Political Pilgrims

Political Pilgrims: Western Intellectuals in Search of the Good Society, 4^th Edition by Paul Hollander, Transaction Publishers, 1997. 

Summary

In the West, due to ignorance to what was actually going on under the Bolsheviks, many intellectuals had an idealized view of life in the Soviet Union. When Western intellectuals visited the Soviet Union to see for themselves the achievements of Communism, they were duped by their hosts. They were amenable to being duped, because they often believed that somewhere or somewhen there was a lost paradise, and they hoped that the Communist countries represented a rebirth of such. 

Techniques of Hospitality:

• Make the visitor feel important; give them banquets

• Present the visitor with only the pleasant parts of the country; 

• Prevent the visitor from speaking to the citizens without a chaperone present

• The visitors believed that what they saw was typical, but actually most of the country was much worse off. For example: model prisons. Bad things were removed before the visitors showed up and then replaced after they left

Intellectuals: 

Throughout most of history, intellectuals have been the upholders of the cultures they lived in. But in recent times, with greater intellectual freedom, they have become instead critics of the cultures they live in. Some critics of intellectuals have asserted that their motives are largely status seeking and lust for power.

Visitors to Soviet Union: 

• Owen Lattimore

• Henry Wallace

• Sydney Webb

• Beatrice Webb

• Harold Laski

• George Bernard Shaw

• Anna Louise Strong

• Julian Huxley

Visitors to China: 

• Simone de Beauvoir

• Ross Terrill

• John K. Fairbank

Visitors to Vietnam: 

• Tom Hayden

• Daniel Berrigan

Visitors to Cuba: 

• Venceramos Brigade

• Filmmaker Saul Landau

• Educator Jonathan Kozol