A Debate: A Rejoinder
Diamond, Stanley
I regret that Mr. Halpern preferred to avoid a direct discussion of the crisis in the Kibbutz. Instead, he saw fit to intuit my "motivational system," socialist attitudes, and professional...
...And this in itself can serve as a backdrop against which cultural assumptions can be seen in relief...
...Indeed, "normalization" in the dogmatic and over-reactive Zionist sense of the term seems to have been achieved with the majority of Kibbutz children, but this is a far cry from the image of the "socialist man," ambiguously held by the parents.* My view, arrived at by research in the Kibbutz, and in no sense associated with any "orthodox psychoanalytic" bias or system, is that the development of a rich affective life, with all its implications for the total behavior of the person and between people, depends on the quality and depth of contact within the immediate family...
...While I am at this, I might add that the cultural anthropologist, who bases his work on concrete field experience, including !active social participation in the community to which he devotes himself, is in or should be in, a favorable position to understand the subtleties inherent in any sort of evaluation...
...Man in a collective is not man with man...
...it was and is not my illusion...
...Instead, he saw fit to intuit my "motivational system," socialist attitudes, and professional orientation...
...This, I think, is true in our time...
...These socialist implications are what Mr...
...Paradoxically, this does not negate the value of his findings, but strengthens them, by providing a special instance of what is generally problematic...
...Apart from its real achievements, it has great theoretical significance for all students of society...
...The Kvutzot, one of which I studied, served as a prototype, with some modification, for all the Kibbutzim...
...All else, he reserves for his personal opinions...
...The tyranny of institutions can take many forms, not necessarily as intention, but as result, and this is one of the poignant lessons to be learned from the Kibbutzim, indeed many Kibbutznikim are learning this themselves...
...SEVENTH: Now, with reference to Mr...
...He reports, interprets, analyzes, and, where necessary, contrasts inner and outer views, intention and result, cause and effect...
...Halpern fails to confront in his rejoinder...
...The crisis flows out of the assumptions, manifest goals, social structure, and position of the Kibbutz community vis a vis the State of Israel...
...Normal" Goy and "alienated" Jew are thus juxtaposed...
...This point can only be mentioned, since exposition would demand a separate article...
...Each key Kibbutz institution must be understood in this dual perspective...
...Halpern indicates...
...with specific reference to eating customs...
...These may be fierce, or diffident, varying with temperament or subject...
...This kind of myopia is a rather heavy price to pay for one's commitments...
...Yet it was the source of the selfimage of the Kibbutz as the good society, the ultimate collective...
...He experiences history, and behaves in accordance with what he perceives to be his interests in particular times and places, but, as Marx stated, he is not yet free of history...
...the quality of its functioning depends on the character of the larger society...
...It helps reveal also the fallacy inherent in the technically idealistic reification of the family, money, etc...
...But let me work up to that issue by replying to some of Mr...
...Paradoxically, his capacity to do so lies in his loss of detachment, and his approach to a truer objectivity...
...Halpern states therefore that if certain changes occur I will no longer recognize the Kibbutz as Kibbutz, he is simply being cute...
...Another thing that the field worker experiences is that as he penetrates with increasing depth into a particular community, its spatial and temporal boundaries tend to dissolve, until he finds himself confronting a crosssection of the universally human...
...Fifth: Mr...
...Further, the possibility that Sabras may be "suited" for Kibbutz living would not necessarily mean that they are "normal" personalities, if by "normal" we mean anything beyond the verbalized standards of the particular society...
...This approximates their assessment of the Sabras, of whom they are proud, yet from whom they feel somewhat estranged...
...There is also the question of dependence on nonsocialist sources of support...
...As I wrote in the review: the Kibbutz tends toward a public exploitation of the personality, rather than its social encouragement,* and this is the result of what may be termed "over-collectivization...
...It may not be true tomorrow, and it is certainly very far from an ideal human condition, but it is the rock we stand on, for many of us a rock of dissent...
...Halpern preferred to avoid a direct discussion of the crisis in the Kibbutz...
...Man is, after all, not yet a history making being, in the fully conscious sense that he may one day become...
...Halpern's ascription to me of some mechanical faith in the uniform institutional solution of all human problems...
...raised by Man against a meeting with himself...
...Or will the Kibbutz become irrelevant to the development of socialism in Israel...
...With due regard for the achievement of the Kibbutz, I doubt whether it can serve as example for such a socialism...
...Halpern should know, and not the sheer or mere existence of an agricultural settlement...
...Of course, if one is primarily concerned with the national and military roles of the Kibbutzim, then this consideration will appear of small import, but I stated in my review that it was the socialist implications of the Kibbutz that would be discussed, not the widely known and well understood contributions the Kibbutzim made to the development of Israel as a state...
...I am, certainly, a socialist, also a cultural pluralist, but it is not at all clear to me what Mr...
