Category: Imported

years, the worthlessness of much academicnscholarship, especially in thenhumanities; the sloppy thinking, deplorablenwriting, and general ignorancenof the majority of educationists andnadministrators who run the schools; thenlamentably large numbers of highlynexpensive and academically unjustifiednnonacademics employed by thenschools (deans, counselors, and coaches);nand the academic trends of recentnyears (multiculturalism, feminism, deconstruction)nthat threaten what is leftnof the integrity of...

ment is mentioned one thinks of thosenprominent men of letters who werenboth Fugitive poets and Agrarian socialncritics: John Crowe Ransom, AllennTate, Donald Davidson, and RobertnPenn Warren. Sewanee Review editornand novelist Andrew Lytle also comesnto mind. But this common view ignoresnthe central position Owsley heldnamong the Agrarians. Virginia Rocknendeavored to correct this misconceptionnin her unpublished dissertation,n”The...

Letter From Parisnby Curtis CatenFran9ois Mitterrand:nMetternich or Gladstone?nTwo troublesome problems have, fromntime immemorial, bedeviled politicalnregimes of every sort, from the mostnautocratic despotisms to the most wildlynpermissive of democracies. The first isnthe problem of advancing age and thenkind of rigor mentis that is apt to afflictnrulers during the final years of theirn”reigns.” The second, closely linked...

on November 9, 1989, with fireworksnand champagne, the French presidentnand his foreign policy advisers have,naccording to Fabra, done everythingnpossible to maintain the old status quonin Europe. So perturbed was FrangoisnMitterrand by that totally unexpectedn”happening” that on December 6,n1989, he made a hasty trip to Kiev tondiscuss this worrying developrhent withnMikhail Gorbachev, followed severalnweeks later by...

Iran’s former prime minister, ShahpurnBakhtiar, and who, though failing tonfinish off the “criminal,” managed tongun down and kill an innocent womannand a French policeman.nDid Valery Giscard d’Estaing (nowntrying to stage a political comeback)ndenounce this craven capitulation toncrass expediency? Not that I know of,nand for a simple reason. In Januaryn1979, when Shahpur Bakhtiar was belatedlynappointed premier...

as part of the definition of obscenity,nbut recent experience as an expertnwitness in a Charlotte pornographyntrial — expert, I hasten to add, in socialnresearch methods, not pornography —nleads me to conclude that thenSupremes have screwed up again.n(They mean well—but, then, theynusually do.)nLet me tell you about that trial. ThenCharlotte police busted two out-ofstatersnwho owned and...

Alas, though, it’s not just liberalsnwho want to centralize power in D.C.nMy principal complaint about the neoconservativesnthat some of my Chroniclesncolleagues have been bashing withnsuch gusto lately is their enthusiasm fornfederal solutions to problems. Sure,nthey’re real problems, but so is thenmetastasis of federal intrusion, especiallynsince half the time it wouldn’tnwork right anyway.nChester Finn, late of...

sle. There are all sorts of unwrittennrules for comfortable as well as safenliving in New York. One of them is tonkeep moving, making minimal eye contact.nIf a guy on the street tells you anstory, don’t listen, move on; let himnharass the next sucker. If you stop fornmore than ten seconds to contemplatensome sight or to...

Disneyland and thenReal Worldnby Thomas MolnarnCapitalism and the NewnWorld OrdernDuring a recent lecture tour I hadnoccasion to reacquaint myselfnwith the Pacific Northwest, where Inused to teach some thirty years ago.nThe region offers lessons in the differencenbetween American conditions andneconomic management and most of thenrest of the worid, to which the NewnWorld Order promises paradise: democracy,ncapitalism,...

ic structures, the consequence is notnprosperity a la Seattle, but rather thensharpening of class differences and thensacrifice of local culture.nIn short, the New World Ordernperspective — recognized abroad as anwill to extend the American market —ncommits the same error that PresidentnWilson and Robert Lansing, his secretarynof state, made in 1917 when theynplanned to turn the...

