I had plenty of opportunity to observe campus radicals in the '60s: I was a Columbia grad student during the Columbia strike.
I most particularly remember one large student meeting, which I attended out of curiosity. One poor fellow got up, urging caution & reason, and made the mistake of identifying himself as a "liberal."
Well, a bunch of young radical thugs in the back began stamping their feet, and jeering at the top of their lungs: "Liberal!" "Liberal!"
Being the nice, well brought-up boy that he was, he blushed, stammered, and then sat down. I wanted to punch those storm troopers in the face, myself.
Radical leftists don't like liberals any more than soi-disant right-wing conservatives do.
One of the Russian History seminars I was attending at the time was chock full of would-be revolutionists: many were studying Russian History, as a matter of fact, simply in order to learn "how to make a revolution." There were several Maoists, one Stalinist, a Castroite or two, etc. The Professor had made the study of the Russian pre-revolution his life's work; his particular bailiwick was the Mensheviks, who of course ended up as enemies of the Bolshevik Revolution. Nevertheless, he so desperately wanted to keep up with his students! Yet his favorite student, the class pet, told him to his face, a la Trotsky: "You are already moldering on the dust-heap of History." (Almost gave the Prof a heart-attack from grief!)
I was a bemused bystander. Never went in for "enthusiasms."
Joan |
