Word: revelations
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Dates: during 1970-1979
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...Without Marx or Jesus, a Succes de scandale in France and a best seller stateside, Jean-Francois Revel proposes that America owns an exclusive option on the Age of Aquarius. But his flaccid prose, chaotic presentation, and unsupported generalizations fail to convince me. After rejecting the idea of America as a fascist and imperialist state, he ends up creating an equally far-fetched image. He tries to prove that the United States possess all the necessary preconditions for the world revolution: an obsession with modernity, unrestricted access to information, and an army of radical crusaders. Along the way he solemnly...
Mary McCarthy, grande dame of the old American left, assures us in the afterward that Revel is only a pamphleteer. Recognizing this we can all chuckle indulgently at his excesses and inadequacies. After all, he exploits them in the name of the polemic. But petty Gallic charm cannot substantiate his vision...
...First he dismisses ferment in the rest of the world with some biased sleight of hand. He rejects the African nations because they seek out their non-colonial heritage. Therefore they are inevitably counter-revolutionary. He discounts the People's Republic of China as an irrelevant agrarian nation. For Revel political democracy is absolutely essential, economic equality relatively unimportant. Socialist states, including anything from Sweden to the Soviet Union, disqualify themselves because they are anti-democratic one way streets. He considers Western Europe culturally unimaginative and ideologically misdirected...
...Revel's elusive rhetorical techniques prohibit refutation of his conclusions. Because he claims his arguments are intuitively obvious, his sloppy syllogisms cannot support controversy. He has found a disconcerting way of stating his views at the start of a chapter, and then discussing whatever occurs to him. Suddenly the word "therefore" appears, and Revel blithely announces he has made his point and he claims only foolish French leftists would disagree. I suppose this tone is meant to be audacious and amusing, but I did not laugh...
...Revel rumbles on his major interest emerges: France is what concerns him, especially the complacent lethargy of her leftists. Revel devotes a third of the book to the radicals, alleging they wish to remain out of power. His references to the Pompidou-Poher presidential campaign point out a stunning disinterest in practical politics and constructive action on the part of the left. He also exposes the naivete with which French leftists view America. He ridicules students' surprise that auto-workers are not starving and berates a radical journalist who comments. "'In the United States Mr. Nixon's only serious rival...