The Professors in Washington

I fear I may be writing even these fragmentary observations under false pretenses. In “A Quarterly of Socialist Opinion,” I am writing about Professors. But I am not a Socialist, and I am not a Professor. (It is not enough, I think, that I do hold that what were historically Socialist doctrines have something important to contribute to that better polity for which Socialist is not an adequate name. Just so, I do not qualify as an academic by having, years ago, taught two little, narrowly specialized courses in economics.) Shall I say, in the phrase loaded at once with self-defense and other-denigration, “Some of my best friends are Socialists”? Indeed it is true. But those of my closer friends who call themselves Socialists are, for the most part, not Americans. Shall I say, “Some of my best friends are Professors”? They are. But those of my friends who are Professors only very infrequently work in Washington nowadays. And, for the greater part, I...