...It is the members who face the problem, and it is a profound one, since the classic form not only bore 'a very heavy emotional freightage, but defined their image of socialism—in many cases, of a socialist Israel...
...Not only does it fail to achieve the minimal definition of socialism, but its collective structure, in the widest per spective, is a crystallization of tendencies inherent in our culture, unique in this respect, but not the beginning of something new...
...What this means is that the field worker, by identifying himself with the community, works through his emotional distance until he perceives the society as do its members...
...The Kibbutzim themselves have recently become deeply concerned with the problem...
...they may be right or wrong, but the subjective quality of certainty is of a different order...
...More specifically, I did not place the Kibbutz "in a systematic predicament from which it can have no possible escape except death or disintegration...
...The professional man may, if he chooses, be an active political man, for that matter he may be a religious man, but he is in peril if he permits these opinions to compromise -a hard won integrity emerging out of immediate training and experience...
...THE ABOVE, then, stated very briefly, are some of the things that a reasonably aware cultural anthropologist tries to do...
...He does not "dream up inherent contradictions without meaning to the persons involved," as Mr...
...Modern collectivism is the last barrier...
...This is the beginning, not the end, nor is it desirable in and of itself, but only as the launching point for the further cultural exploration and creation of man by man...
...as, in themselves, sources of social evil...
...Now one of the things that is quickly learned in this attempt is that what people think they are achieving, or how people verbalize their life situations, is frequently in conflict with what they have, in fact, achieved...
...Finally, I would suppose that a minimal definition of socialism consists in the common ownership of the means of production...
...An objective characterizationof the first, transitional generation of Kibbutz Sabras cannot be undertaken here sincethe whole complex of questions involved with the motives, methods, and functions of collective child rearing is at issue...
...It is also, substantially, an argument ad hominem, good indoor sport perhaps, but traditionally held disingenuous when serious matters are under consideration...
...The Zionist concept of "normalization," then, as expressed in the livingmilieu of the Kibbutz, is not, essentially, a creative concept...
...Marx and Engels characteristically deplored such a view...
...But this much can be stated...
...Put another way, the Kibbutz abuses the spirit of cooperation by attempting to embody love institutionally, by insisting, as it were, that people can and must tap new dimensions of moral experience through the mechanical expedient of its group structure...
...The kind of community that emerges out of the crisis, and the number of people involved, are the real points at issue, as Mr...
...Second: The Kibbutz is not simply the result of a rebellion against the Shtetl...
...Halpern's response helps reveal, even if inadvertently, the difference between the colloquial approach of the partisan-propagandist and the student of society then it will have served a useful purpose...
...The family is a socio-psychological cell...
...The collective form was the product of material conditions in Palestine and of an over-reaction against the Shtetl...
...I do not mean to imply here that the cultural anthropologist, or any social scientist for that matter, is in any exalted position with regard to the history making potential...
...The important thing is the ambivalence of the pioneer-parents...
...This, perhaps, is what Spiro's informant meant when she said, "above all, we have not succeeded in discovering man...
...It is not !a blueprint...
...It can function in a primitive culture, in a capitalist, or socialist society...
...If, however, Mr...
...I would hardly have spent 19 months as a participant-observer in a Kibbutz had I thought so...
...See David Maletz's honest and sensitive novel, Young Hearts...
...This may express his prejudices, which one could sympathize with, but has nothing at all to do with me or what I have written...
...That tender surface of...
...When Mr...
...The over-reaction supplied the elan, but neither factor alone can account for the pioneering viability of the Kibbutz...
...Whatever changes are forced upon the community, or whatever changes are voluntarily adopted, either as a result of a shift in material conditions or the waning of the old ardor, are perceived by the members as a retreat from a prior state of "socialist" integrity...
...For example, the communal dining hall served a utilitarian function, bound in a network of other institutions, like stones in an arch, but it also served as a channel for over-reaction against the Eastern European Jewish family...
...With the former Man's face is distorted, with the latter it is masked...
...Now, the over-reaction, this growth of the Kibbutz as a "counter-Shtetl," perhaps an intense instance of the Zionist motivation to "negate the diaspora," was a specialized and extreme development...
...ward state capitalism...
...Fourth: I do not imply that "the leaders will refuse to make even the slightest modification to adapt to reality," or "will not give up their youth movement collectivism...
...His guess that I hold to a world-encompassing "single system of socio-economic-historical-dialectical development" not only misses the mark, but exposes his misunderstanding of so-called scientific socialism...
...I would apply the magnificent insight of Martin Buber to the Kibbutz, although he himself might not: ...If individualism understands only a part of man, collectivism understands Man only as a part...
...The Kibbutz is of significance to socialists, since it helps reveal the possibilities and limitations of `over-collectivization," and helps distinguish between rebellion against specific aspects of "bourgeois" background, as personal-psychological phenomena, and more mature radical attitudes...
...A crisis then occurs, which all anthropologists experience to one degree or another, and which a few never surmount...
