"A certain kind of career is well known among American intellectuals. An eager young person joins the Socialist Something-or-other movement and spends several fervent years in its ranks. He develops literary and analytic skills. And after a while the Socialist Something-or-others begin to disappoint him. They aren’t prospering the way he expected. They need to shape up. He tells them how. But they won’t hear of it. The young comrade therefore undergoes a crisis. Why, he asks himself, can’t the Something-or-other movement do better? Why is the Party a failure and why is socialism not proving popular in America? Different answers come to mind. Maybe socialism doesn’t deserve to be popular. In that case the young militant becomes a conservative. Maybe socialism is all right but the Party’s version is extreme, rigid, or misguided. The militant becomes some sort of liberal or social democrat. Maybe what the Party believed as literal truth should be reinterpreted figuratively. The militant becomes a sophisticated radical. ..."
Voice - by Paul Berman (October 1, 1985)
W - Emma Goldman
2015 November: The Masses,1911 - 1917
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