VOLUME XV, NO.

37
SEPTEMBER 12, 1962

HENRY DAVID THOREAU

[The material by Henry Miller which forms this never anything supine about their acquiescence:
article first appeared as a preface to Life without They could be wooed or seduced but not
Principle, a book of three essays by Thoreau,
published in 1946 by James Ladd Delkin. It is here
intimidated.
taken from Henry Miller's latest book, Stand Still Like The essays gathered together in this little
the Hummingbird, international copyright by Henry volume were all speeches, a fact of some
Miller, reprinted by permission of the author and
New Directions, publishers.]
importance if one reflects how impossible it would
be today to give public utterance to such
THERE are barely a half-dozen names in the sentiments. The very notion of "civil
history of America which have meaning for me. disobedience," for example, is now unthinkable.
Thoreau's is one of them. I think of him as a true (Except in India, perhaps, where in his campaign
representative of America, a type, alas, which we of passive resistance Gandhi used this speech as a
have ceased to coin. He is what Lawrence would textbook.) In our country a man who dared to
call "an aristocrat of the spirit," which is to say, imitate Thoreau's behavior with regard to any
that rarest thing on earth: an individual. He is crucial issue of the day would undoubtedly be sent
nearer to being an anarchist than a democrat, to prison for life: Moreover, there would be none
socialist or communist. However, he was not to defend him—as Thoreau once defended the
interested in politics; he was the sort of person name and reputation of John Brown. As always
who, if there were more of his kind, would soon happens with bold, original utterances, these
cause government to become nonexistent. This, essays have now become classic. Which means
to my mind, is the highest type of man a that, though they still have the power to mold
community can produce. And that is why I have character, they no longer influence the men who
an unbounded respect and admiration for govern our destiny. They are prescribed reading
Thoreau. for students and a perpetual source of inspiration
The secret of his influence, which is still alive, to the thinker and the rebel, but as for the reading
still active, is a very simple one. He was a man of public in general they carry no weight, no message
principle whose thought and behavior were in any longer. The image of Thoreau has been fixed
complete agreement. He assumed responsibility for the public by educators and "men of taste": it
for his deeds as well as his utterances. is that of a hermit, a crank, a nature faker. It is
Compromise was not in his vocabulary. America, the caricature which has been preserved, as is
for all her advantages, has produced only a usually the case with our eminent men.
handful of men of this caliber. The reason for it is The important thing about Thoreau, in my
obvious: men like Thoreau were never in mind, is that he appeared at a time when we had,
agreement with the trend of the times. They so to speak, a choice as to the direction we, the
symbolized that America which is as far from American people, would take. Like Emerson and
being born today as it was in 1776 or before. Whitman, he pointed out the right road—the hard
They took the hard road instead of the easy one. road, as I said before. As a people we chose
They believed in themselves first and foremost, differently. And we are now reaping the fruits of
they did not worry about what their neighbors our choice. Thoreau, Whitman, Emerson—these
thought of them, nor did they hesitate to defy the men are now vindicated. In the gloom of current
government when justice was at stake. There was events these names stand out like beacons. We

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pay eloquent lip service to their memory, but we peace and security of the world lie not in
continue to flout their wisdom. We have become inventions but in men's hearts, men's souls. His
victims of the times, we look backward with whole life bore testimony to the obvious fact
longing and regret. It is too late now to change, which men are constantly overlooking, that to
we think. But it is not. As individuals, as men, it sustain life we need less rather than more, that to
is never too late to change. That is precisely what protect life we need courage and integrity, not
these sturdy forerunners of ours were emphasizing weapons, not coalitions. In everything he said and
all their lives. did he was at the farthest remove from the man of
today. I said earlier that his influence is still alive
With the creation of the atom bomb, the
and active. It is, but only because truth and
whole world suddenly realizes that man is faced
wisdom are incontrovertible and must eventually
with a dilemma whose gravity is
prevail. Consciously and unconsciously we are
incommensurable. In the essay called "Life
doing the very opposite of all that he advocated.
without Principle," Thoreau anticipated that very
But we are not happy about it, nor are we at all
possibility which shook the world when it received
convinced that we are right. We are, in fact, more
the news of the atom bomb. "Of what
bewildered, more despairing than we ever were in
consequence," says Thoreau, "though our planet
the course of our brief history. And that is most
explode, if there is no character involved in the
curious, most disturbing, since we are now
explosion? . . . I would not run around a corner
acknowledged to be the most powerful, the most
to see the world blow up."
wealthy, the most secure of all the nations of the
I feel certain Thoreau would have kept his earth. We are at the top, but have we the vision
word, had the planet suddenly exploded of its own to maintain this vantage point? We have a vague
accord. But I also feel certain that, had he been suspicion that we have been saddled with a
told of the atom bomb, of the good and bad that it responsibility which is too great for us. We know
was capable of producing, he would have had that we are not superior, in any real sense, to the
something memorable to say about its use. And other peoples of this earth. We are just waking up
he would have said it in defiance of the prevalent to the fact that morally we are far behind
attitude. He would not have rejoiced that the ourselves, so to speak. Some blissfully imagine
secret of its manufacture was in the hands of the that the threat of extinction—cosmic suicide—will
righteous ones. He would have asked rout us out of our lethargy. I am afraid that such
immediately: "Who is righteous enough to employ dreams are doomed to be smashed even more
such a diabolical instrument destructively?" He effectively than the atom itself. Great things are
would have had no more faith in the wisdom and not accomplished through fear of extinction. The
sanctity of this present government of the United deeds which move the world, which sustain life
States than he had of our government in the days and give life, have a different motivation entirely.
of slavery. He died, let us not forget, in the midst
The problem of power, an obsessive one with
of the Civil War, when the issue which should
Americans, is now at the crux. Instead of working
have been decided instantly by the conscience of
for peace, men ought to be urged to relax, to stop
every good citizen was at last being resolved in
work, to take it easy, to dream and idle away their
blood. No, Thoreau would have been the first to
time for a change. Retire to the woods! if you can
say that no government on earth is good enough
find any nearby. Think your own thoughts for a
or wise enough to be entrusted with such powers
while! Examine your conscience, but only after
for good and evil. He would have predicted that
you have thoroughly enjoyed yourself. What is
we would use this new force in the same manner
your job worth, after all, if tomorrow you and
that we have used other natural forces, that the
yours can all be blown to smithereens by some