Creations Greatnand Smallnby David R. SlavittnImpromptunProduced by Stuart Oken andnDaniel A. SherkownDirected by James LapinenScreenplay by Sarah KernochannDistributed by Hemdale FilmsnTerminator 2: Judgment DaynProduced and directed bynJames CameronnScreenplay by James Cameron andnWilliam WishernA Carolco PicturenReleased by Tri-StarnSumer was icumen in. The air conditionersnwere humming and thenmonstro-humungus blockbusters werenopening. The biggest of the monsters,nthe Mount Pinatubo...

background is probably more useful (ornat least less confining) than the usualntraining of television’s fast-cut realism.nExcess is, after all, one of the subjectsnhere. We see, at the end, Sand andnChopin driving off together to hisnconsumptive love-death in Corsica,nand the scene is a cheerful one, ansunny, happy moment in which smallngestures figure large meanings. Chopinncoughs and...

transactionnNew and Recent Books on Family and PolicynThenSwedishnExperimentnin FamilynPoliticsn^^nHE t-1 Y (? D A L S A rj 0nI H £ I N T E R W A RnAllannCarlsonnThenpoliticsnHurnannNaturenThomas FlemingnFamilynQ^^P-SnW% ^vnReflections on thenAmerican Social CrisisnAllan C. CarlsonnTHE SWEDISH EXPERIMENT INnFAMILY POLITICSnTHE MYRDALS AND THE INTERWAR POPULATION CRISISnAllan CarlsonnThis devastating account of the worl< of Gunnar...

.:Ir(B’Y@y Fdd Up WItCiiDKin’ ©si©=P®rSy SysteoTO mnW®®CiDPgt©Di5 0=0o ?nIf multi-party politics is a good idea, for Eastern Europe andnSouth Africa, why not try it here in America?n’Xi^iMisi.!nHelp build a … U.S. -nTAXPAYERSnPARTY with a new agenda for America!nD Constitutional Budget: We need morenthan a balanced budget. Disapprovenany and all Federal expenditures whichnare not specifically authorized...

EDITORnThomas FlemingnMANAGING EDITORnKatharine DaltonnSENIOR EDITOR, BOOKSnChilton Williamson, ]r.nASSISTANT EDITORnTheodore PappasnART DIREGTORnAnna Mycek-WodeckinGONTRIBUTING EDITORSnJohn W. Aldridge, Harold O.].nBrown, Samuel Francis, GeorgenGarrett, Russell Kirk, E. ChristiannKopff, Clyde WilsonnCORRESPONDING EDITORSnJanet Scott Barlow, Odie Faulk,nJane Greer, John Shelton ReednEDITORIAL SECRETARYnLeann DobbsnPUBLISHERnAllan C. CarlsonnASSOCIATE PUBLISHERnMichael WardernPUBLICATION DIRECTORnGuy C. ReffettnCOMPOSITION MANAGERnAnita FedoranCIRCULATION MANAGERnRochelle FranknA publication of The Rockford Institute.nEditorial and Advertising...

on constitutional grounds, but out ofnreligious bigotry against Catholics.”nThe charge of monomaniacal anti-nPopery against the epitome of Englishncommon sense, John Locke, is hard tonmake. Although Locke was concernednabout the foreign influences of Poperynand was obviously dependent upon hisnanti-Catholic sponsor. Lord Shaftesbury,nthis by no means proves anti-nPopery was his primary justification fornhis views on the most...

and Locke’s Two Treatises of Governmentn(1986), nor the excellent scholarshipnof Mark Goldie on “The Roots ofnTrue Whiggism” and “John Lockenand Anglican Royalism.” From originalnmanuscripts by Locke in the BodleiannLibrary, Ashcraft describes Locke’s exclusionistnrevolutionary activities andnclose associations with old Commonwealthnradicals in their prosecution ofnthe Popish Plot, the Monmouth Rebellion,nand the Rye House plot to murdernKing Charles...

