A Mirror of Our Crisis  

Much of the federal budget presented to Congress last January is already outdated. Expenditures for defense will considerably exceed the amount originally provided, while budgeted civilian outlays, as well as appropriation requests to support future expansion of civilian programs, will …



The Myth of the Guerrilla  

Where do the guerillas come from? From which social strata, which environment? The answer can save us from many errors, for it eliminates almost the whole propaganda literature on guerrillas, both pro and con. Most of the leaders, organizers, and …



Radicalism On the Cheap  

“Above all, no program,” was Disraeli’s classic prescription for conservatism. It would serve as well today for many among us who relentlessly assert their radicalism. Their programmatic sterility is surely a bizarre chapter in our political history. What has long …











Problems in the ACLU  

Michael Harrington’s article in the March-April DISSENT admirably presents the moral-political issues involved in various forms of “resistance.” The American Civil Liberties Union has recently been compelled to grapple with these same problems from its own special angle. Which practices …





Return to Hiroshima  

As we learned after Hiroshima, a number of the scientists who had worked on the bomb were concerned about its implications from the outset. After 1945, many people in various countries sought to reorient their way of thinking about war …



Three Autobiographies  

The literate’s schadenfreude over reviews of Norman Podhoretz’s autobiography certifies Making It as the most provocative book so far in 1968. This very fact might be said to attest to the validity of Podhoretz’s theme: that nothing counts quite so much among …



Black Writing: The Other Side  

When people say “the Negro struggle,” they usually have in mind those groups and activities that represent the effort to achieve the democratic integration of American institutions, an effort inspired by the belief that the Negro, whatever his differences, is as …



A Triumph For Democracy  

Right now, a bimonthly is not exactly the most convenient medium for commenting on the rapidly shifting and enormously exciting political events of the past few days. It would be foolish, a few weeks before these words reach print, to …



Letters  

Kudos for Abel Editor: Thank you for Lionel Abel. On an exacting day, when fire and brimstone rained down from heaven, rigorist judgment had stipulated for ten. But I believe the March–April issue of Dissent can be saved by just this …



From a Harlem School  

For some time now I have been teaching in a Harlem elementary school and trying to understand the attitudes shown by the parents toward the school. Last September, the teachers’ strike forced me to speculate on how the hostilities of …