Category: Imported

4 I CHRONICLESnFrederick the Great of Prussia oncensaid that heads of state should avoidnmeeting one another. With all thenhyperbole surrounding the Reagan/nGorbachev summit, the three-daynmeeting aroused almost hysterical expectations,nsetting up Americans, inevitably,nfor a fall. Previous summit conferencesnshould have taught us at leastnthat much.nIn 1972 President Nixon went tonMoscow to sign the SALT I agreement,nthe ABM...

and Greek fire, Europe and the UnitednStates now put their trust in things,nrather than in the courage of theirnmen. Once the French and Germansnare forced to take charge of their ownndefense, they may begin to grow up tonthe realities of international politics innthe late 20th century. For too longnthey have looked to us as a...

B / CHRONICLESnPERSPECTIVEnA TIME TO REAP by Thomas FlemingnIdo not know what the city-bred recollect of childhood,nbut one of my earliest memories is of a sunny Easternmorning, when I was no more than three or four years old,nstanding in an unpaved lane that led down to a tiny farm:nthe bright new grass was pushing through...

arrival of the year’s first seed catalogs. We may even developna taste for Wordsworth.nWestern Civ teachers frequently tell their students thatnthe Greeks displayed little appreciation for nature. I don’tnknow. It is true that classical Greek poetry does not aboundnin landscapes and rural scenes; it took the urbanization ofnthe Hellenistic Age to inspire the pastoral poetry...

8 I CHRONICLESnirresponsibility, and drugs. A greater number, the majoritynat most schools, went to class, got married, and are nowndoing reasonably well. How well I remember the “riot” thatnshut down Chapel Hill. We were supposed to go tonWashington to protest the war. One New Left type boastednto me that the Revolution had really come this...

“^ give you morenquality sorices thanaiqrnother discount broken”n”Commission discounts arenimportant. But there are manynservices that are just as important.nWhen you choose a brokerage firm,nyou should get a complete package.nThat means discountsnand service’.’n-Charles R. Schwab, ChairmannCharles Schwab & Co., Inc.nWe give you these quality services:n1/^ 24-hour order entry so you can place your ordersnat your convenience.nv^...

society’s strict rules of personal and sexual conduct whichngenerated the violence and immorality they were supposednto curb. Rousseau, like Locke, said that in the long gonenpast, man was most perfect. He ate and fornicated by whim.nThere was no guilt, competition, or territorial disputesnbecause morality, wealth, and property did not exist. But asncivilization advanced, man degenerated....

nondominating, nurturing fathers and bread-winning mothers.nGay and straight are the same — simply “preferences.”nAll this is straightforward Progressivism elevated to a religionnand is a variation of the world that Margaret Mead saw innSamoa. But even she was forced to admit: “Androgynynmakes sex an end in itself and makes for shallow relations.”nThe results have been predictable....

flutes. Here Venus is the goddess of hospitality, and hernworship does not admit to any mysteries. Every tribute tonher is a feast for the nation.”nThe lives of the Tahitians were filled with various formsnof human sacrifice. Heywood: “Infanticide was considerednby the Indians as a praise-worthy act of self-sacrifice.”nCaptain Bligh asked a district chief about this...

sedentarization, agriculture, bronze or iron production,ncity-building — existed under the sponsorship of divinitiesnwho ftilfiUed two essentially civilizational hinctions: theynoffered their followers meaning of and justification for whatngods and men were doing, thereby calling for myths, rituals,nand art forms. The second function was to set limits thengiven technical instruments could not transcend — unlessnthe gods themselves...

that lives in their homes at their invitation, even fish. Butntheir numbers increase, and — let me whisper even lower —nI like the taste of pigeon.nA cat. Everyone, even vegetarians, keeps cats, maybenbecause they so obviously dominate the symbiosis.nA hawk. Oh-oh. A falcon, worse still. A huntingnfalcon — a domestic-bred hybrid falcon, half peregrine. Anhalf-endangered...

18 I CHRONICLESnonly answer pops up in the next paragraph; “It is humannnature to covet that which is scarce and unusual.” Let’snforget for the moment the problems of the elephant andnwhether controlled harvest might encourage its conservation.nThe issue here is that rarity, except to the middleman,nis not what anyone covets in ivory. Ivory is a...

20 I CHRONICLESnattitudes we and our fellow citizens have towards the creatednuniverse and in the legal framework that governs the use ofnnatural resources. Law and conscience are both importantncomponents of a Godly use of our resources. Therefore wenmust examine both, change those parts that do not promotenwise conservation, and sustain those parts that do.nThe rules,...

conditions and generating the information relatively cheaply,nin comparison to alternative means of obtaining thatnsame knowledge. A private property system allows communicationnand coordination among millions of individuals,neach with bits of knowledge carefully developed and expressednand crucial to the coordination process.nPublic resource managers face very different sets ofninformation. Prices generated by a market are essentially anseries of...

