Isaiah Berlin, Flourishing. Letters 1928—1946, Chatto & Windus, London, 2004, s. 167.
Brev till Stephen Spender, 25 april 1936.
News […] that you have joined the C.P. seems to me to alter nothing. You are quite right about it in England. On the continent, where in any case there was a tradition of government persecution, revolutionary parties automatically were conspiratorial, met abroad, talked about nothing save tactics & revolution, had no time for life or art, & were like Lenin so to speak. In England where this is not so, the C.P., is as you say, neo-liberal. It is a radical-intellectual revolt against the bureaucracy & stale corruptness of the Labour-Party, i.e. those who were socialists in 1920 are now communists, they don’t really hope for a revolution, & are more highbrow than Socialists, & more intelligent & less vulgar. Sigle Lynd says that only applies to the insignificant handful of intellectuals, while real party is different. Possibly. Only the former really alter the tone of the process.
Björn Östbring 