Over Seven Million Transformed - An Account Of the New Mass Army America is Building
Komroff, Manuel
Over Seven Million Transformed — An Account Of the New Mass Army America is Building By Manuel Komroff "?" ? ? United States Army is today the greatest * piece of human transformation the world...
...Every month a fresh quarter-million rookies arrive at camp...
...The routine is repeated so often that the soldier is forced to learn to do it unconsciously...
...That is the dynamic concept, totally Hegelian in origin, that Marx put in place of the egoistic life-impulses of the "economic man.' It is because the economic man is akin to the Niebuhrian man, only with too much of the "possessive impulse" and not enough of the "will to Power," that Niebuhr likes to think he finds him in Karl Marx...
...soldier...
...Psychology, after all, differs from Niebuhr's psychology only in having worked harder and loager on the same problems, considered more points of view, taken more things into consideration, and been more devoted to the concepts of generalization and verification...
...Heidelberg, after my name, and read it with the attention one gives to -a person who has studied his subject...
...The human numbers alone are impressive but when you add to this camps, equipment, clothing, food, medical care and the million and one little things that go to make the U.S...
...Lewis...
...He knows the army has been in the transformation busi^" ness for over a hundred years and he assumes from the start that they know something about what they are doing During his very first day in camp he will sit on the edge of his bunk and put two and two together...
...He is no trouble at all to his superiors...
...Be,: thinks that Marx took over from the bourgeois economists the concept of the "economic man...
...soldiers...
...I am perfectly sure that I still see more truths in Marxism than he dots, but the particular truth he wants me to see, unforunately, is not there...
...When Engels says that the ideologist is unconscious of the forces that set his thoughts, going, it must not be imagined that he means to psychoanalyze that ideologist, or say that he is notN^on-»rious of his own motives...
...He will find there my refutation of the assertion that Marx put his confidence in science...
...According to Nie-boer's psychology, there is no aggressive drive or/instinct in mankind, but men may become aggressive when their "egoistic power" or "will to'powef" is frustrated...
...Facts are worth a lot of words...
...From Munich onward, it was the people who set the course which took the country into war a year later...
...But from the very" first day...
...The truth may be, I fear—and if so it is a serious thing—that Edouard Hoimann is a little elevated above American culture...
...Verily, it is easier for a camel to go through the eye of s needle than for a liberal to enter into the mind of Karl Marx...
...These professionals are the last to fall into line...
...Never before has there been such an increase of man-power in any nation or at any time in the history of the wona...
...they think hard and find so much that appears paradoxical...
...Society is developing with a dialectic necessity belonging to the very -nature of being toward higher forms and man is a...
...Eastman . . . accepts Marx's fundamental approach—society is to be rebuilt according to scientific prescription—and only cl*ims that, while Marx had a wrong prescription, his is the right one...
...The routine is necessary' to accomplish this result And activity seems the cure for all complaints of the young soldier...
...My "scientific dogmatism" consists in just this: That if...
...They are not going to abdicate as the leading influence in the world, council, but they are not fighting to keep any privileges or advantages or rights of domination which may stand in the way of a peoceful, decent, well-organized democratic future...
...it does not impinge at any point on what is being said...
...In writing the book I will not neglect the genuine points that he, and other...
...They aren't going to get into the position of having fought a good war but fought for nothing...
...Eastman...
...In our further efforts...
...A RAW youth, tall, gawky, shy...
...They try to hold on to their individual traits and home-life habits...
...The Negro soldier enters the camp a bit frightened but soon learns his way about and feels at ease...
...These men are the most difficult to handle...
...THESE are the truths Mr...
...And there is another type of professional also who makes first class material for the army...
...A first class top flight lawyer is no trouble at all to his superiors...
...He writes writh a direct and uncluttered sagacity, knowing well that if there is any scientific knowledge relevant to our problem we've got to use it...
...Heimann to read Part V—again it is only two chapters—of Marxism Is It Science...
...There are smart ones who think they can learn the entire army routine in two weeks bvt they soon find out that this is not possible...
...The only other answer I can think of is to ask Mr...
...There is a lot of talk about India, but again I prefer facts...
...The chapters are entitled "What Science Is" and "The Seed of the Marxian Philosophy...
...But not everybody always has been quite sure about them...
...of the process...
...I have absorbed much from this bath of opposing ideas, and I hope my pleasure in debate has not led me to conceal it completely...
...He will figure it out in a few minutes and from that moment on he is not going to try to buck the routine...
...They intend that the world after the war shall be as free as good will and good intelligence can make it...
...But Mr...
...And other specialists who are above the average enter mto the routine easily and gracefully They know ? good deal ebout their one subject and have nothing in their past experience which would stand in the way of making a change in living habits...
...Mr...
