you and your attitude but also my own work: I learn to see more and
more how deeply rooted and how complicated the distortion of the
human soul has become through the maltreatment of many thousand
years. That is a point where the answer to the question, how in heaven's
name the masses of the people should actually and practically seize the
rule of true self-government becomes lost in misty fogs. It is all well and
good to clamor for freedom, to fight the suppressors of freedom, but
I feel that all of us miss the point in that we do not give any practical
answer to the question how and whether the streetcars will run, and the
streets will be cleaned and the coal mined and the mail <;listributed and
the countryside policed, and the subways engineered, if there is no
authority from above. I am only throwing back the burning stick you
once threw into my lap when you cooled me off by saying rightly that
administration will tend to become bureaucratic and authoritarian. Do
you remember that hot potato? I don't see anything about it in your
book, and I have been deeply disturbed for the past few months, because
I cannot arrive at any practically sound conclusion in regard to the
administration of such an intricate mechanism as our society. And to say
"responsible freedom" instead of only "freedom," does not solve the
problem. The more you learn about the emotional pest in the depth of
the human being, the more hopeful I become as far as the distant future
is concerned, but the more hopeless the situation looks in regard to
the near future.
The other day I received a letter from the International Mark Twain
Society telling me that I have been elected Honorary Member of this
society. I suppose I deserved it, but I am haunted by the terrible fear:
I am holding 3 honorary memberships by now; if I get 2 or 3 more of
this kind, I shall not be able to write a true line any more. So I have to
hurry up before it is too late.
I hope you will succeed in living through a peaceful Christmas with
rest and joy. We are taking it easy too in these days.
Summerhill School
Leiston, SuffolkMy dear Reich,- • •
December 27 , 19 45It is kind of you to say what you do about my book. The
[London] Times in a long review cans me a genius and then proceeds to