Letters  

I wish to compliment you on the Summer, 1961 issue of DISSENT. It is a constructive, revealing, often startling portrait of a city written by men and women who care about both its present and future. I was especially impressed …



Ghosts of the Cold War  

Ghosts of the past haunt the political scene. Epithets like “cold war,” “isolationism,” and “appeasement” are heard again. While the Administration is trying to normalize relations with China or to find ways of accommodation with the future rulers of Africa, it hears charges from all sides: …



On Post-Human Society  

The Coming of Post-Industrial Society: A Venture in Forecasting, by Daniel Bell. New York: Basic Books. 507 pp. It is the thesis of this book that the R&D revolution brings forth a new type of society, which can no longer …



Engaged Science – or Scientists?  

The following essay was written before Cambodia, Kent and Jackson, hence at a moment the classes of 1970-74 may consider prehistoric. My essay defends a position that has perhaps been passed over by events. I argue that the university as …









Taking Issue With “Armageddon”  

Mr. Donat’s moving defense of the Jewish underground in Poland [“Armageddon,” DISSENT, Spring 1963] comes as a timely answer to the attacks which have been levelled at the political and moral stance of European Jews during the Hitler period. Unfortunately …



Abolishing the Octopus  

We should like to make a proposal which might not solve the problems of Latin America but might remove an obstacle to good relations within the Western Hemisphere. The problem haunting U. S. policy makers is, to use professional language, …



The Pattern of Sociological Theory  

“MANY a traveler has wondered why the Wameriku habitually sacrifice their lives to their curious ideas on traffic and mobility. As is well known, thousands yearly suffer death on the roads for no other reason than an apparent compulsion to …





Confessions of an Old-Timer  

Ideas change but their formulas remain. Two people a thousand years apart may be of the same mind though they strove for different things; on the other hand, no bore is more boring than the disciple who quotes what I …



What Price Works?  

Daniel Bell, the labor editor of Fortune and a former editor of The New Leader, modestly calls his little essay “notes on work … [tied together] by a mood, and some questions.” Indeed, had he elaborated on all the ideas …



The Right to be Lazy  

What the Lord did on the eighth day the Bible does not state; it is permitted to speculate that He continued to rest and, for all that the last million years’ record shows, never returned to the hectic working spree …



And Can There Be Peace?…  

Mr. Deutscher’s able paper raises a number of problems which certainly go far beyond the immediate purpose of his analysis; yet they go right to the heart of the question which prompts him and others to discuss the future of …