Persecution.” Devine errs saying thatnLocke “supported both a state churchnand toleration” because he was a minimalistnin Christianity. Burke was nonminimalist, yet supported the Churchnof England, attacked the casuistry ofnpersecution, and was genuinely tolerant.nThe differences between Burkenand Locke on toleration are religiousnand philosophical, not historical.nDevine’s claim that Anglicans had tonpersecute Catholics because they werennot obliged to...

“POLITICALLY CORRECT” isnthis year’s catch phrase, and beforenChristmas it will be as stale as the newnminiskirt or yesterday’s George Will.nAlways willing to outdo themselves inngullibility, decent Americans are routinelynwriting letters to the editor orncalling up Rush Limbaugh to protestnthe infamy of thought control on thennation’s campuses. Even though thenplatitudes of Allan Bloom, RogernKimball, and Dinesh...

ticians always do.nThere was a wide variety of viewpoints.nThough a Southerner and anslaveholder, Taylor was a conservativenWhig who took a moderately Northernnstand on the issues, as indeed did manynSouthern Whigs. The differences involvednwere quite heated, but hardlynclearcut enough to provoke assassination.nAn assassination theory is onlyngiven plausibility by anti-Southern paranoia:nthe belief that Southerners killednpeople who disagreed...

“enforce with equal vigor its earliernresolutions on the territorial integrity ofnLebanon, the division of Cypress [and]nIsrael’s withdrawal from the territoriesnit occupied in 1967.”nThe W.C.C. also took the opportunitynto throw as much cold water as itncould on plans to celebrate 1992 as thenquinquecentennial of Columbus’ discoverynof America: “We call upon theninternational religious community andngovernment to resist...

to be hospitable, generous, and tolerant;nit is quite another to abandon one’snstrongest convictions for the sake of annurbane and cosmopolitan eclecticism.n—Harold O.J. BrownnFROM A BLACK background anneerie, white sphere illuminates threenice cubes in a glass of clear liquid. Atnfirst, there is nothing special about thenpallid image, except maybe the lack ofncolor. But look again. Below...

Principalities & Powersnby Samuel FrancisnIf the American Republic is defunct,nand if most Americans no longer subscribento the classical republicanism thatndefined the Republic as its public orthodoxy,nwhat is the principal issue ofnAmerican politics? Ever since the ProgressivenEra, the issue that has dividednAmericans into the two political andnideological camps of “right” and “left”nhas been whether or not...

the structures and functions of thenmegastate, and in this respect it wouldnnot be attractive to most paleoconservativesnor paleolibertarians. MiddlenAmericans would insist on a state thatnprotected their material security —nthrough such “middle-class welfare”nprograms as health insurance, unemploymentnbenefits, pensions, and labornregulations, as well as economic policiesnintended to secure their jobs,nfarms, and businesses.nYet, at the same time, a...

14/CHRONICLESnPERSPECTIVEnSermon for William Andersonnby Thomas Flemingn”In every part of every living thingnis stuff that once was rock.”n—Lorine Niedecker, “Lake Superior”nAfter forty years of dying the world is new;nthe sky above all metaphor is blue,nhouses a bleed of brush-strokes on this streetnI once walked down to school and back in sleetdishevelednOctober dawns and bee-bumbling springnvacation Fridays...

from thinking for himself and went to hell.)nThe Spartans were the worst of all the Greeks;nthey beat their children, killed slaves, lived like sheiksnand abused their wives. Bullies, braggarts, liars,nthey ran like dogs when they saw King Darius.nRepeat this after me: the Athenians, goodnin general, were bad in owning slaves and shouldnhave freed their women...

in that school of thought to reflect the profundity of thentheorist.nIndeterminacy is the wear. Umberto Eco’s The OpennWork (1962), for example, resolutely celebrates indeterminacynof meaning in literary masterpieces; and in The Role ofnthe Reader (1979) he rejects the notion, once propoundednby Levi-Strauss, that works of art are “endowed with precisenproperties” or “the stiffness of a...