...They put the rightful rulers of Abyssinia back in their places, gave them money, weapons and any other help they wanted, and left them to run their own country as soon as it was possible to do so...
...The building of new habits and instincts is the hardest part of a soldier's training...
...It has no relevance...
...Max Eastman Poses New "Human" Problems for Socialist Thinkers in Second Reply to Critics By MAX EASTMAN « «EINHOLD NIEBUHR agrees with much of *> what I said about Socialism and Human Nature, but is, like Jacques Barzun, distrustful of^psychology...
...And reason sometimes is only confus-ing...
...There is no generalized dynamic force whatever in the Marxian system, either in man or society, bat the force of universal material evolution...
...Each month a fresh quarter-million men begin the basic training which will transform them into U.S...
...We must find a new-form of social life, but one that will yield liberty as well as security, a spontaneous culture as well as a rationalized economy...
...They are tough and they are no fools...
...Not all Americans have been...
...Niebuhr ? read the chapters entitled "The Doctrine of Ideologies' and "Marx and Freud" in my book, Marxism Is It Science—I refrain from ••king him to read the whole book—he will certainly be better qualified to give advice on this extremely intricate topic...
...whatever that particular job happens to be...
...that I do not put psychological theories in the place occupied in Marxism by economic theories...
...He wants me to see more truths in Marxism...
...without effort, strain or even thinking about it...
...We must not crucify mankind upon a cross of planning...
...Lewis, I am merely going to remark that my article on Socialism and Human Nature was but the initial chapter of a book...
...There were unforeseen delays and things did not always connect But today most of these small annoyances have been ironed out and the machine is running smoothly...
...I could give you other instances of different kinds, but these will serve...
...I seem to remember some talk about a phoney war arid an imperialistic war, a war for the British Empire...
...Where is the "prescription" in my conclusion...
...The fact is that Britain has offered to the people of India full liberty to make their own constitution for themselves even if it means complete independence...
...however, exceptions to the resisting professionals...
...It is still being fought by the people for a principle...
...Now, a psychologist would say—citing perhaps an angry mother in illustration—that men may become aggressive when any of their basic drives are frustrated...
...Before he is through with his training he weighs 144 pounds...
...He it more than smart and clever...
...Marx put his confidence in a relic of German religious metaphysics...
...That...
...It is still a People's War...
...Marx never dreamed of an experimental "approach" or "method"—never dreamed of making economic theories a ground for caution in an experiment...
...There are...
...He will finaout whet Marx meant by ideology, and how exactly 4 relates to Freud's discoveries...
...But they fall into line in the end...
...This training is designed to change the crrfl-ian into a soldier...
...Nothing of the kind...
...What actually happens ? And what are same of the problems that the army has to face...
...Message From London British People to Fight for Democratic Post-War World, Herbert Morrison Says By HERBERT S. MORRISON I ONDON.—There are a few things about *~* this war that I have wanted very much forborne time to say to my friends in America...
...The reason I call tbis a serious thing, is that it is very common among our European guests-by-compulsion, and I have a fear lest my fellow-Americans are going to be buffaloed by it...
...He defends the socialist effort both in psychological and economic terms, defends it as a man mainly anxious about its practical success, which is a fairly reasonable, as well as an extremely American, thing to be anxious about...
...Even more...
...This article is based on remarks broadcast to the Freedom House first anniversary...
...Such transformation in any one person may seem miraculous and some of- the changes are indeed quite extreme, but when this occurs to six million, then it becomes something of great importance and a national asset...
...Farm-boys, city-boys, professional men and laborers, black and white, all must go through the same initial training...
...Having just published a 400-page book devoted to the thesis that^ Marx's method is not scientific, a thesis which I have been expounding in other books and articles for almost thirty years, I honestly feel bewildered when I read these sentences...
...pampered, carelessly dressed and unkempt enters the ranks...
...Today it has a strength of four-million, in a very few months six-million men will be in the Service, irid.next year it will be seven-and-a-half million...
...Man is a complex of social relations...
...There were difficulties of adjustments, of training, of ???$?-ing...
...The four-million now undergoing the transformation will soon -be seven-and-a-half:' ' AMI never before has the world seen so many men transformed in so short a time, Sueh rapid expansion is not accomplished without growing pains...
...You may say that those three points are not very new...
...Over Seven Million Transformed — An Account Of the New Mass Army America is Building By Manuel Komroff "?" ? ? United States Army is today the greatest * piece of human transformation the world has ever known...
...They knew what the air-bombing would mean and they expected it from the start...
...I'll sSy my few things now simply and shortly: The first is that for the British this has always been a People's War...
...In short, they make heavy weather for themselves and all about them...
...The roots of civil life are pulled up suddenly and at once, without much pampering or time for adjustment, the change begins...
...He wants to exchange economic theories of 1860 for psychological theories of 1900 and claims thereby to make Socialism error-proof...
