Case For Democracy Research Articles

Carl Becker: An American Liberal

In some parts of the Western World intellectuals seem to be in retreat. Or if not in retreat, at least they are on the defensive, being assailed on the radio, in the press, in Congressional committees. A few critics have suggested that with the intellectual lies much of the responsibility for the political disasters of the twentieth century. Many agree that intellectuals have proved to be politically dangerous, economically naive, personally unreliable. Not that there is no answer to all this, nor that there are no defenders of this besieged group. intellectual gives as good as, and sometimes better than, he gets. Very often, however, he lacks the publicist devices to make himself heard. Often enough, too, he finds his defense more difficult to put across than the indictment against him. For the most part, it is the charge which interests the public, the Congressman's constituents, the sensational newspaperscharges without qualification and sometimes without substance. Refutation is at best dull business. Better by far, in the public mind, to sweep on to the next excitement, the next revelation, the next pillorying. victims left behind in the dust of the committeeman's graceless steamroller may choke themselves to kingdom come for all the TV-viewer knows or cares. With difficulty they brush themselves off and set about their normal business again. show moves on. At such time one regrets the loss of able minds and strong voices which might have spoken up against the tyranny of reckless accusation. One such person disappeared from the American scene less than ten years ago, someone who knew that he lived in period of reverses when, as Robinson Jeffers put it, you could feel a gathering in the air of something that hates humanity. Carl Becker went on to say that this something which hated humanity, hated reason and truth, too. But it was the measure of his faith, during his last illness and in the depths of the war, that he still concluded that The best case for democracy, and our best reason for having faith in the freedom of learning and teaching which it fosters, is that in the long history of civilization humanity has proved stronger than

The Case for Democracy and Its Meaning in Modern Life

The Case for Democracy and Its Meaning in Modern Life

The Case for Democracy and Its Meaning for Modern Life. Ordway Tead

Previous articleNext article No AccessBook ReviewsThe Case for Democracy and Its Meaning for Modern Life. Ordway Tead Harold A. LarrabeeHarold A. Larrabee Search for more articles by this author PDFPDF PLUS Add to favoritesDownload CitationTrack CitationsPermissionsReprints Share onFacebookTwitterLinkedInRedditEmail SectionsMoreDetailsFiguresReferencesCited by Ethics Volume 48, Number 3Apr., 1938 Article DOIhttps://doi.org/10.1086/290013 Views: 2Total views on this site PDF download Crossref reports no articles citing this article.