versities’ enthusiasm for the equal-sexnmovement has diminished somewhat, asnthe shortage of tenured females makesnthe pro-ERA protestations of the malenfaculty sound hollow. But the educationalnsector is only one facet of a largenrevolutionary scene. Another equallynsignificant facet linked to the women’sliberationnmovement is the mandatednchanges in our language. Our governmentnhas never before gone quite sondeeply into thought control, thoughnrevolutionary efforts to force a nationnto change its language are hardly new.n(The French tried the same thing duringntheir revolution in the 1790’s, and thatnwas hardly yesterday.) To have such anneffort directed by semiliterates is bizarre,ntherefore, but barely noticeablenin the army of intellectual novelties marshalednagainst this society.nOne side effect of the campaign toneradicate sex difference is, however,nsomewhat unexpected: a proliferation ofndiffering sexual identifications, and annexpansion of the definition of what isnconsidered sexually acceptable, normalnor sane. Unisex, a biological fantasynappealing only to eunuchoids, is thenname of a shop in midtown Manhattannwhich sells ambiguous clothing, baublesnand accouterments to the sexuallynblurred. A few seasons back New YorknCity “with-its,” shedding their dashikisnand Nehru suits, discovered the joys ofnbisexuality, and hailed it as an advancenin the human experience, instead of a regressionnto the gutters of the later daysnof the Roman empire. These developments,ncombined with the rapid increasenof transsexuals, inverts and perverts,nseem to some to have pushed normalnheterosexuals virtually off the stage.nIt is, therefore, with a pleasant shocknthat one turns to Dr. Kriegel’s soliloquynon manhood to discover traditional, familiarnscenes presented in a highlynpersonal and, at times, poetic manner.nWhen he was eleven years old, Kriegelntells us, he was stricken with polio andn”could feel death like a passing presencenpausing at the foot of my bed. My fathernholds my hand. I wonder whether he cannfeel it, too … ‘Be brave!’ commands mynfather. ‘Be a man!’ . . . My father withdrawsnhis hand from mine and I close myneyes. In the morning I wake up and bothnmy father and the yellow oxygen tent arengone. Have I been brave.-‘ I wonder. HavenI been a man?” That anecdote is only onenof many insights in Kriegel’s brief butnbrilliantly written volume. He emergednfrom the hospital with two useless legs,nfully braced, like Franklin Roosevelt’s.nLike that older man, the handicap did notnhold him back; he was able to proceed,non crutches, to Greenwich Village tonsow what our forebears called wild oats.nAmong the theorists asserting the moral justification for the termination of capitalism,nmany of the most powerful are in the church. Their influence fans out through a host ofnorganizations and publications, bolstering the socialist campaign with the declaration thatntheir cause is the will of God. Such a pronouncement is something of a discussion-stoppernand until recently, most of the dominant theological schools have been so heavily tiltedntoward the left that there have been few ecclesiastical spokesmen capable of refuting suchnassertions with solid religious arguments.n… A thorough rejection of our economic system remains the basic proposition for mostnof the economic activism in the American Christian community. The national organizationsnrepresenting business interests have tended to ignore agitation and criticism from thisnsource except as an industry has been the target of major harassment. Even then, there hasnbeen a disinclination to mount any public argument against anyone wearing a round collar.nIt is often judged best to capitulate and swallow the losses, as the First National Bank ofnChicago did in terminating its profitable sale of South African gold coins in response to thenagitation of Clergy and Laity Concerned.nThe pace of this piecemeal retreat can be expected to accelerate as the activists mobilizednunder the banner of Christianity become more numerous and more sophisticated in theirncampaigns.nO^lnChronicles of Culturen^from Persuasion At Work, June 1980nnnLater he married and became the fathernof sons.nIt is clear that Kriegel is proud of hisnaccomplishments. He is able to summonnmoments from his experience when hisnsenses rose above ordinary levels to reveal—inna flash—a meaning sufficientnfor a lifetime. One of these occurrednin Mount Morris Park when he wasnfourteen. Fresh from a hydrotherapynsession, he sat on a bench, lost in andaydream, and was awakened by thenstench of a wino. Eyes still closed, henheard the slurry voice say, “They gotnyou.” He reluctantly opened his eyesnto regard a black derelict.n’Who?’ I ask. He laughs. ‘They donenyou buddy,’ he insists. ‘Don’t shit me.nI sees what I sees. Man, they done youngood.’ He palms the bottle of wine innhis hand, not even in a paper bag butnnaked in his large pink palm. I shakenmy head. I am furious . . . ‘Listen,’ Inwant to say, ‘You don’t understand.nThere’s nothing personal in it. Younjust get sick. That’s all. It’s not likenbeing black. You think like that, younthink someone has done something tonyou, and you’ll go crazy.’ But I remainnsilent, examining his face. It is a facenthat tells what his survival as a mannhas cost him. And others. It gratesnagainst the beliefs that I have learnednto cherish, even at fourteen …. It isnthe face of a man whose only accomplishmentnhas been survival.nThat warned him away from thensticky, bittersweet trap of self-pity.n”Manhood,” he writes now, “escapesnvictimization . . .” Many fail to graspnthat lesson, and live as less than men.nBut Kriegel does not dwell on that; henis not writing about the world, but aboutnhimself in relation to the world. “Therenare no statistics, no graphs, no charts onnwhich the emotional state of manhood isnlaid out …. [this is] written during onenof the most difficult of times for Americannmen . . . because I think that thentimes promise to become even more difficultnfor us unless we can look clearlynat what we can take from manhood’snpast.” That is an intriguing explanation,n