Resolutions
As its portrait shows, the past year is not one which will be recalled with pride or pleasure. Few years, admittedly, look satisfying in retro- spect; but 1960 was surely even more deplorable than most. The failure of the Summit; the grow- ing arrogance and war-hunger of the Chinese leaders; the violence in South Africa and later in the Congo; the antics in the UN Assembly; the outbreak in Algeria during President de Gaulle's visit and, now, the riots in Belgium— all were symptomatic of growing international or inter-racial tension; and the confidence of the Western world, earlier shaken by demonstra- tions of Soviet scientific achievement, was further sapped from within by a recession which even caused rumours of dollar devaluation. Well might the West tremble.
Yet the experience may have been salutary. The tendency to take prosperity for granted has been shaken, and not before it was time. In America a string of books which might be lumped together under the title of the Affluent Waist-High Status-Seeker have been drawing attention to the defects of a successful capitalist society; but here, the attack has been marginal, in novels and in the theatre. Never-had-it-so- Good remains king—though shaky on his throne: that he survives is due partly to the fact that the recession has not (or not yet) hit the community hard, and partly to the absence of any real Opposition to exploit it, the Labour Party having torn itself in two trying to decide on what type of exploitation to adopt, and the Liberal Party lacking the strength or the dynamic to usurp Labour's place.
In the United States they have been luckier, as Senator Kennedy sensibly campaigned himself into office on the reverse of the Macmillan slogan, promising his country a modified, peace- time equivalent of blood and tears, toil and sweat. He therefore has an opportunity to shake the United States and the West out of their rut; and the international situation gives him an embarrassment of opportunity. His chief task will be to ease Russia's passage to respectability (by Western standards) in order to contain China; and it would help if the Prime Minister would get out of his way by stepping off his self- appointed pedestal. There is plenty for Mr. Macmillan to do without fancying himself as pacificator-at-large; if Britain in her New Year resolutions can concentrate upon helping to resolve the differences between Six and Seven, clearing up the problems of Central Africa, and putting her economic house in order, she will have quite enough on her hands.
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