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reckless fool? Do you suppose that a government he owes allegiance. The fiction that the State
can be depended on any more than the separate exists for our protection has been exploded a
individuals who compose it? Who are these thousand times. However, as long as men lack
individuals to whom the destiny of the planet itself self-assurance and self-reliance, the State will
now seems to be entrusted? Do you believe in thrive; it depends for its existence on the fear and
them utterly, every one of them? What would you uncertainty of its individual members.
do if you had the control of this unheard-of By living his own life in his own "eccentric"
power. Would you use it for the benefit of all way Thoreau demonstrated the futility and
mankind, or just for your own people, or your absurdity of the life of the (so-called) masses. It
own little group? Do you think that men can keep was a deep, rich life which yielded him the
such a weighty secret to themselves? Do you maximum of contentment. In the bare necessities
think it ought to be kept secret? he found adequate means for the enjoyment of
These are the sort of questions I can imagine life. "The opportunities of living," he pointed out,
a Thoreau firing away. They are questions which, "are diminished in proportion as what are called
if one has just a bit of common sense, answer the 'means' are increased." He was at home in
themselves. But governments never seem to Nature, where man belongs. He held communion
possess this modicum of common sense. Nor do with bird and beast, with plant and flower, with
they trust those who are in possession of it. star and stream. He was not an unsocial being, far
This American government—what is it but a from it. He had friends among women as well as
tradition though a recent one, endeavoring to transmit men. No American has written more eloquently
itself unimpaired to posterity, but each instant losing and truthfully of friendship than he. If his life
some of its integrity? It has not the vitality and force seems a restricted one, it was a thousand times
of a single living man, for a single man can bend it to wider and deeper than the life of the ordinary
his will. It is a sort of wooden gun to the people
themselves. But it is not the less necessary for this,
American today. He lost nothing by not mingling
for the people must have some complicated with the crowd, by not devouring the newspapers,
machinery or other, and hear its din, to satisfy that by not enjoying the radio or the movies, by not
idea of government which they have. Governments having an automobile, a refrigerator, a vacuum
show thus how successfully men can be imposed on, cleaner. He not only did not lose anything
even impose on themselves, for their own advantage.
through the lack of these things, but he actually
It is excellent, we must all allow. Yet this
government never of itself furthered any enterprise, enriched himself in a way far beyond the ability of
but by the alacrity with which it got out of its way. It the man of today who is glutted with these
does not keep the country free. It does not settle the dubious comforts and conveniences. Thoreau
West. It does not educate. The character inherent in lived, whereas we may be said to barely exist. In
the American people has done all that has been power and depth his thought not only matches
accomplished; and it would have done somewhat
more, if the government had not sometimes got in its
that of our contemporaries, but usually surpasses
way. . . . it. In courage and virtue there are none among
our leading spirits today to match him. As a
That is the way Thoreau spoke a hundred writer, he is among the first three or four we can
years ago. He would speak still more boast of. Viewed now from the heights of our
unflatteringly if he were alive now. In these last decadence, he seems almost like an early Roman.
hundred years the State has come to be a The word virtue has meaning again, when
Frankenstein. We have never had less need of the connected with his name.
State than now when we are most tyrannized by it.
The ordinary citizen everywhere has a code of It is the young people of America who may
ethics far above that of the government to which profit from his homely wisdom, from his example

