The Protracted Conflict

WHO MAKES HISTORY?

On the trip to Europe from which I have just returned, there chanced to be an eight-day period during which I (and my companions) had no news at all of “the world.” We were isolated from all media, printed, photographed or electronic; we got no letters, messages or telephone calls. It was a small enough incident for mankind, but a rather gigantic experience for me. I normally spend several hours a day downing newspapers and magazines one after the other, with plenty of radio and some TV newscasts for chasers, as if the earth might start wobbling on its axis without my untiring vigil. So when I emerged from my Aegean blackout—at the busy and cosmopolitan city of Rhodes, as it happened—I automatically headed for the news kiosks, loaded up with papers and magazines from half a dozen countries, and settled down to catch up on what had happened to the world while I was off duty.

JB

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James Burnham

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WHO MAKES HISTORY?

On the trip to Europe from which I have just returned, there chanced to be an eight-day period during which I (and my companions) had no news at all of “the world.” We were isolated from all media, printed, photographed or electronic; we got no letters, messages or telephone calls. It was a small enough incident for mankind, but a rather gigantic experience for me. I normally spend several hours a day downing newspapers and magazines one after the other, with plenty of radio and some TV newscasts for chasers, as if the earth might start wobbling on its axis without my untiring vigil. So when I emerged from my Aegean blackout—at the busy and cosmopolitan city of Rhodes, as it happened—I automatically headed for the news kiosks, loaded up with papers and magazines from half a dozen countries, and settled down to catch up on what had happened to the world while I was off duty.