... "So long as they refused to identify the nature of free trade and of a social system based on voluntary, uncoerced, unforced, non-sacrificial relationships among men, so long as the moral cannibalism of the altruist code permitted them to believe that it is virtuous and right to sacrifice some men for the sake of others—the intellectuals had to embrace the political creed of collectivism, the dream of establishing a perfect altruist society at the point of a gun. They projected a society where all would be sacrificed to that conveniently undefinable idol "the public good," with themselves in the role of judges of what that "good" might be and of who would be "the public" at any given moment—an ideal society to be achieved by means of physical force; that is, by means of the political power of the state, by means of a totalitarian dictatorship.
"The rest is history—the shameful, sordid, ugly history of the intellectual development of the last hundred and fifty years." ...
— Ayn Rand, from her lecture 'The Intellectual Bankruptcy of Our Age', which she delivered in March 1961
What irony. On August 14, 1939, the open letter shown below was released praising the Soviet Union, in part, supposedly, as an opponent of fascism — and signed by various intellectuals, including numerous university professors, and even a professor of Christian Ethics (really) — and just over a week later, on August 23, 1939, the Soviet Union signed a nonaggression pact with Nazi Germany —
http://www.history.com/topics/world-war-ii/german-soviet-nonaggression-pact
The 'ten basic points' 'stressed' in the letter are so ridiculous, it is difficult to believe that any mature adult would ever have believed them. Consider point number one, for example —
1. The Soviet Union continues as always to be a consistent bulwark against war and aggression, and works unceasingly for the goal of a peaceful international order.That is a strong claim to make about any country — never mind the Soviet Union under Stalin, and which, in a glaring contradiction, the letter described as a political dictatorship (see point number nine). Yes, it is really true — many people, including university professors, with a former professor of Christian ethics at the 'Union Theological Seminary' among them, consider it possible for a political dictatorship to be 'a consistent bulwark against war and aggression'.
But clearly, none of the wildly exaggerated statements contained in this letter were based on actual knowledge — other than the surprising acknowledgement that the Soviet Union was a political dictatorship — which leaves one to wonder about the psychology of anyone who would sign it --
https://www.marxists.org/history/usa/parties/cpusa/1939/08/0814-openletter.pdf
https://archive.is/J2603
The text of an Open Letter calling for greater unity of the anti-fascist forces
and strengthening of the front against aggression through closer cooperation
with the Soviet Union, released on August 14 by 400 leading Americans.
As published in Soviet Russia Today, v. 8, no. 5 (Sept. 1939), pp. 24-25, 28.
ONE of the greatest problems confronting all those engaged in the struggle for democracy and peace, whether they be liberals, progressives, trade unionists, or others, is how to unite their various forces so as to achieve victory for their common goals. The Fascists and their allies are well aware that democracy will win if its supporters are united. Accordingly, they are intent on destroying such unity at all costs.
On the international scene the Fascists and their friends have tried to prevent a united anti-aggression front by sowing suspicion between the Soviet Union and other nations interested in maintaining peace.
On the domestic scene the reactionaries are attempting to split the democratic front by similar tactics. Realizing that here in America they cannot get far with a definitely pro-fascist appeal, they strive to pervert American antifascist sentiment to their own ends. With the aim of turning anti-fascist feeling against the Soviet Union they have encouraged the fantastic falsehood that the USSR and the totalitarian states are basically alike. By this strategy they hope to create dissension among the progressive forces whose united strength is a first necessity for the defeat of fascism.
Some sincere American liberals have fallen into this trap and unwittingly aided a cause to which they are essentially opposed. Thus, a number of them have carelessly lent their signatures to the recent manifesto issued by the so-called Committee for Cultural Freedom. This manifesto denounces in vague, undefined terms all forms of “Dictatorship” and asserts that the Fascist states and Soviet Russia equally menace American institutions and the democratic way of life.