22 I CHRONICLESncern, in the fall of 1957 a sanitary sewer was laid across LovenCanal, breaking both the clay cover and the clay canal walls.nThe sewer bed was gravel, providing a path for chemicals tonleach out of the canal. This was the first time the canal wallsnwere penetrated. However, further breaching soon occurred.nIn 1960 a...

information is across generations. The present generationnneeds to seek knowledge of the needs and desires fornresources of future generations. Particularly in the case ofnexhaustible resources, we must be concerned not to severelyndisadvantage the future residents of our planet. Interestinglynenough, private property rights are superior to publicnownership in predicting and regulating future needs. Undernpublic ownership wise...

24 j CHRONICLESnoccurred, and on both sanctuaries cordial relationshipsncontinue among sanctuary managers and oil companynexecutives and workers.nAre the Audubon Society managers of the Michigan andnLouisiana preserves less concerned about the environmentnthan those environmentalists debating the potential for oilnexploration in the Bob Marshall Wilderness? Did the oilncompanies choose more cooperative individuals to deal withnthe Audubon Society...

2S I CHRONICLESnand.our four small children moved from Massachusetts,nwhere I had been teaching, to a farmhouse on a remotenhillside in northern Vermont. We had a dozen hens, a cow,n$300, and the rent was paid for two years. I did not knownthen and I cannot tell now what we thought we were doing;n”living off the land”...

togged themselves from the L.L. Bean catalog, the unwashednfought over polyester shirts on sale at Zeller’s, andnso on through all the objects and rituals of a complexnmodern society, the highest on the list of taste tests beingnthe pastoral myth itself which, in its 60’s form, allowed itsnbelievers to think of themselves, even vicariously, as unimplicatednin...

28 I CHRONICLESnbore from within the Teamsters’ Union, radicalizing it innpreparation for the imminent revolution, to which end theynworked in a trucking firm, Mike as a loader, Rachel as andispatcher. In between ecstatic tales of their experiences innCuba cutting sugar cane, Mike filled me in on the careernchoices of some of his classmates: Peter was...

class in the late 1950’s and early 60’s, it had achieved ancritical mass; conventional notions were simply blown away.n(Remember the collapse of university administrations in thenface of student revolts?) That explains the phenomenon ofnolder people who were suddenly 60ed, who sported beardsnand sandals and love beads, and who doggedly whined thatn”the kids are trying to...

election law, the Agrarian Union won 212 of 245 parliamentarynseats in April 1923 and was on the verge ofnestablishing a revolutionary peasant dictatorship. However, anmilitary coup occurred in June, and Macedonian nationalistnopponents captured Stamboliiski (an internationalist andnfriend of Dragoljub Jovanovic, head of Serbian Agrarians)nand cut off his head.nIn its early years the International Agrarian Bureau...

thereafter by both his friends and hisnenemies. But, while there is no mystery,nthere is a great deal of confusion,narising out of subsequent efforts tonmanipulate his image as an aegis fornother causes of other days. Even hadnhe not been so complex a puzzle as anman, his role in American history is soncovered by ideological debris that...

34 I CHRONICLESnmake-over of Jefferson to please ourselvesnand to miss the main point,nwhich is that for JefiFerson — and hisnfollowers — the two were synonymousnand inextricable. It is self-evident innthe historical record for those who haveneyes to see, obvious to anyone whonwill read Jeiferson’s correspondencenthrough from the 1790’s to the 1820’snor who will examine the...

very clearly (and in many other statementsnat the same time), Jefferson wasnnot pointing to the evils of slavery —nhe was pointing to the evils of antislavery,nof free-soilism.nThe letter is written to console annortherner in trouble with his constituentsnfor favoring the compromise —nthat is, for favoring the admission ofnMissouri as a slave state. It is notnslavery...

cultural discourse.” But his tiresomencomments on Vietnam/Indian similesnand supposedly myth-influenced U.S.nadventurism (Kennedy’s New Frontiernis implausibly termed “a program ofnrenewed economic expansion and forwardnmovement on the borders of thenAmerican empire”) prove less relevantnto his central theme than an analysis ofnWalt Whitman’s “From Far Dakota’snCanyons,” a “Death-Sonnet for Custer,”nwhose jaded narrator finds in anmessage of massacre an...

