The Liberal Mind By William F. Buckley, Jr . William F. Buckley, Jr ., author of God and Man at Yale, co-authored with L. Brent Bozell the widely-discussed book McCarthy and His Enemies. Buckley, a 1950 Yale graduate, is a lecturer and regular panelist on Fact s Forums ANSWERS FOR AMERICANS . Buckley has projected a new maga- zine, National Weekly, which, according to Newsweek, is slated to begin publication in September. N recent years, a number of importan t nists, and they, quite evidently, do no t I books and articles have been written, understand the Communists . I believe and important things thought and sai d that our most immediate challenge is to understand our leaders ; and having about the Communist. What is he like ? stream of contemporary political and What goes on in his mind? What is he understood them we must either dis- possess them of power, or make them philosophical thought. the swollen an d afraid of? How can we move him? How irrepressible stream fed for so man y does he operate? What is he likely to d o understand, or prepare to die. For our n leaders, call them what you will—socia l years by the waters of rationalism, posi- in this situation, or that one? How ca tivism, Marxism, and utopianism . we vanquish him here, contain him democrats, Fabians, progressive moder- there, coexist with him over there? W e ates ; I call them Liberals, and I spel l As regards contemporary American haven't mastered the Communist tem- that word with a capital "L"—are the controversies, the Liberal is likely to feel perament, or the Communist mind, true ; unknown in the great equation . that Owen Lattimore has been unjustly much of the Communist remains in- I think it is easy to demonstrate that persecuted and that our loyalty progra m scrutable . But the progress we hav e we know more about the workings o f has become an instrument of right-win g made is vast . We have learned so much the mind of Nikolai Bulganin than we conformity. He tends to believe that the about this man, and about his movemen t know about the workings of the mind o f Bricker Amendment is a reactionary plot that, I think it is safe to say, the Com- Dwight Eisenhower . For, while com- to immobilize the executive branch o f munist emerges as the most predictabl e pared to one another with reference to government . He is easily persuaded that political animal alive and active today. almost any acceptable standard, one is Senator McCarthy represents today the One would think that, in this case, a scoundrel and one relatively a saint— same kind of threat that Adolf Hitler knowing the enemy is nine-tenths of th e the life of Bulganin makes sense in a held out to the Germans twenty year s battle . After all, we are physicall y way that the life of Eisenhower does not. ago. And whatever little disagreement s stronger than the Communists, and w e A reviewer of my last book charged they have in- their own ranks, the Lib- firmly believe that our values are inher- that in using the word Liberal I could erals unite to honor their heroes. In law ently superior to theirs . only have in mind the' clientele of it is Oliver Wendell Holmes ; in educa- Yet year in and year out we not only Nation magazine. I have been careful tion and philosophy it is John Dewey ; come in second in every lap of our in the past, and will continue to be, t o in politics it is Franklin Roosevelt. mortal race with the Communists, we are be precise enough to defend myself The picture I have drawn of the Lib- made to look as though we had elected easily against such a charge ; so that eral is, of course, fragmentary and in- to race with balls and chains tied to ou r when I talk about Liberals it is clear conclusive . It has only the purpose o f ankles, and blindfolds over our eyes . that I am not referring only to those giving a general idea of just who it i s Could it be that we have funda- frenzied malcontents who support th e I am talking about, of dispelling th e mentally misunderstood the Communists, Nation, I have in mind the pleasant an d notion that when I talk about a Liberal with the result that, like the man wit h pensive man who owns your local book- I could only be referring to mental the shell game, they are able to fool u s store and fills his window full of th e spastics such as Nye Bevan or Agne s every time? Did we lose North Korea collected complaints of E . B . White, Meyer. because the Communists upset all our James Wechsler, and Elmer Davis, tha t careful calculations by acting atypi- good and lovable lady who regularly de- PERILS OF THE LIBERAL MIN D cally? Did we lose Indochina because serts her housewifely duties in the sprin g the Communists pulled something out o f to help raise money for the Unite d Then we cannot survive unless we the bag that no reasonable Westerner World Federalists, and the ambitious understand our own leaders—the rul- could possibly have anticipated? Do the and orderly young man who works for ing elite of the Western world—the Communists continue to have suet. a Wall Street broker and maps program s Liberals. strength in Italy and France because o f and draws up manifestoes for the Youn g I urge therefore that those who are an inventiveness so diabolically ingeni- Republican Club lamenting our age o f competent to do so set out, as a matter ous as to incapacitate the Western strat- suspicion. I don't mean to imply that of urgent concern to us all, to explore the egist? I believe not . As I say. I believe there is no such thing as the sinister, the Liberal mind. I myself have neither th e the Communist is a highly predictable guileful, or the treacherous Liberal ; patience, the skills, nor the trepidation creature. I believe that as the result o f there are many ; but the majority are in to embark upon so frightening an ad - our tortuous journey into the recesses most respects good and amiable and venture. As of this moment I am merely of the Communist mind, we have com e talented people. reporting on what I can see from here. close to understanding him . So I am not talking about an unrul y aware that the distance that separate s But we do not understand the people little eddy. When I talk about moder n me and my target may result in illu- charged with coping with the Commu- Liberalism I am talking about the main-. (Continued on Page 52) is not only what comes out of him, bu t what he puts up with from others. Has The Liberal Mind anyone here ever heard any stentoria n voice from Liberaldom register disma y (Continued from Page 6) at this or ahyy,other of the intellectual sions and distortions and oversimpli- you defended your right to shake hands monstrosities mothered by this woman ? fications. with Mr. Vishinsky, and Senator Mc - No : Mrs. Roosevelt is a certified Lib- Aware of these limitations then, I Carthy. Would you also have felt it was eral,and I know of no one who refuses nevertheless venture upon a short,canaly- right to shake hands with Adolf Hitler? " to acknowledge her license as a, spokes- sis of the Liberal mind . And I shall Replied Mrs. Roosevelt (not, I think , man for ,,American Liberalism . In quot- argue that it is indispensable to a knowl- after anything but the intensest intellec- ing her I do not pretend to be quotin g edge of that mind to recognize tha t tual effort to solve that one), "In Adolf from a first-ranking Liberal scholar or there is an enormous area in which the Hitler 's early days I might have "consid- philosopher ; but I do ask why first - Liberal does not know how to think . ered it, but after he had begun his mas s ranking Liberal scholars and philoso- More specifically : he is illogical, he is killings I don't think I could have borne phers and thoughtful laymen counten- inconsistent, and he cannot assess evi- it.„ ance her. It must be either because (a ) dence. I suggest that any effort to under - they are aware that Mrs . Roosevelts Several years ago, I wrote a critique stand Mrs. Roosevelt 's code on when i t close personal and political association of modern education—specifically, of is permissible to shake someone 's hand with her husband invested her with a Yale education—for which I now fee l is very difficult if one has reference t o glamor which is highly utilitarian, or I must, in part, apologize . I apologize these statements . If we were to set up a (b), (and this is both more plausible not so much for the irrelevance of the syllogism, here is how it would look : and more charitable), not knowin g indictment as for its incompleteness . Proposition s A : E. R. will not shak e themselves how to think, they are in - Almost all of my critics intoned that hands with those who are guilty of mass competent to recognize that Mrs. Roose- Yale—that Liberal education—attempt s killings . velt does not know how to think .