While we prefer to dwell on facts rather than personalities, we feel it is necessary to point out that among the signers of this manifesto are individuals who have for years had as their chief political objective the maligning of the Soviet people and their government, and it is precisely these people who are the initiators and controllers of the committee.
A number of other committees have been formed which give lip service to democracy and peace while actually attacking the Soviet Union and aiding reaction. Honest persons approached by such committees should scrutinize their aims very carefully and support only those groups genuinely interested in preserving culture and freedom and refusing to serve as instruments for attacking the Soviet Union or aiding Fascism in any other way.
The undersigned do not represent any committee or organization, nor do they propose to form one. Our object is to point out the real purpose behind all these attempts to bracket the Soviet Union with the Fascist states, and to make it clear that Soviet and Fascist policies are diametrically opposed. To this end we should like to stress ten basic points in which Soviet socialism differs fundamentally from totalitarian fascism.
1. The Soviet Union continues as always to be a consistent bulwark against war and aggression, and works unceasingly for the goal of a peaceful international order.
2. It has eliminated racial and national prejudice with in its borders, freed the minority peoples enslaved under the Tsars, stimulated the development of the culture and economic welfare of these peoples, and made the expression of anti-Semitism or any racial animosity a criminal offense.
3. It has socialized the means of production and distribution through the public ownership of industry and the collectivization of agriculture.
4. It has established nationwide socialist planning, resulting in increasingly higher living standards and the abolition of unemployment and depression.
5. It has built the trade unions, in which almost 24,000,000 workers are organized, into the very fabric of its society.
6. The Soviet Union has emancipated woman and the family, and has developed an advanced system of child care.
7. From the viewpoint of cultural freedom, the difference between the Soviet Union and the Fascist countries is most striking. The Soviet Union has effected one of the most far-reaching cultural and educational advances in all history and among a population which at the start was almost three-fourths illiterate. Those writers and thinkers whose books have been burned by the Nazis are published in the Soviet Union. The best literature from Homer to Thomas Mann, the best thought from Aristotle to Lenin, is available to the masses of the Soviet people, who themselves actively participate in the creation of culture.
8. It has replaced the myths and superstitions of old Russia with the truths and techniques of experimental science, extending scientific procedures to every field, from economics to public health. And it has made science and scientific study available to the mass of the people.
9. The Soviet Union considers political dictatorship a transitional form and has shown a steadily expanding democracy in every sphere. Its epoch-making new Constitution guarantees Soviet citizens universal suffrage, civil liberties, the right to employment, to leisure, to free education, to free medical care, to material security in sickness and old age, to equality of the sexes in all fields of activity, and to equality of all races and nationalities.
10. In relation to Russia’s past, the country has been advancing rapidly along the road of material and cultural progress in ways that the American people can understand and appreciate.
The Soviet Union has an economic system different from our own. But Soviet aims and achievements make it clear that there exists a sound and permanent basis in mutual ideals for cooperation between the U.S.A. and the USSR on behalf of world peace and the security and freedom of all nations. Accordingly, the signers of this letter urge Americans of whatever political persuasion to stand firmly for close cooperation in this sphere between the United States and Soviet Russia, and to be on guard against any and all attempts to prevent such cooperation in this critical period in the affairs of mankind.
Dr. Thomas Addis, Professor of Medicine, Leland Stanford University
Helen Alfred, Executive Director National Public Housing Conference
Prof. Newton Arvin, Professor of English, Smith College
Dr. Charles S. Bacon, Honorary President, American Russian Institute, Chicago, Ill.
Frank C. Bankcroft, Editor, Social Work Today
Bessie Beatty, writer
Maurice Becker, artist
Meta Berger, writer, widow of the first Socialist Congressman
Louis P. Birk, Editor, Modern Age Books, Inc.
