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Bennett CerfBennett Cerf
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Session:         Page of 1029

friends are going to see me lunching with you.” I said, “George, you're too smart. You're exactly right. A lot of people are going to see us dining together and they're going to say, ‘What the hell is Cerf doing with that son of a bitch Sokolsky?'” At that time, the liberals hated Sokolsky and feared him. He was so powerful.

We sat down to lunch and soon began reminiscing. He told me that he still remembered how nice I had been to him as a kid. He said, “You know, fellows like you baffle me. Everything that you stand for, everything that makes your life comfortable, is on the right side, yet all of you lean over to the left. You call yourself liberals as if you were in the middle. I've never met a person like you yet who doesn't lean--although you think you're in the middle--to the left. If you ever deviate from the center, it's always to the left side whereas every interest of yours should be on the other side. You're an idiot. All of you are idiots.” This at least was an interesting point of view. He said, “You know, people like you bother me much more than an out and out Communist. I know where a Communist stands. He's over on the left side and I'm way over on the other side. It's you people in the middle who fiddle-faddle and think you're seeing both sides of everything that are the ones I can't put into place.

Well, we had a very interesting argument. I again said, “I don't know how liberal I really am. If I was put to the test, I suppose I'd be true to my own interests. I am beginning to be rich and all of my interests are on capital's side.





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