American liberal of the Andrew Young brand openly andninsistently wants to assist power-hungry political hoodlumsnall over the Third World: he not only wants tolerance andnhelp for them but also association with them, and is pushingnour country toward some rather smelly friendships. ThenAmerican liberal has refused to listen to the arguments ofnChileans or Israelis or black Rhodesians who want democracynrather than Marxism. What the American liberal wants innforeign policy is the instant redress of both real and imaginarynwrongs, or the revenge of his own shallow and misguidednidealism. So he objectively supports the PLO assassin,nthe Irish thug, the West German upper-class politicalnvampire, even if he haltingly condemns their methods. Consequently,nthe liberal has legitimized every Soviet politicalnintrigue, conquest, lie, subversion, corruption. By now, it’snan old story. The East Europeans have been repeating itnfor 35 years, the Russians for a decade. Now come the boatnpeople, next we’ll have the Afghans, and on and on—whilenthe American liberal learns nothing and slowly squandersnour chances for survival.nB, >y the time we finished this editorial the mess hadnbecome cosmic—Russia had invaded Afghanistan. What thenliberals of the Nation’s stripe will do with this news, Indon’t know; probably, they’ll declare that in spite of somethingnthat looks like an invasion, the Soviet storm troopersnThe Chambers of anCommunist ConsciencenAnthony Blunt, English aristocratnand Soviet spy, declared to the Britishnpublic on the occasion of his exposurenthat in providing Moscow with his country’snmilitary secrets, “… I haven’tnbetrayed my conscience.”nWhat an extraordinarily complexnthing a conscience can be. At the timenthat Blunt and two other British homosexualsnwere giving their allegiance andnBritain’s defense secrets to Soviet Russia,nin that idealistic nation the flimsiestnallegation of homosexual activity couldncause one to perish in a gulag or be torturednin KGB prisons for this despisednbourgeois failing, repellent to any trueblue,nrobust proletarian. Some kind ofnLiberal Culturenfunctional conscience …nThe Trib on IncestnAn effusively friendly profile ofnItalian film director Bertolucci, authornof Luna, a movie recommending incestnas a help in bringing up difficult adolescents,nconcludes in the Chicago Tribunenwith:n”He also can be seen as a talentednfilmmaker, rich with original and unconventionalnideas. He enjoys arousingnstrong reactions, even controversy,nwith his works and has no regretsnabout upsetting reactionaries in thenprocess.”nReactionaries.’^ Who does the Trib havenin mind.^nwill bring progress to the Afghans, who are reactionarynreligionists who don’t know what’s good for them. However,nnever before has the world witnessed so clearly the anatomynof Soviet cynicism and political criminality. We who havenbeen nonliberals since the end of World War II, have alwaysnclaimed that whatever the Soviets say is a cynical, criminalnlie, but the Nation’s staff accused us of cold-war bigotry.nIs the ultimate proof of Soviet wickedness going to changenthe gist of the Carter-McGovern U.S. foreign policy.” Hardnto say. After all, neither Carter, nor Hodding Carter, hasnever mentioned that those who are holding American hostagesnin Teheran are Soviet vassals, tools, weapons. ThenRussian embassies in Moslem countries appear serenelynunconcerned with Moslem “wrath,” while Russian soldiersnare massacring Moslems just around the corner. The Russiannembassies have nothing to fear—they are well protected bynthe PLO, Mujeheddins, Fedayeen, and all those “idealists”nwith whom Mr. Carter is so eager to negotiate. Suchnnegotiations will be the supreme triumph for America’snenemies.nnn-Leopold TyrmandnSince Chronicles of Culture is a bimonthly, an editorialnsubject which has been announced in advance may bensuperseded by a more topical one. Hence, the issuenentitled “The Haves, Have-nots and Have-littles” willnappear later this year.nPrinceton TalesnThe old Chaucerian spirit is alive andnwell at Princeton University, thanks tonthe rise of an uncompromising feminismnin its lovely halls. Ms. Lila Karp, thenhead (?) of Princeton’s Women’s Center,nannounced in an interview given tonthe Prospect, a Princeton newsletter:n”When the male consciousness raisingngroups get together with thenwomen, it’s not going to be for a socialnevening where we bring men in so wencan objectify their bodies four hoursnlater. That’s not our intent. We reallynwant to have a dialogue. If sex follows,nthat’s terrific.”nAh, that ancient, (conservative.’) irresistiblenurge!… DnJanuary/February 1980n