T.A. Bisson, Reseach Associate, Foreign Policy Association
Allice Stone Blackwell, suffragist, writer
Katherine Devereaux Blake, teacher
Mark Blitzstein, composer
Anita Block, Theatre Guild playreader
Stirling Bowen, poet
Richard Boyer, staff writer, The New Yorker
Millen Brand, writer
Simon Breines, architect
Prof. Dorothy Brewster, Assistant Professor of English, Columbia University
Robert Briffault, writer
Prof. Edwin Berry Burgum, Associate Professor of Economics, University of California
Fielding Burke, writer
J.E. Bromberg, actor
Vea Caspary, scenario writer
Prof. Haakon Chevalier, Professor of French, University of California
Maria Christina Chambers, Research Professor of Biology, New York University
Harold Clurman, producer
Robert M. Coates, writer
Lester Cohen, writer
Prof. George B. Cressey, Chairman of the Department of Geology and Geography, Syracuse University
Kyle Crichton, editorial staff of Collier’s Weekly
Miriam Allen de Ford, writer
Paul de Kruif, writer
Pietro di Donato, writer
William F. Dodd, Jr., Chairman, Anti-Nazi Literature Committee
Stanley D. Dodge, University of Michigan
Prof. Dorothy Douglas, Department of Economics, Smith College
Muriel Draper, writer
Prof. L.C. Dunn, Professor of Zoology, Columbia University
Harriet G. Eddy, library specialist
Prof. Henry Pratt Fairchild, Professor of Sociology, New York University
Prof. Mildred Fairchild, Professor of Economics, Bryn Mawr College
Kenneth Fearing, poet
Allice Withrow Field, writer
Sara Bard Field, writer
William O. Field, Jr., Chairman of the Board, American Russian Institute
Irving Fineman, writer
Marjorie Fischer, writer
Angel Flores, writer, critic
Waldo Frank, writer
Wanda Gag, artist
Hugo Gellert, artist
Robert Gessner, Department of English, New York University
Prof. Willystine Goodsell, Associate Professor of Education (retired), Columbia University
Mortimer Graves, of the American Council of Learned Societies
Dr. John H. Gray, economist, former President of the American Economics Association
William Gropper, artist
Maurice Halperin, Associate Editor, Books Abroad
Earl P. Hanson, explorer, writer
Prof. Samuel N. Harper, Professor of Russian Language and Institutions, Chicago University
Rev. Thomas L. Harris, National Executive Secretary, American League for Peace and Democracy
Dashiell Hammett, writer
Ernest Hemmingway
Granville Hicks, writer
Prof. Norman E. Himes, Department of Sociology, Colgate University
Charles J. Hendley, President Teachers’ Union of the City of New York
Leo Huberman, writer
Langston Hughes, poet
Agatha Illes, writer
Rev. Otis G. Jackson, Rector of St. Paul’s Episcopal Church, Flint, Michigan
Sam Jaffe, actor
Orrick Johns, poet
Matthew Josephson, writer
George Kauffman, playwright
Prof. Alexander Kaun, Associate Professor of Slavic Languages, University of California
Fred C. Kelly, writer
Rockwell Kent, artist
Dr. John A. Kingsbury, social worker, Administrative Consultant, W.P.A.
Beatrice Kinkead, writer
Lincoln E. Kirstein, ballet producer
Arthur Kober, playwright
Alfred Kreymborg, poet
Edward Lamb, lawyer
Dr. Corliss Lamont, writer, lecturer
Margaret I. Lamont, sociologist
J.J. Lankes, artist
Jay Leyda, cinema critic
John Howard Lawson, playwright
Emil Lengyle, writer, critic
Prof. Max Lerner, Professor of Government, Williams College
Meridel LeSeuer, writer
Meyer Levin, writer
Prof. Charles W. Lightbody, Department of Government and History, St. Lawrence University
Robert Morss Lovett, Governor of the Virgin Islands, and Editor of The New Republic.