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even more. They need to be reassured that what were lured from all regions, all walks of life, by
was possible then is still possible today. America the discovery of gold in California. Thoreau
is still a vastly unpopulated country, a land stayed at home, where he cultivated his own mine.
abounding in forests, streams, lakes, deserts, He had only to go a few miles to be deep in the
mountains, prairies, rivers, where a man of good- heart of Nature. For most of us, no matter where
will with a little effort and belief in his own we live in this great country, it is still possible to
powers can enjoy a deep tranquil, rich life— travel but a few miles and find oneself in Nature.
provided he go his own way. He need not and I have traveled the length and breadth of the land,
should not think of making a good living, but and if I was impressed by one thing it was by
rather of creating a good life for himself. The this—that America is empty. It is also true, to be
wise men always return to the soil; one has only to sure, that nearly all this empty space is owned by
think of the great men of India, China and France, someone or other—banks, railroads, insurance
their poets, sages, artists, to realize how deep is companies and so on. It is almost impossible to
this need in every man. I am thinking, naturally, wander off the beaten path without "trespassing"
of creative types, for the others will gravitate to on private property. But that nonsense would
their own unimaginative levels, never suspecting soon cease if people began to get up on their hind
that life holds any better promise. I think of the legs and desert the towns and cities. John Brown
budding American poets, sages and artists because and a bare handful of men virtually defeated the
they appear so appallingly helpless in this present- entire population of America. It was the
day American world. They all wonder so naively Abolitionists who freed the slaves, not the armies
how they will live if they do not hire themselves of Grant and Sherman, not Abraham Lincoln.
out to some taskmaster; they wonder still more There is no ideal condition of life to step into
how, after doing that, they will ever find time to anywhere at any time. Everything is difficult, and
do what they were called to do. They never think everything becomes more difficult still when you
any more of going into the desert or the choose to live your own life. But, to live one's
wilderness, of wresting a living from the soil, of own life is still the best way of life, always was,
doing odd jobs, of living on as little as possible. and always will be. The greatest snare and
They remain in the towns and cities, flitting from delusion is to postpone living your own life until
one thing to another, restless, miserable, an ideal form of government is created which will
frustrated, searching in vain for a way out. They permit everyone to lead the good life. Lead the
ought to be told at the outset that society, as it is good life now, this instant, every instant, to the
now constituted, provides no way out, that the best of your ability and you will bring about
solution is in their own hands and that it can be indirectly and unconsciously a form of
won only by the use of their own two hands. One government nearer to the ideal.
has to hack his way out with the ax. The real Because Thoreau laid such emphasis on
wilderness is not out there somewhere, but in the conscience and on active resistance, one is apt to
towns and cities, in that complicated web which think of his life as bare and grim. One forgets that
we have made of life and which serves no purpose he was a man who shunned work as much as
but to thwart, cramp and inhibit the free spirits. possible, who knew how to idle his time away.
Let a man believe in himself and he will find a way Stern moralist that he was, he had nothing in
to exist despite the barriers and traditions which common with the professional moralists. He was
hem him in. The America of Thoreau's day was too deeply religious to have anything to do with
just as contemptuous of, just as hostile to, his the Church, just as he was too much the man of
experiment as we are today to anyone who essays action to bother with politics. Similarly he was
it. Undeveloped as the country was then, men too rich in spirit to think o£ amassing wealth, too

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courageous, too self-reliant, to worry about

security and protection. He found, by opening his
eyes, that life provides everything necessary for
man's peace and enjoyment—one has only to
make use of what is there, ready to hand, as it
were. "Life is bountiful," he seems to be saying all
the time. "Relax! Life is here, all about you, not
there, not over the hill."
He found Walden. But Walden is
everywhere, if the man himself is there. Walden
has become a symbol. It should become a reality.
Thoreau himself has become a symbol. But he
was only a man, let us not forget that. By making
him a symbol, by raising memorials to him, we
defeat the very purpose of his life. Only by living
our own lives to the full can we honor his
memory. We should not try to imitate him but to
surpass him. Each one of us has a totally different
life to lead. We should not strive to become like
Thoreau, or even like Jesus Christ, but to become
what we are in truth and in essence. That is the
message of every great individual and the whole
meaning of being an individual. To be anything
less is to move nearer to nullity.
HENRY MILLER
Big Sur, California

