TO OUR READERS
For a quarterly to indulge in a retrospect after two years of existence might seem a little premature. But those who know the difficulties of publishing a magazine like DISSENT may forgive us...
...At the same time we have published articles criticizing various political 'and intellectual trends of our time, articles not necessarily written from a strictly socialist point of view but from a belief that our culture, sodden with complacence, needs criticism and dissent as nothing else...
...but we work with an increasing sense of having behind us the support of friends who take an active interest in our project...
...Equally gratifying is the fact that throughout the country there are now people who look upon DISSENT as their magazine, in the sense that it expresses some of their values with regard to our political and cultural life...
...for others, it is the subtitle...
...IV Finally, a word to our friends...
...Sometimes this complaint is made on the assumption that the thirties was an undifferentiated mass of villainy or absurdity (the Whittaker Chambers school of history...
...and for still others, it is both title and subtitle, the two in a useful if sometimes uneasy relation...
...We feel that we have by now sufficiently demonstrated our seriousness, that we have by now sufficiently shown our capacities, to allow us to ask for greater support...
...Tone is almost always a function of one's point of view...
...But that too is beginning, and we are grateful to all who have helped...
...Though the figure was not quite reached, our promise will be kept, and DISSENT will continue to appear...
...It is necessary for serious people, while always trying to reevaluate and reexamine their ideas in the light of new events, also to remain by their convictions, even if they are for the moment unfashionable...
...For one of the most distressing aspects of American cultural life is the way fads are eagerly seized upon and then dropped—from Marxism to the "new conservatism," from Freud to existentialism, and even from Wilhelm Reich to AdIai Stevenson...
...The magazine has survived through the devotion of a handful of people...
...But even this is not an easy thing to do, especially in a magazine which does not try to impose any hard-and-fast "line" on its writers...
...In any case, what matters most is this: a magazine now exists which speaks for the independent radical in America...
...but then it would be absurd to suppose that any magazine could...
...item: DISSENT is off to a good start, but sometimes the articles aren't sufficiently thorough, the writing isn't incisive enough, there are too many (or is it not enough...
...Yet we have printed studies—on the meaning of the socialist ideal, on the lessons of the Labor Government in England, on the nature of Russian society—which have raised significant questions faced by socialists, and indeed non-socialists, and have tried to suggest certain answers...
...There are times, such as the present, when "negativism" is the most positive task writers can undertake, when it becomes a form of political and intellectual hygiene...
...But we disagree...
...We have also tried to respond to the events of the day, though here we are frank to admit that because of the difficulties faced by a quarterly when it prints topical pieces, and because of our own limitations, there remains a need for improvement...
...We agree...
...Our pages are open to any competent expression of radical opinion, and there surely isn't one editor who hasn't sharply disagreed with this or the other article...
...And when these political "lines" of the socialist sects are held with rigor, they often reflect a hardening of intellectual arteries...
...continued from page 290) To be sure, in the two years of our existence we haven't "solved" the crisis of socialism...
...And it would be equally helpful if you were to use DISSENT as a Christmas gift (see the back cover...
...THE EDITORS...
...For a quarterly to indulge in a retrospect after two years of existence might seem a little premature...
...We are convinced that on this matter DISSENT has made a hopeful and valuable innovation in socialist publication...
...continued on page 415 TO OUR READERS AND FRIENDS...
...of course, publishing a magazine isn't enough...
...Much of what went with the radicalism of the thirties none of us would wish to resurrect, but the spirit of social resistance, the impulse to fraternity with the oppressed, the belief that society needs a thorough recasting, are certainly worth preserving...
...In that sense, DISSENT may represent, or come to represent, a bridge between the movements of yesterday and those of tomorrow item: DISSENT is politically amorphous, it does not take positions on the burning questions of the day, etc...
...The next period is likely to be one in which political conformity and intellectual complacence will be greater than ever—and an occasional polemic will be good for sluggish blood...
...On the matter of "polemical tone" it is necessary to maintain some sense of the context in which the problem arises...
...This complaint often betrays a cultural amnesia, since the truth is that, for good or bad, DISSENT is quite different in content and tone from the radical publications of the thirties...
