History, Freedom, and Utopia

My dear Andre,

If I have not written to you until today it is not out of laziness or forgetfulness, but because, after our frequent and somewhat inconclusive conversations, I felt I owed it to myself (and to you) to try to set forth, with what little order I can muster, the few reasons why I do not share your views on “revolution,” “nihilism,” and the duty of the “good citizen.” The reasons are not merely polemical. . . .

In broaching the subject about which I should like to converse with you, I should immediately point out that when I say “your opinion” I refer to those views you dwelled on recently. I do not mean this or that view (with which I might even agree) on the present state of society, social justice, etc., so much as the general position you seemed to hold with a certain tenacity during the conversations we had lately and which, through my fault, were all too frequently interrupted. As far as I can define it, ...