Historical Ambiguity and Moral Judgment

...As primitive as they were, democratic institutions functioned to some extent, especially in the villages...

...While all other observers predicted that a liberal regime would have followed the Stalinist downfall in Hungary, Cole is not so sure: "Sheer chaos . threatened the country...

...The history of Communist deceptions and betrayals, one would think, should make it clear that there is no more need to form an organization with Communist members in order to discuss the butcheries of Budapest and the lessons to be drawn from it than there is need to form a common organization with Nazis to discuss the insanities of anti-Semitism...

...He overlooks the fact that the Soviet workers had more freedom in the early days of Communism than during the last few Five-Year Plans...

...If this is so, it takes only a reading of Khrushchev's famous anti-Stalin speech to realize that in these respects the Communist regimes have been far more abominable than those of some fascist countries like Italy, Hungary or Argentina...

...It would be, but no more absurd than to say the same thing about Communism...

...If so, we seem to be impelled toward agreeing that it is irrelevant to the issue whether the Hungarians, left to themselves, would have established a national Communist, or a Social Democratic, or a bourgeois parliamentarian, or even a fascist kind of state, provided only that it had been the real choice of a majority of the people...

...In terms of his own criteria, Cole cannot really distinguish between fascist and Communist regimes...

...Unfortunately, by April 20 Cole seems to have developed some doubts about self-determination and the freedom of peoples...

...Better a lean and hungry free man, Cole would undoubtedly say, than a fat slave under fascism...

...A saint and a sinner are both human...

...Nonetheless, the reasons he sets forth for his position are altogether inadequate...

...Who will intervene to save whom...

...If there is any danger that a people may freely vote for a fascist regime (which he does not define), they may justifiably be prevented from doing so even by the ungentle methods of the Kremlin...

...Yet, he cannot bring himself to say the same thing with respect to Communism...

...I regard fascism as a system so abominable in itself and so dangerous to the world's peace that I am ready to defend action designed to prevent any people from setting up a fascist regime, subject only to considerations of sheer expediency in any particular case...

...The various elements that had joined together in the uprising, having no common policy, would have been bound to fall out...

...and it is not possible to say what would have happened had not the Soviet Union, after once evacuating Budapest, sent back its tanks and lent its backing to the attempt to construct a new Communist government under the leadership of Janos Kadar...

...It is the differences that count, especially when freedom is at stake...

...To prevent a country from going fascist and potentially threatening world peace, Cole would intervene and actually threaten world peace...

...Meanwhile, before leaving these shores, Professor Hook wrote this critique of British historian G. D. H. Cole for the magazine Problems of Communism, a publication of the United States Information Agency...

...I shall doubtless be asked whether I feel the same about Communism—to which the answer is that I do not, because, despite its immoralism, it has shown itself also a great liberating force through the extension of education and social services to the masses previously excluded from them...

...It is, therefore, likely to become liberalized, even against its will, as the effects of these are shown in popular pressures for greater personal and political freedom...

...Any regime, even a democratic one, which threatens peace, in Cole's view, should become the object of intervention by the powers which love peace and order...

...It will not surprise the reader at this point to learn that Cole is in emphatic disagreement with the statement of the Socialist International that "socialism and Communism have nothing in common...

...He should refuse above all to dilute the effectiveness of his choice bv shrewd hair-splittings or prudent reservations, and should leave no doubt as to his personal intention to defend freedom...

...Cole often suggests that the choice is not between societies which have been democratic and Communist dictatorships, but between agrarian societies which knew no democracy whatsoever and Communism...

...Fear and terror can exist even when there is no hunger...

...It is more often another instrument for making totalitarianism more total...

...In his first article on Hungary, Cole distinctly gives the impression, despite some ambiguities, that the primary concern of the democratic Socialist is to give the majority of a population an opportunity freely to choose the regime under which it wants to live, including the form of property relations...

...Where there is no freedom of dissent, how can one get rid of the exploitative and oppressive Communist regime...