...Nor is it too hard to imagine that twenty years from now someone will say, "why that's old hat, just like the stuff in the fifties...
...Sometimes, to be frank, we could wish that this interest were a little more active—if those friends throughout the country who have written letters in support of our effort were to get some additional subscriptions, or help us get more sales outlets, life would be easier...
...We are prepared to continue, but we want to do it in the company of those people who feel that the idea of DISSENT is important to their lives...
...Whatever value party lines may have for parties, there could hardly be anything more preposterous than a party line without a party...
...If one believes that all, or almost all, is well with society, then naturally the tone of such a writer is likely to be benign, not to say complacent...
...The editors of DISSENT have borne a heavy burden—in work, in effort, financially...
...Yet it would be a mistake to suppose that the only practical activity for socialists is to organize parties or run candidates in elections...
...11 Slowly, we have begun to build up a group of regular contributors, many of them new writers...
...item: DISSENT is too much like the 1930's, the same old radical stuff, you're beating a dead horse, etc...
...Yet, we do not, in the main, find this criticism too unflattering...
...Sometimes the complaint is made in such a way as to register distaste with the fact that we still believe radical social criticism to be necessary, or that the idea of socialism is still relevant to our time...
...This may not quite satisfy our critics, but it might provoke a fuller discussion in later issues...
...item: Socialism is a practical activity, while DISSENT is merely a literary venture...
...But this assumption seems to us both false and unhistorical...
...cultural articles, the journalism isn't lively enough...
...III Without pretending to provide exhaustive answers, we should like simply to note a few of the criticisms that have been made of the magazine...
...A few of our friends (those who feel that socialists should confine themselves to sackcloth and ashes) seem to feel that any polemic, no matter how impersonal, is out of place...
...This seemingly "radical" criticism, sometimes embroidered with references to the unity of theory and practice in Marxist thought, does little more than tell us what we know only too well...
...There are moments, such as the present one, in which the most meaningful activity open to socialists is the effort to keep alive and to refresh their ideas...
...Besides, there may be some use in saying a few words, informally, about our present situation, our future, and some of the criticisms that have been made of the magazine...
...The DISSENT community that has been growing up isn't a party and it isn't a sect...
...But we have tried to keep open a flow of ideas, an exchange of opinions that will reflect the critical and problematic nature of socialist thought at the present moment...
...But those who know the difficulties of publishing a magazine like DISSENT may forgive us the indulgence...
...We are not running a new fund drive this year—but it would help tremendously if those of you who haven't yet paid up your pledges were to do so quickly...
...Last fall, when we asked our friends for financial help, we promised that if the necessary sum was raised no further appeals for funds would be made until the fall of 1956...
...As long as the fish stink—and that, by and large, is what they continue to do—then it is necessary to say: the fish stink...
...Our great need right now is for a group of people scattered throughout the country who will actively try to promote the magazine and enlarge its circulation...
...For some readers our title suggests their main source of interest...
...This criticism impresses us least, for we know that the "political line"— the position on this, the resolution on that—of the groups or persons who make it is often an ideological cover for the doubts and uncertainties they share with the rest of ordinary mankind...
...It is a source of genuine satisfaction to us that an atmosphere of fraternal collaboration has been established between the editors and the almost 50 authors who have appeared in our pages these past two years...
...Whatever the shortcomings of the magazine, and we are not the last to recognize them, the fact remains that it has gradually come to be recognized as a voice of the democratic left in America, and that it has won more support than any of us had dared to hope...
...We are aware that this observation can sometimes be used to rationalize coarseness and personal insult, and we have tried to draw a sharp line between polemical vigor and polemical rudeness...
...This of course, may not please those who have gone into the fish business...
...But those who believe quite the contrary may sometimes write with asperity and sharpness...
...item: DISSENT is too polemical, too -negative, too harsh in its tone...
...That DISSENT has survived, and in a modest way made its mark, strikes us as a kind of miracle...
...If so, we can only acknowledge its accuracy...
...Of course, socialism must be a practical activity...
...I The handicaps that beset us are known to many of you...
Vol. 2 • September 1955 • No. 4