...Niebuhr thinks—more, I judge, on the basis of hearsay than of anything I've written— thst I"a'm "in too full flight from my former loyalties and convictions...
...They arrive a little bewildered, some even frightened and all apprehensive...
...This is the start of the transformation...
...Army men say that the average trainee U a swell fellow, reasonable, understanding and easy to teach...
...We can learn much from this influx of European artists and intellectuals, enrich ourselves much, but if we capitulate to their notion that our taste for matter-of-fact practical humorous straight thinking, the thing that has made us materially great, is spiritually inferior, inferior from the standpoint either of morai dignity or inside knowledge of the universe, we shall fail to deliver our own unique national contribution to the sum-total of the worlds art and wisdom...
...The average boy from the sticks as well as the city boy can understand the whole business in a very short time...
...Heimann to read my article over again, pretending to himself that I am a Columbia professor with an M.A., LL.D., D.SC, and Ph.D...
...Marx erred be-ttuse of his doctrinaire confidence in science, economic and social science...
...stoop-should-*¦ dered...
...He means the very opposite—experiment...
...Sometimes nations have gone to war very freely and bravely because war to them seems something glamorous which was to be fought by their soldiers a long way off...
...Whatever destiny they want for their own country after the war, they can have, provided only that nothing is done during the war to endanger the chances of victory for the United Nations...
...you have something most staggering...
...If I had offered a prize for the most devastating attack on my own opinions—and why wouldn't that be a good way to educate oneself?—I would award it to Mr...
...Can you tell me any other example in history of a ruling power making such an offer on such a scale— with so much at stake—to a subject people...
...that I do not "follow the same method...
...Marx's more social interpretation of 'ideology' is more correct than Freud's...
...And each is joing through a transformation...
...The same method is followed by Mr...
...I think "capitalism" is the perfect scheme...
...The average young man starting service weighs about 130 pounds But in a very' short time he has gained weight...
...He does not want to replace psychology with the literary classics, however, bot with his own opinions...
...They know too much and from the very' beginning are a little critical of all army procedure...
...But if Mr...
...Heimann will find on pages 260-242 of the book I have mentioned a rejection of the Marxian immeralism quite as wholehearted as his own...
...The British people have gone into some wars like that...
...A sentence W two will give a glimpse of the complexity °f the thing: "When I say that the doctrine of ideologies is an anticipation of the Freudian psychology, I do not mean that Marx o.r Engels thought of it as a psychological doctrine...
...But I don't see what I can do, when 't is so obviously my natural answer, except refer them to the books...
...The British aren't stupid people and they have had an intensive finishing course in world politics during these last ten years...
...Intelligence sometimes gets tn the way...
...In many cases the change seems miraculous...
...I suspect, may be why he dismisses my article with a lofty and learned discourse which has nothing to do with its contents, or with anything else I have ever written...
...then his training is done...
...and in so far as, science has arrived at any verified, or highly probable conclusions in any relevant field, I think we must take them into consideration in our efforts toward a more free and equal and more reasonable society...
...This time they went into a war which they knew would mean death, horror and destruction in their own state, but they faced that risk...
...of these distinguished critics, have made against me...
...His criticism of my article is contained, substan-'*11?, in the following sentences: "Mr...
...There is nothing difficult about the basic training...
...They go through the mill and this mill is the same for all...
...but just the opp»-site...
...They aren't fighting for domination, for territory, or for raw materials or world power...
...This ungraceful mode of response is indeed unavoidable in the case °f Edouard Heimann, because he reads alien ld*as, not only into Marx, but into me...
...It so happened, it was the British who rescued it...
...They resist regimentation and even resent being one of many...
...They arrive an odd squad of civilians and soon they emerge as soldiers...
...And he would further explain that that is ? definition of the aggressive drive or instinct...
...And I feel a certain embarrassment—I hesitate to take the role of teschej to so learned a man...
...They are ready to make suggestions and even protests...
...That one country is Abyssinia...
...and often unknown to the recruit, the transformation begins, [n a month the raw youth has filled out, he has gained weight, he stands erect his clothes and hair are neat, he is self-reliant, his sleepy languor is gone and even his lax speech has been snapped up...
...And most, important of all factors in the transformation' that takes place in the men...
...Morrison was apointed to the British War Cabinet by Prime Minister Churchill this week...
...It looks as though the army would ntver be able to do anything with him...
...They sit on their bunks and reason...
...It is still a crusade...
...He is wise...
...not because they had no choice, but because their sense of decency was outraged and they knew that if they wanted to save the world for decency, they must go out without waiting to be hit and fight for it...
...Marx /ired in a revolutionary universe...
...I think it would be a good riddance if both these inter-related abstractions were forgotten...
...What do you make of it ? I make of it one more proof that the British people are looking to the future with exactly the same motives and purposes as brought them into the war...