38 j CHRONICLESnCuster, at the Grand Review of victoriousnUnion armies, mastered a runawaynhorse. Dubbing this critter a “surrogatenfor the man’s animal self,” Slotkinnsuggests that “Thus brought againnunder strict discipline by the rider (thenintellectual being), the presence of thenhero reveals itself.” But then, onlynSlotkin would assume that in a magazinenarticle by Custer he “solicits thenaid of...

on’s “obedient child” into an institution,nobedient only to deadlines and hisnnetwork bosses.nWhat happened? Twenty of hisnWashington years Mrs. Donaldson’snsecond son spent in the employ ofnABC News, 10 under the direction ofnRoone Arledge, erstwhile boy wondernof televised sport. The result? SamnDonaldson, unknown neophyte, hasnbeen transformed into Sam Donaldson,nveteran celebrity. Hence thisnbook.nWe Americans pride ourselves onneither the...

40 I CHRONICLESnLetter FromnPhiladelphianby James L. SauernSwan Songn”Did you hear what happened to thenswan?”nTucked away in the residential areanalong suburban Philadelphia’s mainnline lies the idyllic campus of EasternnCollege. For the last four years thisnChristian academic institution hasnsponsored the Evangelical Roundtable:nan attempt to find definition in thenideologically shattered realms ofnEvangelical-land. “The Roundtable,”nsays the promotional material, “is...

of innocent babes in the womb. “Afternall,” I heard her say as she held up hernfingers to an inch width, “they’re onlynthis big.” Humanity is now determinednby size. And what is our size in thenhands of God?nRepresenting the Religious Coalitionnfor Abortion Rights, and invokingnthe god called “Will,” this unhappynwoman, hater of life, lover of self,nworshiper...

42 I CHRONICLESnthem. There are some who might ask,n”If we’re so worried about the farmer’sn’way of life,’ what about the doctor’s?nthe grocer’s? the schoolteacher’s?”nBut in the face of the brave determinationnof Jaeger and Tyndall and thenpeople at FOOD, such questions seemnmean and petty. They aren’t asking forna handout or a tax break or a betterthan-evennchance...

the slopes in the distance. They are notncemetery markers but rather bits ofnbedrock, and the whole nation shouldnbe in a state of mourning because allnthis really is just part of a long-runningnfuneral service for the earth itself.nA thousand miles to the north, siltnbeds stratify in a vast lake at NewnTown. Downstream at Oahe and FrancisnCase...

44 I CHRONICLESnconservation, we have to be the rightnkind of people.nDuring World War II, when AldonLeopold wrote his seminal essays, thisnwas an unspoken given, simply takennfor granted, and his projected solutions,nthough visionary, were somehownpalpable. Yes, we could do it. Wenwould do it. We could batten down ournmoral hatches, patch up our tatterednethical armor, suck up...

near and distant past knew this. Mennlike Durward Allen, Paul Sears, LorennEiseley, John Steinbeck, and beforenthem TR, Henry Thoreau, IndiannChiefs Seattle and Looking Glass.nCartoonist-pamphleteer Jay N. “Ding”nDarling never failed to emphasize thenimperative of philosophical underpinnings.nLeopold said that TheodorenRoosevelt “insisted that our conquestnof nature carried with it a moral responsibilitynfor the perpetuation of thenthreatened forms of...

46 I CHRONICLESnLetter From Albionnby Andrei NavrozovnWhose War Is It, Anyway?nAccording to Josef Joffe, foreign editornof the Siiddeutsche Zeitung, thenGerman historian Ernst NoUe oncenasked at a Harvard seminar whethernanyone present could find the idea ofnthe “Final Solution” in history beforenHitler. Since no one answered, hendrew the attention of his audience tonthe work of Marx and...

on September 3, 1939. (If all thisnsounds a little like something out ofnHogan’s Heroes, it isn’t surprising — sondo Hider’s adversaries, born, like him,nof the democrahc flesh and blood of anfree West. “Never has a simpler documentnbeen issued in history with consequencesnmore far-reaching or morenpregnant with hope,” the New YorknTimes reported on “the results of...

48 I CHROIVICLESnTo flee and shame the racenfrom which we’d sprung.nLife, to be sure, is not so muchnto lose.nBut young men think it is, andnwe were young.nThe librarians, the fascist conscripts,nthe Vietnam draftees — no doubt allnwere scared young men. But they didnnot choose to flee, and the memorialsnhonor them for it. We can sympathizenwith...

<^*nDiscover Our Heritage of LibertynQUANTITY COMMON SENSE, THEnRIGHTS OF MAN, ANDnOTHER ESSENTIALnWRITINGSnby Thomas PainenThe powerful writings on humannliberty that sparked revolutionsnin America and countries aroundnthe world.n’#2008 288 pages, paperback, $8.95n^nAMERICAN POLITICALnWRITINGS DURING THEnFOUNDING ERAn(2 vol), ed. by Charles S.nHyneman and Donald S.LutznA seminal selection of the highestnintellectual quality, containingnseventy-six pieces whichnshaped the founding of America.n#2011...