Prof. Halford E. Lucckock, Yale University Divinity School
Katherine DuPré Lumpkin, writer
Klaus Mann, lecturer, writer, son of Thomas Mann
Prof. F.O. Mathiessen, Associate Professor of History of Literature, Harvard University
Dr. Anita Marburg, Department of English, Sarah Lawrence College
Dr. George Marshall, economist
Clifford T. McAvoy, Instructor, Department of Romance Languages, College of the City of New York
Prof. V.J. McGill, Professor of Philosopy, Hunter College
Prof. Robert McGregor, Reed College
Ruth McKenney, writer
Darwin J. Meserole, lawyer
Prof. Herbert A. Miller, Professor of Economics, Bryn Mawr College
Harvey O’Connor, writer
Clifford Odets, playwright
Shaemus O’Sheel, writer, critic
Mary White Ovington, social worker
S.J. Perelman, writer
Dr. John P. Peters, Department of Internal Medicine, Yale University Medical School
Dr. Emily M. Pierson, physician
Walter N. Polakov, engineer
Prof. Alan Porter, Professor of German, Vassar College
Geroge D. Pratt, Jr., agriculturalist
John Hyde Preston, writer
Samuel Putnam, writer
Prof. Paul Radin, Professor of Anthropology, University of California
Prof. Walter Rautenstrauch, Professor of Industrial Engineering, Columbia University
Bernard J. Reis, accountant
Bertha C. Reynolds, social worker
Lynn Riggs, playwright
Col. Raymond Robins, former head of American Red Cross in Russia
William Rollis, Jr., writer
Harold J. Rome, composer
Ralph Roeder, writer
Dr. Joseph Rosen, former head, Jewish Joint Distribution Board
Eugene Schoen, architect
Prof. Margaret Schlauch, Associate Professor of English, New York University
Prof. Frederick L. Schuman, Professor of Government, Williams College
Prof. Vida D. Scudder, Professor Emeritus of English, Wellesley College
George Seldes, writer
Vincent Sheean, writer
Viola Brothers Shore, scenario writer
Herbert Shumlin, producer
Prof. Ernest J. Simmons, Assistant Professor of English Literature, Harvard University
Irina Skariatina, writer
Dr. F. Tredwell Smith, educator
Dr. Stephenson Smith, President Oregon Commonwealth Federation
Hester Sondergaard, actress
Isobel Walker Soule, writer, editor
Lionel Stander, actor
Christina Stead, writer
A.E. Steig, artist
Alfred K. Stern, housing specialist
Dr. Bernhard J. Stern, Department of Sociology, Columbia University
Donald Ogden Steward, writer
Maxwell S. Steward, Associate Editor, The Nation
Paul Strand, producer and photographer
Prof. Dirk J. Struik, Professor of Mathematics, Massachusetts Institute of Technology
Robert Tasker, scenario writer
C. Fayette Taylor, aeronautical engineer, head of Automotive Labs, Massachusetts Institute of Technology
James Thurber, artist, writer
Rebecca Janney Timbres, social worker, writer
Jean Starr Untermeyer, poet
Louis Untermeyer, poet
Mary van Kleeck, economist, Associate Director International Industrial Relations Institute
Stuyvesant van Veen, artist
J. Raymond Walsh, economist
Dr. William Henry Walsh, physician
Prof. Harry F. Ward, Professor of Christian Ethics, Union Theological Seminary
Lynd Ward, artist
Morris Watson, New York Newspaper Guild
Clara Weatherwax, writer
Max Weber, artist
Dr. Gerald Wendt, Director of Science and Education, New York World’s Fair
Rev. Robert Whitaker, clergyman and lecturer
Albert Rhys Williams, writer
Dr. William Carlos Williams, writer
Ella Winter, writer
Richard Wright, writer
Art Young, artist
Leane Zugsmith, writer
Published by 1000 Flowers Publishing, Corvallis, OR, 2005. • Free reproduction permitted.
Edited by Tim Davenport.
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