The Ancients had Pyrrhonism, or radical skepticism, andnthe Essais of Montaigne once argued that disagreementsnabout God or the gods, down the ages, left the believer withnnothing to rely on but an act of faith:nNow trust to your philosophy; after hearing thatnracket from so many philosophical’ minds, boast thatnyou have found the bean in the cake...

animal from another and of forgetting how the knownnspecies interact among themselves and with their environments.”nThis is because subjects fall out of the curriculum,nor are taught piecemeal by people on the periphery of thenuniversity. He says, for example, “Classifications of HighernPlants,” “Marine Invertebrates,” “Ornithology,” “Mammalogy,”n”Cryptogams” (ferns and mosses), “Biogeography,”n”Comparative Physiology” — “you may find some...

writing that is thought before thinking, insight beforenapplication and explication, attitude and emotion prior tontheir reformulation in propositions formed of words. I speaknof revelation, such as most of us have known and of which allnof us have heard: the unearned insight, the unanticipatednmoment of understanding. That is what I mean by a booknthat could be...

but not to one another, and professors listen to no one butnthemselves, and writing lots of things down on paper is takennto demonstrate knowledge and understanding. But what ifnteaching is understood in other terms altogether, as engagementnin a shared task of learning and understanding andnexplanation? What if teaching is a form of leading, bynexample —...

Last September, in a speech about Iraq’s invasion ofnKuwait, President Bush used for the first time a phrasenthat has come to signify his foreign policy objectives and hisnvision of the post-Cold War age: “New World Order.” Herenand in subsequent speeches the President would hint that,nwith the liberation of Eastern Europe, the end of the ColdnWar,...

Stan.” And why should the United States want to meddle innAfghan affairs? The Afghans have “suffered more than thenKuwaitis and the Kurds combined.”nAh, there’s the rub. Whether consciously or unconsciously,nSenator Hatch had succeeded in uncovering thentrue significance of the Persian Gulf War: it is the precedentnfor all future U.S. action on behalf of the New...

unnecessarily demands focus and specificity for the newnorder. The New World Order is not, never has been, andnnever will be about self-determination or sub-sovereignty ornabout the exercise and propagation of grand schemes ornspecific doctrines; it is instead — simply and boldly — aboutnthe exercise of will and the propagation of Americannhegemony. It is about power,...

were generally true to life?nIn considering dreams and reveries, one realizes that ournprivate amnesias are never permanent or complete, thatnnothing is truly lost to the human mind, though it is oftenndifficult to access the distant past or even recent experience.nEvery minute of every hour of every year is stoked withnimpressions of people and things, places,...

Thus the pleasurable world of the mid-to-late 1950’s comesnalive for me as I remember such things as the parties givennby my friend McColl Pringle in his family’s old house onnSouth Battery in Charleston, in 1957. I can envision thencrowds of friends who danced in the ballroom, the color ofnthe girls’ evening dresses, and the sound...

and time. He said that man is not wholly comprised of the as a dark or sinister side of the brain, but rather as thrillingnphysical continuum, noting that “clairvoyants may detect evidenceoftheway our ordinary real-life world is enhanced,nhidden things at great distance. Some of them perceive As we ponder the existence and proliferation of thesenevents...

way critical of women, homosexuals,nand minorities is strongly disapproved.nThe major works of the Europeannliterary tradition are tolerated only asnexamples of “the discourse of oppression.”nConsiderations of race and sexndominate admissions and appointments.nAnd so it goes on, documentednin detail by D’Souza, who makes itnclear that his examples are representative,nnot exhaustive, and that for everyncase mentioned hundreds have...

sense or obvious facts will stop it, asnHegel might have noted. For whatevernreasons, the Great American Spirit hadndecided in favor of sexual modernism,nand Kinsey’s “scientific statistics”nstruck a mighty media blow on itsnbehalfnThe crucial point oiKinsey, Sex andnFraud is that Kinsey’s statistics were notnvalid or reliable statistics, but werenlargely factoids (that in some instancesnmay have been...

statistical procedures,’ we have nownreported observations on such specificallynsexual activities as erection, pelvicnthrusts, and the several other characteristicsnof true orgasm in a list of 317npre-adolescent boys ranging betweenninfants of five months and adolescencenin age.”nThe crucial item here is the phrasen”records from trained observers.” Thentabular records in this section looknremarkably like other tables based onnKinsey’s and...