...It is an old mistake—made by Tigan-Baranovsky, repeated by Bertrand Russell, Paul Howard Douglas and many other onlookers at the Marxian phenomenon...
...It is later, when it is made to repeat constantly certain routines that he is apt to find.it a little monotonous But here in this very repetition lie* the secret of his training...
...I can not, of course, expect these eminent critics to have read my books—not, at least, wtye I am thanking them for reading my »rticle...
...In all humbleness I beg Mr...
...Now my fourth point is this: The motives that brought the British people into the war and kept them steady and fighting after Dunkirk, through the blitz and up to this date, are still their motives...
...Two years ago the army of the United States was little more than a home defense unit...
...If those things are also what you want, then you and we are the right sort of Allies—not only in the middle of battle, but also when the day comes for cleaning up the battlefield and cultivating it again...
...A quartermillion men are pouring into the ranks each month...
...And he thinks that Marx was the better psychologist of the two because in describing the subrational drives, Freud overstressed the "sexual and individual...
...camps and equipment...
...He stands up and he talks up...
...And having read thst psychological concept into Marxism, he finds it easy to read in another, still more remote historically from Marx's mind, the Fieudian concept, namely, of ideas and opinions ss unconsciously moulded by these sub-rational drives...
...And not only is there a physical development accomplished in a short space of time, but there is also mental change and upon this change depends the morale of the army...
...HE most difficult material from the army * point of view is the smart young Iswyer, the high-pressure salesman, or other clever professionals...
...When he can do his job...
...There is no room here to expound my view of the relation of value judgments to science...
...But these pains were more evident a year ago than today...
...All he means to say is that the ideologist is not conscious of a motion in the 'economic conditions' which are a result of the evolution of the 'productive forces,' and of which^ his thoughts are a mere passive reflection...
...that I do not want society rebuilt "according to scientific prescription...
...They make it hard for their superiors as well as for themselves...
...The people sarw sooner than their government...
...The concept of the economic man had no placeeither in his economics or his theory of history...
...that I do not claim to "make Socialism error-proof...
...Niebuhr wants me to find in Marxism...
...Maybe...
...He will find there also that I do not accept Marx's "fundamental approach...
...The third point is that they went out with their eyes open, knowing exactly what they were in for...
...rVTO American when he says science means * "prescription"—that also goes with German metaphysics...
...sooner perhaps than any ether people in the world who did not live under the immediate threat of Nazi attack that Hitler and his gang were thugs who had to be stopped...
...And he will find in the chapter on "Revolutionary Jesuitism" in Stalin's Russia and the Crisis in Socialism, a demonstration of the inconsistency of such immoralism with scientific method as applied to social problems, that I think might make him blush a little for his sarcasm about my elevation above virtues...
...They knew about Abyssinia...
...Army men of experience will tell you that they find it easier to work with raw country material than with the sophisticated youth of the larger city...
...Eastman, far from overcoming this weakness of Marxism, continues to share its uncritical scientific dogmatism...
...Every minute of the day—and it i« a long day—he is kept busy and interested...
...It does not mean that I am "too enlightened for such old-fashioned and half-ridiculous things as virtues are...
...In answer to Mr...
...They knew, but it didn't occur to any one of them not to go right on with the job...
...The second point is that the people went into it freely, not because events drove them into it...
...And to impute to one who does adopt an experimental method a "claim to make Socialism error-proof" is mere shadow-boxing...
...Niebuhr uses the Marxian term "ideology" as though it were simply equivalent to Freud's terms, "rationalization," "substitution," "transfer of the affect," etc...
...we must be cautious about the scheme of common ownership...
...After Dunkirk, some people thought that the British were so cool and quiet because they didn't really understand how great their danger was...
...In the middle of 1941 the Army consisted of 93.000 officers and less than a million-and-a-half men...
...DERHAPS it has some bearing on this that 1 * I find the contribution of Alfred Baker Lewis to the present debate extremely penetrating, and the hardest of all to answer...
...China and Spain...
...Now another point—India...
...It requires no great learning or cleverness...
...free from the threat of poverty, insecurity, aggression and more war...
...An organist, for instance, is no trouble at all to his officers...
...Men come in from all walks and conditions of life, from all social strata and from many environments...
...The success of Marx's effort was a part of his definition of the facts...
...And pending another chapter, please do not imagine that because I say "socialism" is unscientific as a scheme of freedom...
...Look at the record...
...During the first couple oT months the new soldier is kept fully occupied...
...This does not mean that I do not think these efforts must be "deliberate...
...So far it has been possible to rescue only one of all those countries which the Axis has wronged, enslaved and tortured in the last ten years...
...In experimental procedure the goal is not prescribed and" can not be...
Vol. 25 • November 1942 • No. 48