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Letter from violating that no-traffic sign, was last month shot
and killed without challenge at that very spot.
AFRICA And yet this is not a police-state, as we think of it.
I sense no fear, no tension, and neither police no
YAOUNDE (Cameroun).—One of the attractive
Army are obtrusive. There is, of course, a curfew,
modern buildings up the hill above the hotel bears
which I am told is apt to vary without adequate
the label "Palais de Justice." Backing up to it, and
warning from 9 to 11 p.m. to 1 a.m. It has been
across a grassy court—one imagines a well-worn
each of these within the pas ten days. The curfew
path between—is a smaller building bearing the
comes from problems which are no less than
label "Cour d'Appel" (Court of Appeal). Not so
fantastic.
many people get there.
The Republic of Cameroun (the Cameroons,
Four who will not reach the second building
in the English version, or Kamerun, as it was
were convicted last week of offenses against the
known when a German colony until World War I)
State, and sentenced to not inconsiderable prison
has a population of about 3.5 million, who
terms. One was the first Prime Minister of the
represent 3 per cent of the population of South-
country, one the immediately preceding Foreign
of-the-Sahara Africa. These people speak 150
Minister. With two others they constituted the
African dialects, not all of the same language-
"opposition." There is now none. Thus ended the
group, not Basil, intelligible to each other, not all
last French West African experiment in the sort of
written. The Republic's "official" languages are
parliamentary government we are likely to
two others, French and English, native speech to
recognize as democratic.
none of its citizens, acquired by the estimated 10
Does this mean that the men who govern are per cent said to be literate. I was in a fascinating
or want to be dictators? I don't think so. They family gathering, night before last, in which one
are, however, faced with problems too massive to member spoke good English and no French (she
be handled by alien governmental methods, was in fact an English teacher); one was totally
developed in European society under different bilingual as a result of having lived fourteen years
conditions to meet different problems. in France and England, and one spoke good and
Yet the circumstances are puzzling. A one poor French. Their only effective common
Western representative, reporting recent events to tongue was Douala, from the area where they
me, told of his visit to the President upon the were born, the only language in which these
occasion of the arrest of the four. I expressed my evoluées can communicate with the mass of their
hope, he said, that the trials would be open. In families, who still live there. Can you make a
the event, the trials were announced by a modern, complicated nation-state with this kind of
telephone call which said, in direct translation, communication?
"You may come, but you are advised not to" Until a few months ago there was no night
("deconseiller," was the verb). train from Douala to Yaoundé, because of the
Walking about, yesterday evening, I guerrillas infesting the country. These had been
happened upon the beautifully lighted hillside partisans of a certain Dr. Moumié, about whom I
square in front of the floodlit Presidential Palace. know little, but they were openly harbored in
Noticing the usual European sign meaning "No Ghana and Guinea, openly financed by the
Thoroughfare," I desisted, turned about the park, Russians. Now there is a new Pullman car on the
away from the palace. The guard in his fancy red night train, the guerrillas have been driven back to
and green uniform stood rigidly, rifle at rest. This one isolated corner of the country, and there has
morning I was told that the driver of a car, recently been a Ghanian goodwill mission in

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Yaoundé. I arrived a few days ago on the same

plane with a special plenipotentiary from Guinea,
seeking a basis for the re-establisbment of
relations. One hopes that the breaches will be
healed between African states so they can turn
their attention to development problems.
This is essentially the case now being put for
the one-party state: to permit all attention to be
turned to problems of development. An African
earnestly assured me, just the other day: "Look at
America and Europe! You have everything. We
can't afford the luxury, the waste, of an
opposition." Repeatedly the argument reaches
this point and bogs down. I never seem able to
get it on to firm ground, or into understandable
terms.
Just last night I listened to a group of
European officials, more or less long-time
residents of Yaoundé, wrestling with the question
of the sources and nature of local
authoritarianism. They credit it with a sort of
stop-and-go character, a quality of uncertainty and
tentativeness. "It is almost," said one, "as though
the Government were conscience-stricken each
time it carries out one of its sudden acts of
violence." This would support the thought that
here is not by any means professional or
purposeful dictatorship, but rather the sort of
feeling-about for effectiveness in Government
which might characterize a new State, from
which, one hopes, those new forms of democracy
fit for this continent and its people will be born.
ROVING CORRESPONDENT

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devoid of utility. Too often the editorial page is a

