But in the endeavor to establish and popularize his theory, a radical critic cannot afford any similar concessions.

His own opinions can become established only by the displacement of the traditional opinions; and the way to displace a traditional error is not to be compromising and conciliatory, but to be as uncompromising and as irritating as one's abilities and one's vision of the truth will permit.
The critic in his capacity as agitator is living in a state of war with his opponents; and the ethics of warfare are not the ethics of statesmanship.

Public opinion can be reconciled to a constructive national programme only by the agitation of what is from the traditional standpoint a body of revolutionary ideas.
In vigorously agitating such a body of revolutionary ideas, the critic would be doing more than performing a desirable public service.

He would be vindicating his own individual intellectual interest.

The integrity and energy of American intellectual life has been impaired for generations by the tradition of national irresponsibility.