Some Voices from the Grave

The century’s most important controversy is being waged in America today by two groups of frightened People—each trying to impress its vision of terror upon the other. On the left hand are the forces of appeasement—frightened of nuclear war; on the right are the anti-Communists—frightened by the continued successes of Soviet intrigue; between these poles of apprehension lurches the struggle for direction of America’s foreign policy.

It may be that both the left and the right have good reason to be scared. But neither of them is focusing on what I should venture to describe as the supremely terrifying reality of this terrifying age—a reality to be found within us, rather than in the menace of external forces. A great deal of life, after all, involves us in dilemmas which, improperly dealt with, can be ruinous. The degree of hazard presented by each one is determined by our ability or inability to respond to it. Thus the problem-solving faculty is prior in importance to any problem. For this reason, life’s greatest terror, to a sane man, must always be the possibility of losing his sanity. If he cannot exert some reasonable control over his own system of responses, there is no external force so negligible that it might not prove his undoing.

MS

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M. Stanton Evans

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The century’s most important controversy is being waged in America today by two groups of frightened People—each trying to impress its vision of terror upon the other. On the left hand are the forces of appeasement—frightened of nuclear war; on the right are the anti-Communists—frightened by the continued successes of Soviet intrigue; between these poles of apprehension lurches the struggle for direction of America’s foreign policy.

It may be that both the left and the right have good reason to be scared. But neither of them is focusing on what I should venture to describe as the supremely terrifying reality of this terrifying age—a reality to be found within us, rather than in the menace of external forces. A great deal of life, after all, involves us in dilemmas which, improperly dealt with, can be ruinous. The degree of hazard presented by each one is determined by our ability or inability to respond to it. Thus the problem-solving faculty is prior in importance to any problem. For this reason, life’s greatest terror, to a sane man, must always be the possibility of losing his sanity. If he cannot exert some reasonable control over his own system of responses, there is no external force so negligible that it might not prove his undoing.