From Abraham Rotstein (29 May 1956)
Text in English to type
Text in English to type
Dear Professor Polanyi,
Thank you for letting me see your letter to M.P. of Feb 23/56, of which I am returning 2 copies to you. It hits a superb note. I would only remark that the Orwell calumny of the 1945 - 55 period may have gained plausibility against the backdrop of Auschwitz and Maidanek. One only begins to see how trying and dangerous a period it really was as the darkness is dispelled.
I have been thinking about this question of relativizing the economy. […]
As far as industrialism is concerned, it appears to me that we shall be riding the same horse - only now we shall be in the saddle - and steer in the direction we wish to go. But it still a strange beast, when one thinks about its sudden emergence after 6000 years of recorded history. It is a [104] special case of coping with the economic problem, yet its unusual significance is disturbingly elusive.
I am led back to your views of culture as a boundary process, and the independence from nature's pressure as realm of freedom. (Weekend II, May 5, p. 8) It seems to me that here is where industrialism takes its meaning - in the possibilities of freedom it creates, and this would link it to the central ethos of our civilization.
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