their artistic—to say nothing of theirneconomic—^value came into question.nMost of the contributors to The Forger’snArt examine this case and try to answernthe question. There is no agreement.nOne of the most interesting essays isn”Forgery and the Anthropology of Art”nby Leonard B. Meyer. Meyer considersnforgeries within the context of culture.nThis makes sense for the simple reasonnthat art does not exist in an empty field.nWhat is accepted as “art” gains that statusnbecause of traditional norms (which, asnpreviously mentioned, Kouwenhovennfinds, in the case of the U.S., too limited).nIn Western culture, the artist is a special,nrare individual. Try as one may, he willnnever pin down exactly what it is thatngives the artist that cachet. Here, as innC()RRI:SP()M)I:NCEnLetter from Mexico:nOur Sick, ‘Socialist’ Neighbornby Mary BallnWhat really ails Mexico? This potentiallynstrong and prosperous country isnnow the world’s heaviest debtor. Mexiconis the fourth largest nation in the Americas,npossessor of perhaps the richest oilndeposits in the world as well as of vastnstores of iron, uranium, gold, silver, copper,nsulfur, lead, and zinc. There are overn10,000 kilometers of coastline washednwith warm waters alive with edible fishnand seafood, and Mexico’s variety of climatesnpermits the growth of every typenof grain, fi-uit, vegetable, and wood. Thisnis a country with a young, active, workwillingnpopulation averaging only 35npersons per square kilometer. So hownhas the present chaotic situation comenabout? How can it be that Mexico’s enormousnoil revenue suflSces only to servicenthe foreign debt, and that 10.5 millionnMs. Ball, a former resident of Mexico,nlives in Rome, Italy.n46inChronicles of Cult arenMeyer’s test, the word magic is used fornthis ineffable quality. As stated, thisnmagic isn’t some sort of blinding light;none must learn to discern it: a child mightnthink Chartres is merely an old building;nas a man, he might be moved beyondnwords. A forged painting, after it is discoverednto be such, is still a painting. Butnis it still a work of art? I think not. AsnMeyer puts it, “Once a work is known tonbe a forgery, that magic is gone.” Learningnhas taken place; a change has beenneflfected. As long as knowledge counts,nas long as norms exist, forgeries will lacknmagic. That assertion implies, of course,nthat there are some things that certainnpeople know that others don’t know. Asnlong as that is the case (and time seemsnto be running out) the vernacular is, atnbest, half art. Dntons of basic foodstuffe have to be importednin a single year? What is the reasonnfor the ongoing collapse of agriculturenthat has forced millions to crowd intonthe misery belts of the large cities andnfor an industrial downturn that sendsnmore millions to look for work abroad?nPlausible answers to these bafflingnquestions are offered by veteran Mexicannjournalist Salvador Borrego in his latestnbook,MetasPolitico^ or “Political Goals.”nThe title might well have been simplynLa Meta, “The Goal” which the authornsees as nearing ftilfillment, namely, thencomplete socialization of his country.nWhat Mexican politicians refer to innspeech after speech as “our Revolution”ncontains, Borrego claims, the essence ofnrevolution in the Marxist-Leninist sense.nSince its first outbreak in 1910, thisnmovement has made steady progress,nattacking the social order through anseries of disorienting controls and programmedndisasters aimed at deprivingnthe people of basic fi-eedoms while in­nnncreasing the power of the state. Seen innthis light, the present tragic state ofnaffairs is not an accident but a logical,nanticipated consequence.nBorrego resists the notion that thenpresent crisis is simply a financial one.nHe maintains that its root causes are of anpolitical, social, and even q>iritual nature.nCiting the feet that control of mind andnsoul is fundamental to all revolutions, hennotes that God was banished from elementarynclassrooms in this eminentiynCatholic country the same year that thenBolsheviks took over in Russia. Now,nevery year millions of free schoolbooksnare issued that expound an obligatoryncurriculum wherein man is presented asnan evolving animal to be readied for lifenin a socialist society. No spiritual dimensionnwhatsoever is oflfered beyond a kindnof deified concept of revolution.nState control of private property,nanother Marxist tenet, has been underwaynin Mexico since 1910, but it is onlynin the last two decades that governmentnhas moved into the industrial and commercialnsector on a large scale. Ten yearsnago the State exercised direct controlnover 25 percent of the national wealth,nfive years ago 50 percent and today—nwith last year’s seizure of the banks—thentotal has risen to 75 percent. The 25 percentnremaining in private hands is largelyndependent on government j^encies forncredits and access to raw materials. Includednamong the thousand or so enterprisesnacquired by the state are hotelnchains, steel mills, the Renault automobilenworks, sugar refineries, domesticnairlines, movie-theater chains, and cottonnand paper mills. It is clear that a greatnportion of the $85 billion foreign debtnwas incurred in order to pay for thesenacquisitions. The revolution’s vauntedn”transfer of land to the people” throughnwhat is known as the y’ido system hasnproved to be as dismal a failure as itsncounterpart in the Soviet Union. Mexico,nlike Russia, is forced to spend hundredsnof millions of dollars a year for food grownnin fi-ee-enterprise countries.nFor the outside observer MetasPoliticasnposes two particularly puzzlingn