton's baby to wear to the
Coronation; and finally, into several hun-
dred bullets with which Spanish rebelsare at the moment riddling Soviet planes.
Or suppose you tell them quite spon-
taneously about the sad-eyed Italianwoman with the sick husband and the
cute grandchild and the son-in-law who
got caught with the policy slips, who is
being dispossessed from her railroad-flat
across the street. Do they rush out to
attack her cruel capitalistic landlord?
They turn back from the window and be-
gin to attack you. They tell you scorn-
fully that if your attitude were correctlycollective you would rejoice in the old
lady's plight. You would be glad that
she is going to lose her pewter coffee potand her new pink linoleum and the ab-
surd little grappa glasses that she uses
only on Easter Day, because such personal
losses as these swell mightily the ranks of
the miserable, and bring the Revolution
at least an hour nearer.
Such things as these and many moreyou will learn if you listen to the com-
rades long enough. For myself, I stopped
listening to them for good on that sunny
day last spring when three of them saw
me in Washington Square giving six-year-old Tony a quarter to sing "I don't want
to make history, I just want to make love,"
while he pretended to polish my shoes.
Publicly and amid the startled giggles of
benchfuls of fat Italian mamas, they de-
nounced me for the sly,slinking, treacher-
ous supporter of child labor that I was
proving myself to be.
And so I'm not going to join The Party.
Neither am I-though I feel myself being
strongly goaded in that direction-goingto become a Fascist or a Republican or aCatholic or a D.A.R. I still believe that
the world would be a nicer place if all
young men stopped killing one another, if
all old men could die without ever know-ing the gnaws of hunger, and if all littlechildren could get their fill of milk and
sunshine and soda-pop. And yet-and
yet-should the Revolution really come I
now know with a certitude that will never
again be shaken on which side of the bar-
ricades my mangled body will be found.
8/14/2019 Comrades lay off!!.pdf
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I IThe Easy Chair
GOOD AND WICKED WORDS
BY BERNARD DEVOTO
THE Easy Chair has read Mr. StuartChase's three articles on verbalisms
with much interest and approval. How
important the Easy Chair believes their
subject to be is shown by the fact that it
has devoted eight of twenty-six monthly
essayshere to various aspects of that sub-
ject, has touched on it in others, and, be-
fore taking over this department. pub-
lished four articles about it in the body of
the magazine. Everyone who tries tothink effectively must constantly allow
for the habits of mind which Mr. Chase
analyzes, the structures of abstract logic
which he describes, the personifications
and abstractions and verbal proofs which
he exposes, the misunderstandings to
which they lead, the meaninglessness of
much activity carried on in the name of
intelligence and received as meaningful
by most people. Everyone who dealswith thought or with human beings must
understand the errors produced by the
universal disposition to accept words as
things and logic as a functional relation-
ship among things. Furthermore, since
science has done more than any other
human activity to extend man's control
over his environment, and since it has
done so, as we believe, largely because it
has freed itself from verbalism, the con-
clusion is indicated that the widest possi-
ble extension of its method would be
beneficial to mankind.
But the Easy Chair desires to suggest
that that conclusion also must be limited,
because it too is meaningless as an ab-
solute. Mr. Chase's articles serve here as
the basis of analysis, but the Easy Chairintends no rebuttal. having shouted with
delight over the greatest part of them.
But it is important to point out that every-
one who undertakes Mr. Chase's search
must sometimes succumb to the evils he
is exposing, and to point out that the
search itself has implications that Mr.
Chase does not allow for.
Mr. Chase knows that nobody can be
immune to verbalisms. He conscien-tiously warns the reader to expect uncon-
scious abstractions, absolutes, and person-
ifications in what he writes. Well, one of
his most striking verbalisms is his use of
the word "conservative" as an absolute.
