place, the permanent staff regard themnwith undisguised hostihty, as interlopersnwho will be replaced after the nextnDemocratic victory.nThese people, administrators andnstaff, are the ones who keep sendingnme missives by Federal Express. Atnfirst I thought it was outrageous thatnthis grotesquely expensive form ofncommunication was used to transmitnthe triial stuff that I was getting, but Inhave come to realize that spendingnTemporizing on thenThamesnby Andrei NavrozovnIt is one of the chief distinguishingnfeatures of the philistine that he thinksnhimself, above all things, “openminded.”nWhile the converse of thisnproposition is untrue, modern culturenhaving witnessed an explosion in thendoctrinaire varieties of philistinism, itnis nexertheless a fact that the trueblue,nclassic philistine, of the kindndescribed by the Russian word obyvatel’,nwho has passed, without mutation,nfrom the world of Chekhov’snshort stories into real life on the frontnpages of the New York Times, has “annopen mind.” It is his open-mindednessnthat allows the philistine to mention,nwith a disarming sincerity, that hisnclub is open to “anyone” (“except, younknow, those pushy types”). He cannotnbe confused with the bigot, whosenmind is closed, because the philistinennever hears himself; put another way,nthe bigot is an intellectually superiornbeing, harmless in the overall schemenof cultural existence, because, unlikenthe philistine, he has the capacity fornself-examination. The bigot may benmoney is the point. The political appointeesnat the top are happy to see thenagency’s money spent on mailing unimportantnmessages around the country:nAt least it does no harm. Thenpermanent staff people are content tonhunker down and wait out the Reaganites,nbut, in classic bureaucratic fashion,nthey want to spend everythingnallotted to them so that no one willnpropose to cut their budget for nextnvear.nTYPEFACESnseen as an introspective loner, whosengloomy, rude, or cynical outlook setsnhim apart from his philistine contem­nnnDoes anyone have a better explanation?nIt’s a hypothesis anyway, and ifnI’m right, there’s a nice play in FederalnExpress stock for anyone who cannpredict the outcome of the 1988 election.nRemember: you read it here first.nJohn Shelton Reed recently threwnaway the form from Who’s Who innFinance and Industrv.nporaries. By contrast, the agenda fornthe philistine’s friendly, chatty openmindednessnis set by the fellow mem-nAUGUST 1986 / 4Sn