June 29, 2003

We live in strange times when history is repeating itself. A sharp reminder of this came last month, when the transcripts of the Congressional hearings conducted half a century ago in the US were made public (Dawn, May 4, 2003). They shed light on the infamous witch-hunt of liberals and progressives in America. This exercise was carried out by Senator Joseph McCarthy, who triggered a wave of anti-communist hysteria by making an unsubstantiated claim that the State Department and the army had been infiltrated by the communists. This drive lasted until 1954 when McCarthy was censured by the US Senate for misconduct.

According to the transcripts, McCarthy’s attention was focussed on intellectuals and the entertainment industry. It included well-known figures, one of whom even left the country. That was Charlie Chaplin, the greatest comedian the world had known, who settled down in Europe. He wrote in his autobiography:

“Friends have asked how I came to engender this American antagonism. My prodigious sin was, and still is, being a non-conformist. Under the guise of patriotism they use their power to encroach upon others, then they commit an offence against the fundamental structure of the American government. Such super patriots could be the cells to turn America into a fascist state”. Ironically, Chaplin returned to America in 1972 for a triumphant tour and was given a special Oscar at the Academy Awards in Los Angeles.

Another victim was Albert Einstein, the greatest genius of the last century, who wrote to the Queen Mother of Belgium in 1954: “I have become an enfant terrible in my new homeland because of my inability to keep silent and to swallow everything that happens here.”

According to his biographer, Banesh Hoffman, Einstein had “spoken up boldly against the threat to intellectual freedom” in the feverish atmosphere spawned by McCarthyism. Because of his “espousal of unpopular causes, he was himself attacked by some Americans”.

A website that “allows you to flip through a data base of 43,000 of Einstein’s items” reported that the scientist considered himself a pacifist and humanitarian. Einstein’s views on other issues, including socialism, McCarthyism and racism, were controversial.

“The American FBI kept a 1,427-page file on his activities and recommended that he be barred from immigrating to the United States under the Alien Exclusion Act, alleging that Einstein, ‘believes in, advises, advocates, or teaches a doctrine which, in a legal sense, as held by the courts in other cases, would allow anarchy to stalk in unmolested’ and result in ‘government in name only’, among other charges.

“Einstein first favoured construction of the atomic bomb in order to defeat Hitler, and even signed an important letter alerting President Roosevelt to the fact that an atomic bomb was possible. But after the war he lobbied for nuclear disarmament and a world government”.

In the then Soviet Russia, he had already been ridiculed for his theory of relativity. Troubled by the restrictions on freedom of thought and expression in Russia, he wrote the following aphorism, which was published in 1953: “In the realm of the seekers after truth there is no human authority. Whoever attempts to play the magistrate there founders on the laughter of the Gods.”

An ordinary teacher entangled himself in the web of “un-American activities inquiry”, sought Einstein’s help. On May 16, 1953, the great scientist wrote these ringing words from his sickbed: “The problem with which the intellectuals of this country are confronted is very serious. Reactionary politicians have managed to instil suspicion of all intellectual efforts into the public by dangling before their eyes a danger from without. Having succeeded so far, they are now proceeding to suppress the freedom of teaching and to deprive of their positions all those who do not prove submissive, i.e. to starve them out.

“What ought the minority of intellectuals do against the evil? Frankly, I can only see the revolutionary way of non-cooperation in the sense of Gandhi. Every intellectual who is called before one of the committees ought to refuse to testify, i.e. he must be prepared for jail and economic ruin... This refusal to testify must (be based) on the assertion that it is shameful for a blameless citizen to submit to such an inquisition and that this kind of inquisition violates the spirit of the Constitution.

“If enough people are ready to take this grave step they will be successful. If not, then the intellectuals of this country deserve nothing better than the slavery that is intended for them. He who joyfully marches to music in rank and file has already earned my contempt. He has been given a large brain by mistake, since for him spinal cord would fully suffice.”

According to Hoffman in those days it was a dangerous thing to speak out against the government in the presence of strangers. None could think of writing or publicizing such “seditious” words. But Einstein added a postscript saying: “this letter need not be considered ‘confidential’”. Thus he made a public manifesto that resounded throughout the world. Small wonder, Bertrand Russell called Einstein “a universal man — a citizen of the world”.

In that era of repression and suppression, Einstein had stood up boldly for any humanitarian cause and against threat to intellectual freedom. His courageous and crusading spirit earned him the bitter criticism of some leading Americans.

It was only after a couth politician was shunted into the White House through a dubious Supreme Court decision, that these human values have been overturned. The Bush Administration is moving step by step to restrict freedom of speech and expression to lay the foundations of a fascist state.

It is ironical that these retrogressive measures have received enthusiastic support from the Republicans and the Democrats as well as the Federal Court. As for the so-called fourth pillar of democracy, the media, its role is summed up in a single word, “Presstitution”.

Academics critical of the ruling clique are being targeted by the flag-waving media and right-wing forces. The American Council of Trustees and Alumni (ACTA), a right-wing group founded by Lynne Cheney, the wife of Vice-President Dick Chenney, issued a report on November 13, 2002 naming some 40 college professors and one University president accusing them of being “short on patriotism and long on self-flagellation”. The main thrust of the ACTA’s report is: “Defending civilization — how our universities are failing America and what can be done about it”. They are defending the wild west civilization by witch-hunting, character assassination and malicious campaigns against highly learned academicians.

One academic singled out by the Council, Hugh Gusterson, an associate professor of MIT, who spoke at a campus peace rally, called the report “reminiscent of McCarthyism”. A number of intellectuals and academicians have echoed Gusterson’s apprehensions.

America is a great country with great minds — such as Abraham Lincoln, Walt Whitman, Noam Chomsky, Gore Vidal and hundreds and hundreds of others. The Bushes, Cheneys, Rumsfelds and their likes need a giant genius with Albert Einstein’s stature to make them see some sense.

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