Spectator's Notebook
NEW YORK CITY
AT THE CONSIDERABLE RISK of having the Empire MILLoyalists after my blood (as well as the uni- lateralists, moral rearmers, lunatic leftists, Tory diehards, and a whole wide wave of resurging Liberals who write the rudest letters imaginable), I must observe that the general level of aware- ness of the actual world is a good deal higher here than at home. Is this simply because our relative loss of power has led us to muffle realities and to blunt sharp choices with clichds of form and phrase? In London so much of our political dialogue seems to be conducted through the medium of a terminology which bears less and less relation to reality. Is it simply because the American political game is played farther out in the open, and according to rules (and non-rules) which are widely appreciated and relished, that people here seem to be quicker-witted and longer- sighted about what goes on around them? The last time I was in the United States was just before JFK's election. That hard Massachusetts voice Was already stirring up the gasping doldrums of interminable non-government, and it was a splen- did sight to see the intelligentsia, Democratic and Republican alike, stirring delightedly into life. Now the presidential presence seems to be every- where, and the aggressive elan of the Administra- tion (for all its troubles with Capitol Hill and Big Business) hones away at the mind of the man in the street until it has a positively Greekish edge on events. But without the cynical temper. Many of my friends in this city are so sophisticated that it must surely hurt; and I often suspect that some of them would like to be (or to be thought) cyni- cal. But cynicism is happily well below the reach of the curiosity, scepticism, self-interest, gener- osity, idealism and sheer vigour which in potent blending gave and give America its superbly energising character.
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