Lipton’s Journal/February 1, 1955/399

I suppose the last note is a filling-in on my reactions to Dissent and the Dissent meeting. What has to be said in favor of Dissent is that it is a magazine put out by socialists who have become—more or less consciously—deeply dissatisfied with Socialism. Dissent is their defense against an anarchist urge (rather than anarchist position) or what is the more real alternative, a return to bourgeois society and liberalism. So, there may be more than just the reluctance to engage in time-wasting correspondence behind my depression at the thought of quitting the magazine. Perhaps I feel the hope that the tolerance of Dissent’s editorial position—it is more tolerant than any Socialist magazine I can remember—is due to the fact that Howe and Coser created it because they truly wish to let someone (X) rant in their ear. Their depression is due to the fact that they are still waiting for X. Once in a while I think Howe suspects it may be me. But this could be sheer vanity.