...It is not privilege alone which a ruling group tries to keep, but differences in privilege...

...It is simply a declaration that a moral abyss separates socialism from Communism, an abyss created in part by the murder of tens of thousands of democratic Socialists, which nothing Communists now say or do can bridge...

...If literacy by itself necessarily germinated a desire for freedom, what would be true for Communist countries, when they were literate, would be true for fascist countries as well...

...The paradox becomes all the more astonishing when those men turn out to be not followers of doctrinaire ideologies, but, like George Bernard Shaw or Sidney Webb, essentially pragmatists and empiricists, whose belief in socialism stems more from moral ideals than from acceptance of the Marxian economic equations of capitalist doom...

...and probably there would have been, even in the absence of Western intervention, a civil war of which it is impossible to predict the outcome...

...Peace and order," of course, were the wtachwords under which Metternich and the Russians suppressed the revolutionary disturbances of the 19th century, but it would be an injustice to Cole not to see the difference between his desire for peace and order and that of Khrushchev's forebears...

...Where there is some freedom of dissent, it is possible to present alternatives...

...There have been various types of apologists, of course...

...But the statement is not intended to be taken literally...

...No summary can do justice to Cole's own words: "Most of us who do, as Socialists, repudiate the Soviet Union's action do so, at any rate in part, because we set a high value on the principle of national self-determination and uphold the right of the Hungarian people, at any rate within very wide limits, to determine their course of action without being dictated to by any external force...

...Second, fascist countries have also on occasion contributed "social services to the masses previously excluded from them...

...Peron was the darling of the Argentine workers for that very reason...

...On the other hand, they assert that unity with anti-Communist parties is in principle inadmissible any time, anywhere...

...Of course, even if it turned out that the workers in fascist countries were economically privileged over workers in free countries, this would still not reconcile Socialists to the loss of freedom...

...A fascist regime must for him be any regime which is (1) intrinsically abominable and (2) dangerous to world peace...

...He assumes that, if only heavy industry is built and collectivized, in time literacy, culture and political freedom will necessarily result...

...Hitlerism is one of them and totalitarian Communism is another...

...Things are apt to become confusing here...

...The events of two generations, which seem to have taught him nothing, stand in the way of this naive belief...

...Indeed, his analysis of the Hungarian Revolution seems to have been motivated less by his concern about Hungary as such (though doubtless his thoughts and feelings are genuine and sincere) than by his overriding desire to utilize the current ferment and dissatisfaction in Communist ranks for the eventual goal of Socialist-Communist unity...

...Cole, whose studies of past Socialist history have drawn much praise, has nevertheless stood almost alone among West European Socialists in his ambiguous attitude toward the Hungarian Revolution and the Soviet attack which overthrew the revolutionary government of Imre Nagy...

...And there are the intellectually honest left-wing Socialists, who profess abhorrence of Communist ideology but nevertheless remain adamant in treating Communist parties as "brother" Socialist parties striving to achieve the socialist commonwealth in their own distinctive way...

...Would it not be absurd to say that these revolts really evolved out of the "maturing" of fascist economy and culture...

...Even if this were true, it is hard to see how one can—on moral grounds— justify substituting monolithic dictatorships, whether Communist or fascist, with their police systems and total disregard for human dignity, for authoritarian agrarian regimes...

...But literacy, where the Government holds an absolute monopoly over what may be read and written, is a dubious weapon in the struggle for freedom...

...Even here, Cole is clearly mistaken...

...To be opposed to "capitalism," no matter how it is defined, does not tell us much about a social philosophy until we know what is being proposed as a replacement...

...Cole is altogether too sanguine about this...

...To be sure, their historical origins are the same, but so are the historical origins of Judaism, Christianity, Mohammedanism, Calvinism and Ethical Culture...

...the freedoms of which the workers have been robbed will necessarily be restored to them...

...This author submits that the term applies to any regime which organizes or countenances such things as the frame-up of innocent persons, periodic purges untrammeled by law, concentration camps, the taking and punishing of hostages, the torture and degradation of human beings...