REVIEW newspaper's least-read feature—perhaps because too
WHERE ARE YOU, DIOGENES? often it has ceased to be censor and has instead
become a part of the official establishment.
A WHILE back we quoted from the introduction
This is especially true today, it seems to me, in
to The Nonconformers, by David Evanier and foreign affairs. The most remarkable thing about
Stanley Silverzweig. Four sentences from that American editorial comment on the U-2 incident, on
introduction seem worth repeating: the Cuban invasion, on the impasse at Berlin, on Laos
Young people trying to find out exactly what is and Viet Nam and the Congo is its essential
going on in the world, find that the most serious uniformity. There are, to be sure, a few discordant,
obstacle in their path is the American press. . . . Most strident voices; every profession has its reprobates, of
journalists, if they tackle subjects of real importance, course. But nowadays criticism of the government
are likely to find that they are writing for The Nation, seems, like politics, to stop at the water's edge. There
The Progressive, or any one of the other highly is no real debate on the matters that mean life or
stimulating journals having limited circulation. That death to the nation.
is the problem that writers are confronted with. The One of the most interesting articles in the
problem readers are confronted with is to find the recent "Adventures of the Mind" series in the
periodicals that count, that really have something to
offer. Saturday Evening Post was contributed by Gerald
Sykes, a former State Department public-affairs
Certainly neither the "younger" generation officer for North Africa. Writing on "America's
nor the "older" generation gets much that is either Second Revolution" (Post, March 10), Mr. Sykes
informative or provocative from the commercial comments on the fear of intelligent controversy:
press. But, as Alan Barth points out ("Freedom
Political scientists tell us that the political
and the Press," in the June Progressive), this is psychology of most people is traditional and
not the effect of direct government censorship of emotional. On the whole they vote as their fathers
the editorial page. Rather, the explanation seems did, and they take considerable satisfaction in doing
to lie in the fact that the majority of people in our so. Rather than choosing the candidate who will do
time accept the pretense that all the "real" issues most for them—or, preferentially, the most for the
are related to the Free World's struggle against community—they indulge the reexpression of our
passions. Political scientists hold that such behavior
Communism. Issues on the domestic scene are constitutes a serious threat to democracy, which
blurred to avoid any appearance of discord. Mr. depends for its survival upon the intelligence of the
Barth describes some of the consequences: electorate. If burdened with too many emotionally
directed citizens, democracy cannot compete with
The aspect of the relationship between
dictatorship, which can mobilize its people without
government and the press which concerns me most of
regard to their prejudices or their feelings. The hope
all and seems to me the most significant is the role of
of democracy is obviously education in terms of
the editorial page. It is this department of the
enlightened self-interest.
newspaper for which the First Amendment's
guarantee of freedom has most meaning. And it is As the depth psychologists point out, that kind
pre-eminently this department which is supposed to of education is the hardest of all to achieve. It is far
discharge the newspaper's function of censoring the easier to teach people to read than to think about what
government. they read.
The editorial page, once the heart and soul of But just how courageously free can a man be
the American newspaper, has fallen in many in his utterances on touchy subjects without losing
instances into disuse. A1most every newspaper
continues to publish an editorial page. Too often,
his audience? It depends on who is reading him.
however, it has become a vestigial appendage—an Anything remotely critical of the status quo of the
adornment perpetuated long after its purpose has been democratic "order" is likely to be regarded with
forgotten, as men continue to wear on the sleeves of suspicion by the majority. But there is also a
their jackets buttons which have become altogether

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growing minority, Mr. Sykes thinks, who have a in the spirit of the general conclusions of depth
preference for the truth at any price. Sykes puts it psychology and illustrates how they could contribute,
in a most practical way, to the survival of our national
this way:
ideals:
Man is more complex than we have imagined,
We are known as a nation of pioneers. Even
he has awesome capacities for evil, but he also has
today, generations after we settled our land, we
tremendous capacities for good. These we should
continue to be pioneers—but pioneers of a new kind.
never overlook. We are exploring the true character
Our present pioneering involves both the benefits and
of this man by testing whether he can, of his own
the vice of technology. Our technical skills have not
volition, retain his birthright of freedom. We are also
only made us powerful, they have confronted us with
testing our people to see how many can acquire
entirely new problems concerning the relationship of
freedom in its more personal forms—psychological or
man and the machine. Even our public posture as a
philosophical freedom.
people—a mixture of brashness, complacence and
We know that man is more apt to become a extreme sensitivity to criticism—reveals the stresses
fearful robot than a courageous individual. But we of a continuing interior or moral revolution which
have also discovered that the courageous individual, often strains our national fiber to the utmost. Despite
even in a mass-dominated society finally wins the our comparative youth, the spiritual and emotional
most respect—though he must struggle, he ultimately demands of this revolution sometimes make us feel
wields the most influence. like the oldest nation on earth.
In consequence of this, the land of "the lonely We have been exposed more fully than any other
crowd" is producing a Remnant, a self-reliant people to the effects of technology. We have
minority such as that which saved ancient Israel and experienced its advantages and its disadvantages. We
that which created Greek philosophy. The growth of know that large-scale industrialization cannot only
a Remnant among us, though slow and unpublicized, make a land powerful, it can also bring it trouble. We
is one of the most important developments of our have learned that man is not the simple economic
second revolution. The determined struggle of a few unit that Marx describes—that he does not conform to
individuals to achieve clarity amid prevailing any given set of ideological descriptives.
confusion has both a cultural and a political
In America the individual has fewer traditional
significance. It means that a new kind of American
aids than in any other culture. He is on his own. If
leadership is being produced.
he survives as an individual, it is because he has
This conception of a "new minority" is basic found the wellsprings of survival in his own mind.
to Mr. Sykes' thinking. A man carrying the America is the most nakedly psychological country in
the world, in the sense that our pragmatic break with
responsibilities of leadership may draw on hidden past methods has left us with fewer preconceptions
potentialities in himself, and this may be and fewer ancestral habits than any other people. We
happening with the "new minority," and being started with an empty land, and each day we
sensed, however dimly, by others. He continues: obliterate more of the few landmarks we have erected
there. Critics say that our literature is the most
Let us imagine a President of the United States abstract of all. We are still contending with some of
who wished to avail himself of the political lessons of the unexpected problems of making the New World
the depth psychologists, however disconcerting they livable, both physically and spiritually. If America
may be. Let us assume he became interested in their fails as Freud predicted, it will be because the mind of
kind of insight and decided to put one of their man has failed.
recommendations to a pragmatic test. Let us further
assume that test would involve the value of absolute Although there is nothing extraordinary about
truthfulness in a realistic appraisal of our present this language—which Mr. Sykes puts in the mouth
situation. of a philosophically inclined president—the
If such a spokesman were to tell the truth in a emphasis is clearly "para-political." If we ever
way acceptable to the depth psychologists, what have a president who thinks naturally at this level,
would he say and how would it be received by the rest
we will have to have earned his presence by a
of the world? Though the answer must be purely
hypothetical, I believe the statement which follows is

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growth of the "new minority" of which Mr. Sykes

speaks.