50 I CHRONICLESnPOP CULTUREnThe Null Setnby Gary S. VasilashnLess Than Zero; directed bynMarek Kanievska; screenplay bynHarley Peyton, based on the novelnby Bret Easton Ellis; 20th CenturynR)x.nTom Waits recently suggested to Musiciannmagazine that if John Lennonnknew that Michael Jackson would controlnThe Beatles’ music, Lennonnwould “kick his ass — and kick it reallyngood.” As I watched the...

4 / CHRONICLESnGlasnost American style is all the ragenamong the nation’s literati. At over andozen universities, American academicsnare now waking up to the Sovietnequivalents of Good Morning Americanand Richard Simmons. After years ofnwatching our own People’s BroadcastingnSystem, students and faculty alike maynnow get a glimpse of the real thing.nAmerica being America, however, thenlanguage presents a...

really rock and roll, he would have beennas welcome as the young West Germannwho landed his plane in Red Square.nPerhaps the Politburo only wanted to getna closer look at Christie Brinkley.nThe last American musician to benattacked in the Soviet press was MichaelnJackson, and that was when he wasnmerely a thriller, not bad. Begloved Michaelnrepresented, to...

61 CHRONICLESnPERSPECTIVEnPLACE OF ASYLUM by Thomas FlemingnThe theater is dead, the novel dying, poetry extinct; biographynis the province of graveyard ghouls, and history anbattleground on which disheveled armies of academic theoristsncontend with hucksters and prostitutes for the fate of an entirencivilization. These conclusions of a temperate man in a goodnhumor pretty much sum up the...

with a sociologist named something like Biff. Biff was a likablenlout, forever asking his colleagues to meet him somewhere andn”throw the old ball around.” Never very good at math, henbecame a devotee of “humanistic sociology,” by which henapparently meant editorializing on current events. His bignchance came when the nearby county seat experienced thenlargest family murder...

lights, comfortable operating-rooms,” being the only physiciannfor dozens of snowy miles around, he worked without sparingnhimself, 12 to 14 hours a day, often without accepting a pennynfrom his benighted peasant-patients.nBy his very being, by his doctor’s hands (and not by ideasninvented in big cities), trying to do for them everything hencould, he, at the same...

101 CHRONICLESnmoney?” I muttered at Yegorych as we ran. “It’sndisgusting. You’re a hospital janitor, yet you go aroundnlike a bum.”n”What kind of money is that?” Yegorych snarlednback at me, “for twenty rubles a month putting myselfnthrough all this torment . . . Oh, damn this thing!”nHe was beating his foot against the ground like a...

“We give you morenquality services than anynother discount broker.”n”Commission discounts arenimportant. But there are manynservices that are just as important.nWhen you choose a brokerage firm,nyou should get a complete package.nThat means discountsnand servicen—Charles R. Schwab, ChairmannCharles Schwab & Co., Inc,nWe give you these quality services:n1^ 24-hour order entry so you can place your ordersnat your...

12 / CHRONICLESnWhile Stalin was alive, Pasternak was never seriously persecuted,nalthough he never wrote anything glorifying Stalin. (As anmatter of fact, glorifying him didn’t save many mediocre poetsnfrom being deported to the Gulag.) Mandelstam was deported,nbut only after he wrote such a devastatingly stinging poemninsulting Stalin personally that any other poet would have beennshot on...

remarkable force in the novel which he considered the mainnwork of his life — The Master and Margarita.n* * *nBulgakov worked on this novel for 12 years, from 1928 ton1940, but it was published only in 1966 — 26 years after thenauthor’s death. Very few people knew about the existence ofnthe manuscript and still fewer—only...

suddenly they hear behind their apartment door these all-toofamiliar,nterrifying steps of several men coming up the stairs.n”What are those footsteps on the stairs?” asked Koroviev,nfiddling with his spoon in a cup of black coffee.n”I guess they’re coming to arrest us,” answered Azazello,nand downed a shot of cognac.n”Ah . . . well, well …” responded Koroviev.nAnd...

the “adversary” culture into the university was Dr. Evron M.nKirkpatrick, former director of the American Political SciencenAssociation. He summarized the position of the left arrayednagainst contemporary political science by saying that the “newncritics” were taking for granted that nonleft political scientistsnhad accepted “the false gods of reason, objectivity and freedom.”nThe nonleft political scientists were condemned...