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It seems the time has come to reconstitute the coalition of non-socialist liberals, social democrats and conservatives who fought on the cultural and intellectual front against communism in the Cold War. The international flagship was the Congress for Cultural Freedom and the local affiliate was the Association for Cultural Freedom that gave rise to Quadrant.

Arthur Koestler thought that the future of civilisation would be decided by the outcome of the battle between communists and ex-communists like himself. He believed that others could not comprehend the true nature of their adversary, with its capacity to recruit both the best of people and the worst of people. He was mistaken because the thin anti-red line was held by a mix of ex-communists and others who disagreed on many things but not the need to resist the greater evil.

The movement was discredited when it emerged that the CIA was contributing funds but that should not have been a major concern given that Moscow was funding revolutionary movements all over the world. That is history, the thing is to get our act together again to agree to disagree on many things and form a common front against identity politics.

This alliance is probably the best hope for civilization right now.

A few years ago I wrote to a leading leftwing philosopher and suggested that we needed set aside our differences and join forces to defend standards of scholarship in the universities. Nothing came of that, at the time it was just a concern about the intellectual standards but now the rot has gone much further with the mass media and other forces engaged.

For the record, Peter Coleman wrote a book about the rise and fall of the Congress for Cultural Freedom.

http://www.the-rathouse.com/PeterColeman.html