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COMMENTARY successfully, which is to say, as impersonally. For

MILLER'S SAY his writing, Miller is an observation post, not an
egocentric focus. A man with vision can write
STAND STILL LIKE THE HUMMINGBIRD about almost anything and make what he says
(New Directions) is as good a book as any with profitable to the reader. The business of the artist
which to become acquainted with Henry Miller. is to choose a form and then to burst out of its
The material in this volume—essays, prefaces, limitations—to transfigure it. That way he does
reviews—covers a span of twenty-five years in his miracle. Miller, most of the time, brings off his
Miller's life. The author himself wonders what miracle.
holds these miscellaneous contributions together,
This week's lead article, kindly made available
yet the unity of the volume is plain. It comes from
to MANAS by author and publisher, hardly needs
a temper of the human spirit. Henry Miller, you
comment. It has the living, contemporary quality
might argue, has but one thing to say, but he says
that any appreciation of Thoreau ought to
it with endless variety. In the preface to this
possess. .There is an excusable exaggeration here
book, the communication takes an explicit form:
and there. For one thing, Thoreau's emulators,
The language of society is conformity, the today—the non-violent civil disobedients—are not
language of the creative individual is freedom. Life sent to prison for life, but for months and years
will continue to be a hell as long as the people who
make up the world shut their eyes to reality.
(seldom more than five); and there are people
Switching from one ideology to another is a useless who defend them: MANAS defends them;
game. Each and every one of us is unique, and must Liberation defends them; Lewis Mumford defends
be recognized as such. The least we can say about them, and Henry Miller defends them. Actually,
ourselves is that we are American, or French, or there is a sense in which what Henry Miller says
whatever the case may be. We are first of all human about the present becomes less true, simply
beings, different from one another, and obliged to live
together, to stew in the same pot. The creative spirits because of the way in which he says it. Every
are the fecundators: they are the lamed vov who keep time something like this appears in print in the
the world from falling apart. Ignore them, suppress United States, Thoreau becomes a brighter ideal, a
them, and society becomes a collection of automatons. stronger influence, in American life.
What we don't want to face, what we don't want
to hear or listen to, whether it be nonsense, treason or
sacrilege, are precisely the things we must give heed
to. Even the idiot may have a message for us. Maybe
I am one of those idiots. But I will have my say.
In this book the thing that bears down upon
the reader—or lifts him up—is the unconstrained
freedom of the writer's mind. Without mistaking
Miller for something he is not, you keep on saying
to yourself, "How wonderful that such a man is
alive and active, in these depressed and depressing
times!" He has the same kind of fascination that
Rousseau's Natural Man had in the eighteenth
century.
Miller, some say complainingly, always writes
about himself. This is quite true, but you might
try it some time, to see if you can do it as

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 12

mainstream, were involved at all is a sign of how

CHILDREN powerful is the emotion produced by the Bomb and
. . . and Ourselves the issue of testing.

