The Domestic Temper
Lipman, Matthew
THE VERY SUMMER which finds the Russian and American governments drawing closer together seems also to find the Russian and American people approximating one another, so far as one can...
...The more spontaneously he acts, the more he is acclaimed for breaking the old stereotypes of thinking, and consequently the more dependent others become upon him...
...Apparently there is some predisposition here which does not favor an atomic war between the two peoples...
...Surely the problem was as distressing in Des Moines as in Kharkov...
...It is frequently thus with leaders, that they shine by contrast...
...Now observe the winds of doctrine shifting to the other direction, and the mood of the people changing correspondingly...
...They wondered, how can the Russian people reconcile their government's present exhortations to accept Tito, with previous exhortations to hate him...
...But there is one thing about this worthy of particular note...
...hence the increased dependence of the people, their increased sense of remoteness from the centers of decision and influence...
...THIS FEELING OF DEPENDENCE upon "offi cial" decisions is enhanced when the decisions are made by national leaders on a personal basis...
...But, though the peace pressure is less, the peace response seems greater...
...or is it true, as our government tells us, that there is no difference between what we profess and what we really believe...
...When, somehow, this unaccountability is then given the trappings of uncanny wisdom, the leader's power is solidified all the more...
...Americans have never been noted for their capacity to size up other people's moods: at times, they have had difficulty in admitting that nonAmericans had feelings at all...
...If a man is subjected to equally intensive persuasion from two opposed points of view, and if finally his mood should favor one rather than the other, we may assume that the choice is due to some predisposition on his part...
...Hence the surface faith and optimism, the underlying bewilderment and sense of alienation from any share in the management of their own society's future...
...We were told that reconciliation with the Russians was impossible and war inevitable...
...That he himself may have helped create that conformity partially in order to make himself stand out all the more pronouncedly is not taken into consideration...
...To the American, the Russian has always seemed a fascinating enigma...
...But this case was different, for somehow, to be able to understand the Russians promised, through a miracle of identification, to shed light on the Americans themselves...
...This is infallible evidence of their superiority over the common herd—we ourselves could never have come to a conclusion so daring, without feeling guilty of treachery...
...But this newfangled, conciliatory approach had been initiated by Eisenhower himself, and was therefore beyond question...
...It is also his ability to be arbitrary and inconsistent which we cannot match...
...As the gyrations and acrobatics of the leaders on both sides become increasingly more breathtaking, the gap between leaders and led increases...
...And so the wonderment of what the Russian really felt, once the facade of officially-inspired utterances was removed, was really a query which Americans would like to have directed at themselves, but parried instead...
...It is not only the personal quality of the leader (as contrasted with our own impersonality) which makes us dependent upon him...
...The press gave a great deal of attention to the personal quality of Ike's appearance at Geneva, and to the personal quality of the programs he proposed...
...wl Instead of being accountable, the leader retains his control by being unaccountable...
...Subject to the enormous pressures of totalitarian regimes, what does he really feel in his heart...
...There was something glamorous, something glorious about it all...
...Apparently when people are afraid of losing their skins, the inducement to a politics that at least seems benign is reenforced by the hope of self-preservation...
...But all these questions really meant was, what do we ourselves think, as compared to what we say...
...If on the other hand the Russians are really not so diabolical after all, but pleasant, friendly chaps, then why were we told they weren't...
...The leader is brilliant, creative, inspired, as contrasted with the dull masses, the hamstrung bureaucrats, the routinized workers, the work-sodden peasantry...
...THE VERY SUMMER which finds the Russian and American governments drawing closer together seems also to find the Russian and American people approximating one another, so far as one can tell, in the quality of their mood...
...Under proper goading, each has been made to assume a stance of hatred toward the other...
...What, they wondered, of the new soft line towards the West, does that not leave the Russian people confused and bewildered...
...Both give the impression of hopeful, tolerant, bemused docility, innocent of critical insight, free of fundamental doubts, devoid of positive convictions...
...And so the personal leader is acclaimed as original because he shows up so well against the conformity of thinking prevalent in his society...
...The people no longer trust themselves to think very far ahead, because they know that only the leaders possess the information upon which far-reaching decisions can reasonably be based, and only the leaders possess the intelligence with which to act...
...Only the leaders are entitled to feel rational in this sense...
...And if he should favor the point of view which he was under less pressure to accept, we might infer that his predisposition in that direction was all the greater...
...This similarity of mood should not come as a surprise when we consider that in some ways the two peoples have been similarly treated—that is, similarly manipulated...
...True, if it had been Stevenson and the Democrats who had proposed a lessening of tensions, that might have been treasonous...
...For this very inconsistency fosters anxiety on the part of the social group, a feeling of remoteness and dependency...
...Our leaders now deny this, even though it was on their authority that we originally were supposed to believe it...
...How well the man's personal strength of character compensated for the lack of backbone in the administrative bureaucracy, even in the nation at large...
...ALTHOUGH POLITICAL LEADERSHIP in a democracy is supposedly accountable to those who are led, the situation is altered when the means of fabricating consent are available, and when the leaders are able to act inconsistently and unpredictably...
...But even so simple-minded a formulation is not resorted to...
...Because it was artificially induced, it always seemed to be a hollow mock-hatred, similar to the hollow mock-love the two peoples had been led to feel for one another during the war...
...And so the populace restricts itself to the immediate surface of events...
...With the pendulum swinging slightly back, the elaborate mechanisms in both countries which manufacture opinion are again at work to bring about new mass attitudes...
...Passive and appreciative, the people have no confidence in themselves, for the basis of self-confidence and self-esteem— the realization that one is using one's powers in a rational way—is pre-empted by leadership...
...The American who paused to formulate his bewilderment might have asked himself, in all innocence: if the Russians are as diabolical as we have been told for the past ten years, then the present policies of conciliation and coexistence are pure deceit...
...It emphasized that he acted on his own initiative, almost on the spur-of-the-moment...
...In this case, we observe the Americans under constant pressure for many years to assume the mood and posture of war— and they responded dutifully...
Vol. 2 • September 1955 • No. 4
