What Is Under the Bed?

It is the stock-in-trade of the respectable ostriches who populate the posts that influence and command American policy, to shriek in unison at the anti-Communist: “Seeing Communists under the bed … conspiracy theory of history” . . . “hysterical paranoia.” Of course, if these gentlemen had ever looked under the bed and verified that there was nothing there, instead of standing with their heads buried and their rumps in the air, they would deserve to be listened to with attention. For it is quite true that to see things under the bed when there is nothing there, to suspect conspiracies where they do not exist, is most unsteadying to the intellect and dangerous to the health of the social order—almost as dangerous as not to see things when they are there.

Meyer

FS

About the Author

Frank S. Meyer

Frank S. Meyer was a senior editor of National Review.

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It is the stock-in-trade of the respectable ostriches who populate the posts that influence and command American policy, to shriek in unison at the anti-Communist: “Seeing Communists under the bed … conspiracy theory of history” . . . “hysterical paranoia.” Of course, if these gentlemen had ever looked under the bed and verified that there was nothing there, instead of standing with their heads buried and their rumps in the air, they would deserve to be listened to with attention. For it is quite true that to see things under the bed when there is nothing there, to suspect conspiracies where they do not exist, is most unsteadying to the intellect and dangerous to the health of the social order—almost as dangerous as not to see things when they are there.

Meyer