NEW DIRECTIONS ON THE CAMPUS One finds students motivated by religious

considerations, students from small schools, students
READERS of this Department may find the who have never belonged to any group, working
Spring (1962) issue of Dissent especially together. In Berkeley last November, I went down to
the "Veterans' Day" demonstration. Several hundred
interesting. One feature is a symposium, "The pickets demonstrated silently as the legionnaires
Young Radicals," based upon questions by marched past (the dignitaries in open automobiles
Michael Walzer. Another important article, "The didn't know what to do when they saw us: some
American Campus: 1962," by Michael Harrington, waved, some froze; and one beauty queen took an
looks at contemporary "radicals." SPU button). The young people there were not the
seasoned pickets of the "Berkeley Zengakuren," that
Mr. Harrington has for years been speaking informal group which had developed out of the
to small college groups throughout the country. Chessman walks, the House Committee
In this paper he gives his account of the transitions demonstrations and Civil Rights projects. They were
youngsters, less sophisticated, new to political life.
which have taken place in the outlook of
intellectually active students. He notes, for Roger Hagan, one of the contributors to Mr.
example, that "one of the characteristics of the Walzer's symposium, discusses the meaning of the
reawakening on campus is a sort of frenzy of word "radical":
introspection and self-consciousness, with groups What makes me identify as a radical is the
spending almost as much time in front of a mirror conviction that something new must be added to the
as on the picket line." He continues: American calculus of goods and bads, rights and
wrongs. I have an uneasy sense of a whole nation
This experience has convinced me that it is next
skating lightly over a cracking shell of rationalization
to useless to propose some general theory of the
and denial, even when there really is a firmer ground
campus. The generations succeed one another with a
to stand on. To the extent that Americans have
rapidity almost like that of the tsetse fly; the departure
achieved a good society, they have done so in a
of a few key students can change the look of a college
curiously inarticulate fashion celebrating what is
within the span of a summer vacation.
trivial and even negative, and missing what really
So let me set down a few impressions. The makes this country more livable than any other on
change on the campus began around 1956 or 1957, it earth. America is like the inarticulate, bumbling hero
was enormously accelerated by the sit-ins and the of its modern drama, tragically unable to discover its
sympathy demonstrations they evoked, and it is still own saving qualities in time to avoid a meaningless
moving forward. Its mood has been more radical and wasteful end. As a student of history I look for
than liberal, oriented toward single "issues" rather the sources of the hopeful developments, trying to
than finished ideologies (but conscious politicals have figure out what became of them and why practically
often played a decisive organization role). Its tone is no one undertook to give them a place in the
moral, focusing on questions like peace, capital American self-image. As an actor in the present I try
punishment and human equality, ignoring economic to cut through the fraud and locate the authentically
conflict and social planning. life-giving dimensions of this society. In this I feel
myself to be racing not only against hot war but
The most striking recent development has been
against the Cold War as well, for the latter drives the
the growth of the Student Peace Union. The
country to a retrenchment which will close off all
Washington peace demonstrations were probably the
experimentation in humane liberalism.
most spontaneous expression of student feeling since
the thirties. At Earlham College in Indiana not too The purpose of both activities—the purpose of
long ago, students told me that some of those who any new radicalism with which I can identify—is to
went from small, mid-Western schools were under revive hope. A secondary purpose is to make genuine
heavy administration pressure to stay home. The very liberalism possible in American politics.
fact that these schools, so long out of the student

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My political goals themselves are very long matter that will affect the life and health and
range and concern the alteration of social character continued existence of the rest of mankind?
and social structure in order to make possible for all
There are no words to describe the magnitude of
people freedom in its broadest sense (i.e., both
such insolence in thought or the magnitude of
"negative" and "positive," in Isaiah Berlin's
criminality involved in carrying it out. Those who
distinction; or in the fourfold definition of freedom in
believe that any country has the right to make such a
Erich Fromm's May Man Prevail?).
decision share the madness of Captain Ahab in Moby
A generation ago the "campus radicals" were Dick. For them Russia is the White Whale that must
regarded as a breed apart—as indeed they were. be hunted down and grappled with. Like Ahab in
that mad pursuit, they will listen to no reminders of
The rest of the students fraternized, footballed,
love, home, family obligation; in order to kill the
prommed and went dutifully to ROTC. But today object of their fear and hate they are ready to throw
there is evidence that, aside from the posturing away the sextant and compass that might give them
right-wingers, more and more young people feel back their moral direction, and in the end they will
something in common with the radicals on their sink their own ship and drown their crew. To such
campuses. Some observations in the Stanford unbalanced men, to such demoralized efforts, to such
dehumanized purposes, our government has
Review for last April, under the title, "Shock- entrusted, in an easily conceivable extremity, our
proof Generation," may help to explain why. The lives. Even an accident, these men have confessed,
students, according to this piece, have an "infinite might produce the dire results they have planned, and
capacity to be exasperating." And "They are more than once has almost done so. To accept their
sophisticated where you expect naïve innocence." plans and ensuing decisions, we have deliberately
anesthetized the normal feelings, emotions, anxieties,
The article continues:
and hopes that could alone bring us to our senses.
They themselves are shock-proof—or try to be—
and consider that their measure of "shock-proofness"
is the measure of their maturity and sophistication.
They are utterly unafraid of ideas—even bad
ideas—because of all the ideas floating around, they
reject far more than they embrace. They think that
practice in finding flaws in ideas is essential to the
capacity to recognize truth. In short, the suggestion
that their minds might possibly be corrupted by
exposure to ideas—even evil ones—is to them too
ridiculous to deserve comment.
No special insight is needed to explain why
intelligent undergraduates cannot and do not wish
to "clue in" on a world where the "responsible"
authorities are all exhausting their "moral"
resources in justifying preparation for nuclear war.
On this situation, Lewis Mumford has said what
needs to be said:
Under what canon of sanity, then, can any
government, or any generation, with its limited
perspectives, its fallible judgment, its obvious
proneness to self-deception, delusion, and error, make
a decision for all future ages about the very existence
of even a single country? Still more, how can any
nation treat as a purely private right its decision on a

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 14

FRONTIERS earth, thereby causing nuisance to all planets.

