The people's voice. [volume] (Helena, Mont.) 1939-1969, 1940-01-24
BY RICHARD LAKE

. ourselves enjoying position of stead
lily increasing prestige among our fel
: lows. We were almost alone in ou
! ability to speak of calamity and dis
aster in rational terms and withou
invoking an apparently deep-lying feal
of the twilight Of civilization" W.
knew why the thing had happened
and we had remedies. Simple, prac
tical carefully planned remedies. Oul
7 joy and confidence in our remedies
placed us in another exclusive minor
something besides doom in the black
clouds of economic catastrophe We
saw a chance to rebuild the world
and do it right this time
Our being communists had as its
most noticeable effect the enhance
were in the know. We had our feet
on the ground We had courage and
vision, and a sure critical analysis that
pierced contemporary fogs where the
wisdom of others failed. We were in
the vanguard of the great historical
movement that would bring man for
ward from the kingdom of necessity"
and allow him to function in his true
status as a civilized animal.
Those of us who were very young
and very dogmatic Gas 1 was) felt
that at last we had our feet on the
road that led toward the goal of hui
man progress. If you cannot under
stand what that feeling meant to con-
| fused youth at the close of the Tumul-
tous Twenties, you have been very
| little aware of the dynamics of our
age. Even now, after the Threadbare
Thirties (and perhaps because we
have lived so long with uncertainty
that we have become accustomed to
it), there is no such naive cropping as
there was in 1929. We face the Futile
Forties with something close to con-
fidence. Experience has been an eff
cient, even if rough, teacher.
But then we were naive. We knew
even less of economics than we know
now, and much less than the pitiful
fragments we have by now learned
about ourselves. Our study Of Marx
ism contributed nothing to either
fund With loud glad yelps we set |
out to remake the world in the name |
of Marx as interpreted by Lenin and |
Stain. We were the most intensely |
sectarian persons imaginable, and the |
most intolerant. No slightest devia-
ton from the line could escape an
exhaustive analysis and denunciation.
No good intentions, no tentative or
experimental works would suffice;
ours was a salvation based strictly
upon faith.
The reader will be aware Of my OBJ
vious CONGRATULATIONS. Few of my
friends or acquaintance actually
joined the party. Many took part in
social service or public agency work;
some in actual political organization.
But many more, like myself, came no
closer to actual radical organizing or
progressive movements than the de-
bates and bull sessions which we held
among ourselves. We
were, of course, for from great indus {
trial centers where radical activity /
really went on, and the experience !
am describing may seem a trifle ridic-
llous. Yet l think have point in
it. l.
The truth is that all of US who were
Eager to the communists" were poor /
n some important respect; and for +
hat poverty our identification with i
communism" seemed to compensate 8
,doouotoIu Dorhopo ua had O FOR, orb =.
ime getting a job; or we had deep f
eated sense of social inferiority; or a
We were starved emotionally; or we t
lad no place to invest our energies
Except dull routine; or the hypocrisy | l;
nd ignorance of our public leaders "
vas too sickening to endure. None of Il
hese poverties was to our discredit, f,
or we shared them in some degree t.
With all other Americans. We wanted "
omething done. So did millions of b
Their American. But they performed e
he routines of compensation in other, c.
sss conspicuous movements. h
l cannot claim to have threaded the
ibyrinth of propaganda and slain the F
linotaur of self-delusion at it's center, 9"
|
ware finally that with all our ap- Il
arently inexhaustible vigor in cham a!
ioning the cause of the proletariat ri
nd of human justice, we were doing NJ
othing about what was to all of us Ell
lie most important of all problems:
lrselves. 1t was we'll that l was far 81
,moyed from actual radical activities IS
| should have had to wait for the pt
act between Stain and Hitler to tie
)me to my senses. At least many TO
! my contemporaries did. No, all
did was to become gradually and W
aware of my dishonesty ia
Id of the confusion of my loyalties. er
l had the help of great and wise tn
an Because his advice was not en- TO
rely original with him, but was COM to-
FUNDED of many VISIONS all along st
e line, l shall not quote him as an ST
acle. He would not like it anyhow. ne
9 taught me that what counts is not We
e content of mems ideas but where
ose ideas came from and what gave mi
EN- birth. The new frontier is the no
inquest of self, he said, and all re- ar,
lutions will fail until we have done
at job. WI
The man was not a priest. He did
t mean that we should try God. &C,
It his remarks set me to reviewing asl
e communist religion, with it's bible,
theology, it's god, its hierarchy, its tut
viii and its hell. tar
am aware, as many of my radical fro
seem not to be, of the