LETTERS

...Beyond South Africa Editors: The [Summer] issue, on Africa, was highly revealing and dramatic...

...It does offer an awareness and a warning of the tragedy inherent in any human relationship founded on oppression which engenders fear and hatred...

...Editors: Henri Rabassiere's tirade in your summer issue was listed as a 'communication," but to whom was he communicating and how could anyone possibly reply...

...THEODORE DRYDEN Now Communicate...

...But I wish that the editors would do something about the kind of writing that sometimes creeps in...

...Those who knew him or were taught by him or read his work are asked to send what they can in a check made out to Russell M. Cooper, Treasurer, and mailed to Dean Russell M. Cooper, University of Minnesota, Minneapolis 4, Minnesota...

...But there undoubtedly also exist ideas contrary to our own that are not evil in their inspiration...

...But why, for this purpose, the digs at Heidegger, Partisan Review, etc...

...He is perfectly justified in pointing out to Gunther Anders that mass media are not, in themselves, evil and that, whatever our pretensions, we should keep in touch with the people...

...I refer to the tendency of some of your contributors to employ sociological and political science jargon: to write in a kind of academic trade-lingo which no doubt has its uses in specialized journals but is just a handicap to communication in a magazine like DISSENT...

...SAUL BELLOW, RUSSELL M. COOPER, RALPH G. GROSS, ALLEN TATE (Committee for Isaac Rosenfeld Fund...

...We must learn to speak as individuals and within the limits of our subject, otherwise communication is impossible and our intellectual and political life will fall into despair...

...In replying to a question as to his opinion on whether the race problem in South Africa could be satisfactorily solved, Abrahams took pains to deplore certain attitudes toward this problem which he characterized as wishful thinking or "Cry The Beloved Countryism," as he put it...

...It is this phraseology to which I object, with its implication that Paton's book is excessively visionary (one can hear the whispered "crackpot" in the background) . Certainly "Cry The Beloved Country" offers no concrete political solution to the problem of South Africa today...

...Don't you think the editors ought to do something about this...

...There was, however, one remark to which I objected...

...It is true that behind some ideas there lie evasion, bad faith or even dishonesty, and a certain rhetoric in exposing them is only natural...

...I was impressed with the eloquence of Peter Abrahams' statements...

...Worse still is the custom of attacking groups instead of individuals...

...but why need their styles be so limp, so awkward, so verbose, so stoop-shouldered...

...Reading too much into Li'l Abner and Pogo is at least as much a fad, and as shameful, as endless talk about alienation...

...It's good that some of your contributors bring specialized scholarly skills to their writing...

...We shall be grateful for your help in bringing this request to your readers...

...Had its great ethical spirit been more pervasive, the human condition might have advanced considerably in opposition to the anti-human dogmas that have dominated this terror-ridden century...

...San Francisco LESTER HAWKINS Isaac Rosenfeld Editors: Friends of the late Isaac Rosenfeld are trying to collect enough money to ensure the higher education of his children...

...Can we help it if some of our approaches to our situation become fads...

...There are, after all, only so many possibilities, and they can all be taken up by others and furnish material for satire once they are in the public domain...

...New York City MARTIN RYZA Yes, They Should Editors: I like the openness of mind that most of your writers display together with their firm commitment to radicalism...

...When can we learn that we ought not to blow our tops every time we get into print, and that we can act like reasonable people and not hopeless cranks...

...Why rant at all...