An Artist must Revolt

In the Soviet we see two great composers Shostakovitch and Prokovie forbidden to have opinions other than the official ones. N.G. would have us believe that official opinion is founded on public opinion but if there is intense controversy how are the officials to judge? Marx, Lenin and Stalin were not literateurs. The majority is not always right.

Ordinary people are not best suited to decide what is great art, and what is not. They have not the time nor the inclination in a complex industrial society for that wide sampling which is the basis of taste. They need education, an uplifting of standards.

The writer must be ahead of the people but he must not be trailing with them through the absurdities and unnecessary conditions of life. He must revolt. Graham Greene "would emphasise once again the importance and the virtue of disloyalty."