1944—Many socialists continue to pose problems in strictly traditional, if not routine terms. The schemas they have in mind are those of 1917–1918, and even of 1871! As if events were going to repeat themselves. (They could reproduce themselves fragmentarily, but the entire context being different the big picture will be profoundly different.) The extraordinary power of tradition, attaining a kind of blindness; also take into account the painful difficulty of mastering a new situation, full of pitfalls and disappointments; the spirit of objective investigation retreats and gives up rather than
...more
