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Fundamental values, temperament and the way in which one approaches a conviction change less, of course, than specific opinions.

That fact is very clearly illustrated in the case of the many present-day intellectuals who were Communists or near-Communists in their youth and are now so extremely conservative ( or reactionary, as many would say ) that they can define no important political conviction that does not seem so far from even a centrist position as to make the distinction between Mr. Nixon and Mr. Khrushchev for them hardly worth noting.

But in ways more fundamental than specific political opinions they are still what they always were: passionate, sure without a shadow of doubt of whatever it is that they are sure of, capable of seeing black and white only and, therefore, committed to the logical extreme of whatever it is they are temporarily committed to.