Instead, Mercury proposed, it would be better to
The Celestial Summit
let Mr. Kennedy gradually encroach upon the
[Midnight, Feb. 4-5, 1962, was the climactic U.S.S.R. by Peaceful Negotiations, nuclear tests
moment of a planetary conjunction so rare and, and super-statesmanship, thereby saving the
according to astrologers, so foreboding as to generate people behind the iron curtain from dictatorship
excitement and almost hysteria among believers in
astrology in various parts of the world. All the
and terrorism.
planets known to the ancients that is, the visible Passing to the European scene, Venus
planets plus the Sun and the Moon—appeared at that proposed that De Gaulle be made to shift his
time in one zodiacal constellation, Capricorn.
Months before the conjunction occurred, some Indian
capital from Paris to Algiers, since Algeria has
astrologers were saying that there had not been a belonged to France as much as Goa belonged to
configuration in the heavens of so malefic a nature Portugal. De Gaulle would then be in a position
since the one which attended the fighting of the to infuse adequate patriotism into the Algerian
Mahabharata, India's epic war upon the plain of Nationalists, who were creating unnecessary
Kurukshetra thousands of years ago. Our contributor
trouble. Venus was also of the opinion that Mr.
Mr. Noshir Bilpodiwala, a translator of the writings
of Vinoba Bhave, pays his respects to this "summit MacMillan should be made to send Mr. Gaitskell
meeting of the planets.] as Viceroy to Katanga to keep an eye on the
Congo, as this was the only way of protecting the
"YOU have caused a good deal of panic on
"free world." Jupiter, however, felt that this was
Earth," said I to my host, Capricorn, as he
too weak a plan. The best way of arranging
received me at the celestial gates on the third of
disaster on Earth, he said, would be to restore
February, 1962. I was deputed to witness the
Goa to Portugal and simultaneously let China
octuple planetary conjunction, as special
"liberate" New Delhi, in general bringing about a
correspondent from Astrological Press Service of
revival of imperialism. Fortunately, Sun advised
India. "There is no need to be afraid any more,"
the assemblage to abandon its scheme for
he assured me, "for by now we have been amply
destroying the Earth and convinced the members
propitiated by the several Yagnas performed in
that nuclear war on Earth would mean disaster for
India." At 5:30 p.m. all the planets took their
the entire universe. The meeting grasped the
seats in the grand hall of the heavenly house of
significance of this solar advice and resolved to
Capricorn. Sun who was in the chair, called the
leave the political situation unchanged.
meeting to order. Saturn read out the minutes of
the last meeting (held 5,000 years ago), recalling The second item on the agenda was Socio-
the causation of the great war, Mahabharata. Economic Reforms. Saturn suggested that
Vinoba Bhave be given more power so that his
With the minutes unanimously accepted, the
influence could spread throughout the world.
first item on the agenda, "Politics on Earth," was
Jupiter felt that such a step would put the cinema
opened for discussion. Mars offered a motion that
magnates out of business and bankrupt
Mr. Khrushchev should take charge of the whole
Hollywood. This, he said, might upset the entire
world, on the ground that if he did not appoint
North American economy, so that America would
himself the Saviour, scheming imperialists would
not be able to aid underdeveloped countries.
overrun the whole of Europe, Africa and Asia.
Mars then advocated that the doctrines of Karl
Mars argued further that if Mr. Khrushchev could
Marx be spread far and wide on other planets, but
bring paradise to Russia in twenty years, he could
Jupiter urged that Marx was now out of date. A
surely be trusted to make heaven on Earth in
better course, he thought, would be to use the
about forty! Mercury objected. This, he said,
methods proposed by Bertrand Russell in Roads
would mean too many astronauts encircling the

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 15

to Freedom. Venus asked the adoption of Aldous

Huxley's Brave New World as planetary text.
Finally, after a heated discussion, the meeting
decided that the only way of bringing about any
worthwhile reforms would be by a rapid industrial
revolution as worked out by Mr. Nehru in India.
The third and final item on the agenda
concerned the "Future of the World." Moon
asserted that nothing good came out of disturbing
the Earth by causing fire, flood, cold waves or
earthquakes thereon. If the planets could not help
the Earth, they should at least keep out of its way
and not hamper its progress toward peace and
prosperity. Moon was the most "propitiated" of
all the planets. Mars said that he was in favour of
achieving the socialistic pattern of society now
being aimed at in India, suggesting that India's
methods ought to be copied by several other
countries. Mercury was not very enthusiastic
about family planning on Earth, feeling that this
was sure to spread immorality. He saw no danger
whatsoever in allowing the world to increase its
population. Jupiter supported this view and said
he would personally be responsible for any food
shortages in the future. After a general discussion
on some minor matters, the meeting adjourned to
the year 7005 A.D.
"Your astrologers and Pandits have saved the
situation," whispered the Moon to me as I was
about to leave for Earth. "Had they not
performed 'Yagnas' to pacify us," Moon said,
"you would all be no more." I was grateful to our
astrologers for their timely action and returned
home quite happy, musing with satisfaction on the
thought that astrology is not, after all, a
superstition.
NOSHIR BILPODIWALA
Poona, India

Volume XV, No. 37 MANAS Reprint September 12, 1962