He shows that such terms as "labor" and
"democracy" can have meaning only in
reference to specific situations, but "con-
servative" seems to have for him an inde-
pendent existence of its own. He saysheis tired "of fighting things which do not
exist." But he seems to be fighting con-
servatism, and no such thing exists. The
word can have meaning only in specific
contexts, only by limited definition or in
relation to immediate referents. Even in
such contexts it can hardly have a quali-
tative meaning; it must be used quantita-
tively, as a percentage possibly, as a ratio
with something else. Again, in discussing
the verbal fallacy of the wage-fund theory,
he says. "working people in England and
elsewhere had paid a bitter price for fifty
years for a Law without scientific founda-
tion." That is personification. Those
working people may be said to have paid
a "bitter" price for food or, if you like a
8/14/2019 Comrades lay off!!.pdf
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222 HARPER'S MONTHLY MAGAZINE
more inclusive term, for the power and
immunity of their exploiting employers;
but they didn't pay anything for any law,
sound or unsound,
Again, refusing to go to war on behalfof Russia, he acknowledges that he de-
sires to see the people of Russia given
every chance to work out "perhaps the
most .significant economic experiment
ever undertaken." Significant to whom,
in what circumstances, in relation to
whom and what? The people of Russia
are undertaking an economic experiment;
so are the people of Germany, the people
of Italy, the people of Spain, the peopleof Japan. These experiments may have
enormous significance to the people who
are undertaking them, to other people
affected by them, to Mr. Chase, to you
and me. But "most significant" is empty
of meaning. "During Franklin Roose-
velt's first Administration, conservatives
and business men after 1933 opposed in-
creasingly the extension of authority at
Washington." But many "business men"whooped up that extension, saw chances
to make profits from it, made the profits,
and doubtless voted Democratic in 1936.
There is no such thing as a conservative
and, though there are certainly men en-
gaged in various businesses, there are nosuch things as business men. Two per.
sonified phantoms and a concealed as-
sumption.
Again, "by 1940we may have politicalparties which will provide a real issue."
Operationally, there were plenty of issues
in 1936: for example, shall we appro-
priate less money for relief, change the
method of administering relief funds,
and change the methods of raising rev-
enues to produce them? If that is not a
real issue, we must look for real issues in
another concealed assumption-which
suggests that Mr. Chase's use of "real" is averbalism. Lastly, take a good look at
Mr. Chase's climax. "The controlling
issue for statesmen, governments, politi-
cians is to find the human purpose to be
accomplished in the given situation."
Human purpose or blab? In a given sit-
uation politicians or governments may
act to advance the interests of A, B, and
C, or of this class or that one, or a com-
bination or compromise. If the action
thus taken impairs the interests of D, E,
and F, or of other classes,what is "humanpurpose"? The phrase is an abstraction
and personification, pulsating with emo-
tion. It suggests that another concealed
assumption is interwoven here-or several
of them.
The Easy Chair is not attacking Mr.
Chase. It is pointing out that his quest
is in part conditioned byother phenomena
which, in these three articles at least, he
ignores. And to ignore them is to im-pair the inquiry, for they are insepara-
ble from its objective.
Let us do what experience has shown
to be helpful, let us look for a state of
mind. One has already been suggested
by "real issue" and "human purpose."
Well, Mr. Chase tells us !hat, in the cam-
paign of 1936, the opponents of the New
Deal attacked Mr. Tugwell and defended
Mr. Landon with a lot of meaningless(but, let us point out, effective) abstrac-
tions, personifications, and animisms.
That is verifiably true. Note, however,
that, though he sayssuch attacks darkened
counsel, he fails to remark that the sup-
porters of the New Deal attacked their
opponents with another set equally mean-
ingless and even more effective. He says
that the personification of corporations
has thrown the economic mechanisms outof gear. That also is verifiably true, but
it is true that such animisms as "the
workers," "the underprivileged," etc., also
assisted in that stripping of the gears,
and Mr. Chase does not bring that fact
to bear on his question. He says that
"more than one-third of the people in
America are underfed, inadequately
housed, and shoddily clothed." He has
never counted them, no one has evercounted them, and his statement is not
meaningful but emotionally useful. The
only word in it that can be operationally
examined is "underfed," and an inquiry
by nutritionists (granting they could
agree on tests) would possibly reveal a
certain percentage of "blab." "Inade-
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