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that should not be asked. The important thing here is that the unhappy
consciousness of this believer without faith should continue to feed on
contradictions, since contradictions are to him
the
sign that he
has
a
firm grip on real life.
A man of Sartre's talent cannot be forced into a "type." But the
fact is that, since 1945, every time they took a stand on contemporary
politics, he and his friends have been behaving more and more like
amateur Communists. Worse still, they have been more and more
satisfied with taking over the usual arguments of the Communist
catechism, and this with an arrogant refusal to justify their position in
terms of the philosophical tenets with which they fare so well. They have
been behaving, that is, as if, once they had declared themselves in favor
of the Proletariat, the consistency of their ideas was a matter of auto–
matic adjustment of which no account was due to "others." By so
behaving, these philosophers have obviously fallen victim to the most
intolerably dogmatic aspect of Communist mentality: the idea that being
a resolute partisan can make short work of all questions.
The crudeness of the arguments used by Sartre against Camus
cannot be explained if one does not assume that, having established
an intellectual connection with the Marxist-Leninist-Stalinist mentality,
he is intellectually dominated by it. Personally, of course, he remains
independent. That is precisely why he, an intellectual, can be a victim
of the delusion that intellectual assent has no intellectual consequences.
But, having reached the conclusion that "participation" in the Com–
munist system is the most effective way to pacify his political conscience,
it follows that the philosopher of "anguished freedom" participates in the
moral smugness which the system guarantees to its proselytes. From
moral smugness to intellectual arrogance the step
is
short indeed. Once
one has adopted a certain logical system, it is of course absurd not to
avail oneself of the arguments that, from such a point of view, are the
most effective.
It remains that Jean-Paul Sartre has not answered Albert Camus.
The latest news has it that
L ettres Franfaises
has offered the
excommunicated Sartre a political alliance.
It
is unlikely that the
editor of
Les Temps Modernes
will accept such an offer. He prizes
independence too much. He will not give any direet help and comfort
to the Communist Party. He will simply continue to spread the intel–
lectual confusion by which the Communist Party benefits.
Nicola Chiaromonte
