Dawn Powell on “Destructivism”

The theme [of the novel that Powell was working on], as you so perspicaciously gathered from the biblical title [The Locusts Have No King], deals with the disease of destruction sweeping through our times — no leader is needed, each person is out to destroy whatever valuable or beautiful thing life has. The moral is that in an age of destruction one must cling to whatever remnants of love, friendship, or hope above and beyond reason one has, for the enemy is all around, ready to snatch it. You will see that I refer to the enemy not as Fascism, Communism, Mammon or anything but the plague of destructivism — inherent in human nature but released in magnified potency since the war.