...There is nothing automatic about the rebirth of freedom under the economy of socialism, if a system of forced labor can be called socialism...

...By April 20, he is saying in effect that if socialism cannot be brought about by decent moral conduct, then let us resign ourselves if it is brought about by indecent moral conduct, for time—and the forces of production—will heal the indecencies...

...A good example of this latter attitude is provided by the recent writings of the English Socialist, G. D. H. Cole, now president of the Fabian Society—in particular, by his stand on the Hungarian Revolution...

...By Sidney Hook Moral Judgment and Historical Ambiguity A Socialist View It is one of the great cultural paradoxes of our century that men of impressive intellectual gifts, nurtured in democratic and/or socialist traditions, should have taken upon themselves—perhaps without realizing its full implications—the role of apologists for totalitarian despotism...

...Public dissent was not a capital crime and often was widespread...

...Only Hitler's regime can be compared to Communist countries in its degree of abomination...

...for I do not feel able to believe that, had they stood aside, the Hungarian people would have been in a position freely and democratically to decide their own destiny...

...Cole is not sure that the Hungarians would have democratically decided their own destinies...

...But if danger to peace is the primary consideration, it makes no difference what the form of regime...

...Cole does recognize that socialism and Communism differ deeply in many ways, but from the tautology that they do not differ entirely he seeks to insinuate the conclusion that they do not differ essentially in relation to their basic goals...

...What Cole does tell us, however, is that Communists are not beyond redemption, and that Socialists should be willing to enter into discussions with those Communists whose dogmas have been somewhat modified under the corrosive impact of recent political events...

...Cole would intervene and in all likelihood start a war now...

...Cole does not tell us...

...It remains to be seen whether the improvement in the standard of living in Communist countries surpasses that in non-Communist, even fascist countries...

...Further, it is a matter of plain historical fact that some fascist countries have not threatened the peace of the world...

...But are most of us prepared to go so far...

...For this means capitulation to reaction, to "monopoly capitalism" and, under certain circumstances, to "counter-revolution...

...It cannot justify total Communist oppression—certainly not, one would think, to the democratic Socialist...

...He is therefore compelled to fall back on a position which violates the principles of socialist morality he himself has professed...

...Note, the fact that the key term "fascism" is not defined by Cole and that the enormous differences between a Mussolini regime, a Franco, Peron, Salazar, Horthy regime, and a Hitler regime—all called fascist—are ignored...

...The grounds for Cole's position—his view that the USSR and world Communism promote "socialism'*— have also been unanimously rejected for many years by the British Labor party and Socialist International...

...I, for one, am not...

...He must believe that if and when the forces of production under Communism become sufficiently ripe—and who is to say when that is...

...Was not the Kremlin's threat to bomb the West a threat to peace...

...He fears that they would have fought with each other, and that out of this civil war something even worse than Kadar's terror might have emerged: "Nevertheless, I recognize that the Russians had a difficult choice to make...

...Finally, if we were to be guided merely by declarations of warlike intentions and predictions of inevitable struggle between democracy and Communism, Communist ideology from Lenin to Stalin is replete with incitements to preparation for inevitable war despite all the talk about coexistence...

...The ambiguity in Cole's position on Hungary now becomes explicable...

...Cole is not so daft as to believe the Communist nonsense about fascism being the dictatorship of finance capital...

...As far as danger to world peace is concerned, there is a curious inconsistency in Cole's approach...

...Since he is Sidney Hook is now touring Western Europe, and his next contributions will deal with the European scene...

...Totalitarian Communism is worse because, among other things, it is a new form of class society, mora oppressive than any hitherto developed, at least in Western society...

...For some of Cole's fellow-Fabians recently declared that Israel, France and England threatened the peace of the world...

...The fact that Socialists and Communists are both opposed to capitalism does not mean very much until we have a more precise conception of capitalism...