...The crisis lies in the effort to substitute an experienced-based objectivity for detachment at the sticking point of emotional identification...
...Nor do I suggest that the community will vanish into thin air...
...First: The external crisis of the Kibbutzim is not only the result of their failure to absorb new members in significant numbers...
...This is in no way to demean the achievements of the Kibbutz, but such evaluations are of interest to socialists, if irrelevant to Mr...
...Further, I ask the question, what will happen to their socialism, as they adapt to reality...
...Obviously, findings cannot be detailed here, since the theoretical implications are significant beyond the Kibbutz itself...
...It is a possible con dition for the release of creative energies...
...I describe this as an agonizing process, as any Kibbutznick knows...
...If he is worth his professional salt, he possesses sharp and real commitments, based upon knowledge and competence in his subject...
...Interestingly enough, the Hashomer Hatzair Kibbutzim, generally acknowledged as the most politically committed of the Kibbutz groups, are the most tenacious in clinging to the classic Kibbutz pattern...
...Halpern who has an axe to grind, not I. This is not to imply that the anthropologist, sociologist, or psychologist lacks commitment...
...Halpern remains silent on this issue, although Spiro's informants were not...
...As for the question of child rearing practices in the Kibbutz, this is a serious question which I, and others, have studied in some detail...
...The other half consists in the obligation to view the community from the `outside," that is, to analyze factors that help shape social structure and function, whether or not the members of the society are aware of them, to match illusion with reality, to measure results against intentions, to identify cause and effect, despite the rationalizations that may be current among the people themselves...
...To be "suited" for Kibbutz living is not necessarily to be deeply motivated for it, as, I suspect, is true for the Sabras...
...This was the illusion of the Kibbutznik...
...But the cultural anthropologist, in particular, is perhaps unusually sensitized to the poignancy and meaning of social conflict in our time by virtue of his concern with both inner and outer views, and their relationship...
...This fusion of inner and outer views is, as Redfield and others have stated, the ideal which the field worker sets for himself...
...personal life which longs for contact with other life is progressively deadened and desensitized...
...Both views of life...
...Fully to understand this requires an exploration of the European, particularly Eastern European, Jewish stereotype of the Gentile...
...Precisely for this reason, he is at once more reluctant to attempt evaluation, and better equipped to do so than most...
...Halpern's imaginative, and false, reconstruction of what my "socialism is like...
...To be "motivated" for Kibbutz living is not nec essarily to be "suited" for it, as in the case of the pioneer settlers...
...On such short acquaintance, this is rather remarkable presumption...
...As stated in my review, a familiar result of collective experiments else ; where is the withering away of socialist interests...
...But this is only half the job...
...Sixth: Whether or not Kibbutz Hameuhad ever believed in the "drowning" of privacy is irrelevant...
...The professional man and the political man are not the same, although the professional man may inform the political man...
...Similarly, how they perceive their problems, or state their dissatisfactions, or pose solutions, may be irrelevant to underlying causes, and thus ineffectual with reference to remedial action...
...THIRD: I do not imply that the Kibbutz can have no "earthly significance for a modern living in the 1950s...
...Man's isolation is not overcome here, but overpowered and numbed...
...What we were really looking for was Man...
...But it can be noted that the "modal" Kibbutz Sabra is almost the antithesis of the parent generation...
...are essentially the conclusion or expression of the same human condition, only at different stages...
...Halpern's specific points...
...The socialist identification will be considered below...
...Rather, by reflecting the putative image of the Gentile, it strives to negate, and is deeply antagonistic to the Jewish consciousness shaped by marginality...
...Although the reasons for this stereotype are clear enough, it cannot be accepted as accurate, nor can the Zionist stereotype of the Jew be so accepted...
...The Zionist concept of "normalization," then, is tightly culture-bound in a quite complex and ironic way...
...How, then, will they now redefine their socialism with reference to the changing internal structure of the community, and how will they maintain or expand their socialist goals in Israel...
...Hence, collective child rearing bears no necessary relationship to socialism, nor, I might add, to the real "emancipation" of women...
...Halpern is, except an angry American Zionist...
...It is Mr...
...Russian and Polish-born parentsin the Kibbutz characterize "Goyim" as physically competent and brave, simple, shallow, rather cold (no Yiddish heart) , etc., but, above all, "normal," as opposed to the abnormal "alienated" Jew...
...Halpern attempts a guilt-by-fancied-association approach by identifying me with 1. orthodox psychoanalysts and 2. totalitarian socialists...
...The institutional structures, the daily round of life, in all the collectives is, for most analytic purposes, so similar that minor differences can be ignored...
...Also vulgar, but of less importance, is Mr...
...If I may hazard a guess about the place which the Kibbutzim may finally take in the history of Israel, I would assume that the national role would be paramount...
...What he refers to as "creeping" socialism in America is a rapid development to * Significantly enough, parents frequently refer to their children as "Goyim...
Vol. 4 • April 1957 • No. 2
