When I set out to read and write about John Dos Passos, I did not realize I would be doing so in the shadow of a Trump victory — the shadow of a presidential choice between Donald J. Trump and Hillary Rodham Clinton. But Dos Passos has served as somewhat of a guide and balm. (Not that I am too balmable these days.)
Today, I conclude my series on him, with Part V. Consider this passage from a 1950 essay by Dos Passos, “The Changing Shape of Society”:
The creation of a world view is the work of a generation rather than of an individual, but we each of us, for better or for worse, must add our brick to the edifice. A generation can’t go much further than the average of the achievements of the men who comprise it, but every outstanding effort affects that average. Every one of us has to go as far forward as he can.
As I say in my installment today, “What else can you do?”
Dos Passos also writes, “If we are to save the republic we must continually be aware of the aims of the republic. Our safety lies in the fulfillment of these aims.” And he sums up those aims as “the daily effort to give to every man as much opportunity as is possible to fulfill himself in his own way, protected by law from the arbitrary measures of those in authority.”
Another excerpt: “Every society has to be born again from time to time.” Yes. And 2016 would have been a very good time for a rebirth of constitutional fidelity and freedom. But maybe Americans will want it, at some point?
Finally, Dos Passos writes, “The ordinarily decent impulses the ordinary man learned at his mother’s knee are our last line of defense against the wickedness of overweening power at home and abroad.” So, thanks for doing the work, mothers. And you too, fathers.
John Dos Passos on our Present Pass