...There is a great danger that anyone who argues in the manner of Cole will find those arguments used to support the positions of the two other varieties of "socialism," positions of which Cole undoubtedly disapproves: that of the politically irresponsible men of genius and that of the plain opportunists...

...And all this aside from aggressions of an internal kind as in the Baltic countries and the coup d'etat in Czechoslovakia...

...First, fascist countries, too, notably Japan and Germany, have extended the literacy of their populations...

...Socialism and fascism are both social movements...

...There have been sporadic revolts against fascism in Germany, Spain and Argentina...

...But it is not true...

...In an article in the January 12 issue of the New Statesman and Nation, Cole condemns the Kremlin's action, but he offers an explanation of this action which could easily be interpreted as an apology for the Kadar restoration and which sounds strangely ambiguous to any Socialist for whom freedom comes first...

...In their view, unity with Communist parties may not be feasible or desirable at the moment, but there would be no objection to it in principle, inasmuch as the future may bring both "proletarian" parties much closer together...

...The Nazis, too, as their very name proclaimed, were opposed to "capitalism...

...Now taken literally this is untrue, because any two things have something in common...

...Otherwise he could hardly speak of the threat of Hungarian fascism...

...There are the cynics and opportunists, who pose as left-wing Socialists and press for a united front with the Communist party in the hope of being properly rewarded for their efforts once the Communists are in power...

...It is rather wearying to have to point out, again and again, the dangers inherent in the attempt to establish any working unity with Communists, however discontented...

...Democracy is a matter of degree, and in every country in which Communists have seized power, whether it be Czechoslovakia or China, Estonia or Albania, there is less democracy now than before...

...Of course, he doesn't like the massacre of the innocents any more than the next Fabian, but political intelligence must not yield to mere moral sentiment...

...He generously gives the Hungarian freedom fighters the benefit of the doubt...

...not sure that fascism would not have resulted from the popular revolution against Hungarian Stalinism, he is not sure about the wisdom or justification of Socialist condemnation of the Kadar terror regime...

...Because a fascist country may make war in the future...

...There are the eminent men of letters and the arts, people like Sartre and Picasso, who enjoy a kind of Narrenfreiheit with respect to politics, but whose commitments would probably not survive knowledge of the actual facts of Soviet life...

...People have a right," he declares, "to self-determination...

...What makes a regime intrinsically abominable or, to use Cole's own words, "abominable in itself...

...Even Hitler and Mussolini did something for the unemployed which the liberal regimes they displaced had failed to do...

...It should not take much acuity to realize that there are worse things than democratic capitalism...

...Partial corruption is bad enough, even if it is remediable...

...Despite Cole's refusal to accept the principle of self-determination if a people votes itself into "fascism," he concludes his analysis with a forthright condemnation of the Soviet repressive action because he is still not sure that the success of the Hungarian Revolution would have led to "fascism" or war...

...Self-determination is not an absolute good...

...In his article of January 12, he had written: "I hold that socialism can legitimately be sought for only by means consistent with decent moral conduct...

...For example, socialism and capitalism are both social systems...

...Yet, if Cole, or for that matter any Socialist, is merely interested in discussing various issues with Communists without entering into organizational ties with them—a wish to which there should, of course, be no objection—it might be fitting to remind him of a recent statement of Albert Camus, defining the responsibilities of the intellectual of our time: "In certain exceptional circumstances (the Spanish War, the Hitlerian persecutions and camps, the Stalinist trials and camps, the Hungarian revolt), he should permit no ambiguity about which side he has chosen...

...Franco Spain, for instance, has done no saber-rattling...

...Should the democratic powers have intervened there, particularly since these aggressions outraged the freely given consent of the people...

...On the other hand, Tito at the time of the Trieste difficulties almost precipitated a war, while Communist China, with the help of the Kremlin, actually unleashed one in Korea...

...If he grants this, he must also grant that they have a right to determine for themselves whether to live in a collectivized or non-collectivized society, regardless of what these terms signify today...

...He falls victim to the blindest obsession of the orthodox Marxist—the fetishism of the forces of production...