the cultural mission of France, a conceptnthe meaning of which they nonlonger understood. (Considering Drumont’snanti-Semitism of secondary importance,nBernanos planned a compendiumnof- his writings to benassembled by Bruckberger and prefacednby himself The manuscript stillnexists, but given the events of thatntime — the Munich Agreement hadnjust been signed—Bruckberger foresawnthe consequences of publicationnand the book was never printed.)nDrumont...

and listened, trying not to intervene: “Intry to think otherwise than I feel.” Butnhe loved all his characters, as God lovesnhis creatures and permits them to actnfreely. Bruckberger gives neither ancomplete nor a chronological list ofnBernanos’ writings, from which henquotes more or less at random. An in-‘nterested reader will find the translatednworks in any public...

Crammed ever tighter, stacked ever higher,nall jammed together, the artifactsnOf fifty years agglomerate in cupboards,nclosets, cartons, drawers and shelvesnUntil one final fatal freebie triggersnthe avalanche and the levee fails.nThe seeds split their pods, the sporesndisperse to mushroom everywhere:nHeaps of cast-off clothing climb the backsnof chairs, then shoot out threadsnThat cling to moldings and lamp polesnwhich...

will find a home shortly where they andntheir enchanting little boy can grow upnwithout feeling the evils of the segregationnpattern.”nAnticipating Martin Sheen and RobertnRedford, her favorite entry in then1958 Worid Day of Prayer was theninvocation of Chief Yellow Lark beginningn”O, Great Spirit.” In a 1955ncolumn she beats the drums for thenThai “wai” form of greeting...

Letter FromnAcademianby Murray N. RothbaidnLife LessonsnAcademics have no more human frailties,nI suppose, than are rampant in anynother occupation. But those frailties arenfar more repellent, and far funnier, in anprofession ostensibly dedicated to thendisinterested search for truth.n1. The pettiness of the stage.nBackstabbing and politicking in thenExecutive Suite to obtain a milliondollarnpost as head of a corporation...

Rothbard in our department!); and (3)nI had long had ties with a right-wingnfoundation, and they were expectingnme to bring them some right-wingnmoney (the do-re-mi factor again).nLittle did they know that it was preciselynbecause my ties with right-wingnfoundations had been abruptly severednthat I was trying to get back intonacademia.nThe New Left revolution was prettynmild on our...

the exclusive, hierarchical manner ofnthe old English upper classes. QueennElizabeth II is the last British monarchnto speak like the Queen of England tonher subjects. Charies, Prince of Walesnhas already implicitly indicated thatnwhen he succeeds to the throne he willnspeak as King of the British people.nAll these changes are part of the slownsocial revolution that has...

Mason v. Masonnby Matthew HoffmannThe ‘Dress a Sig’ Controversynat George Mason UniversitynThe members of George MasonnUniversity’s Sigma Chi fraternitynhad little reason to believe their annualn”Dress a Sig” fundraising event wasnpolitically incorrect. To those presentnlast April 4, the proceedings seemedninnocuous if a bit raucous. Participatingnsororities paraded members of SigmanChi in women’s clothing across a stage,neliciting hoots...

an educational purpose directly relatednto gender discrimination and culturalndiversity.” Sigma Chi and Gamma PhinBeta were ordered to “plan and implementnan educational program addressingncultural differences, diversity, andnthe concerns of women.” In a surprisinglynexplicit phrase, Bumgarner revealednthat “The exceptions to the bannon fraternity events reflect a premisenthat these events will create a desirablenattitude among the participants andnwill,...

The Way It Was?nby Lorrin AndersonnThe Ethics of DocudramanTniinhe nation must be grateful thatnmillions of Americans … arenbeing taught night after night lessonsnthat may help them live more amicablynwith their fellow citizens.”nThat’s Walter Goodman, writing innthe New York Times. “Goaded bynminority groups,” he says, “commercialntelevision has become a leader innthe movement to get Americans tonaccept...