Category: Imported

12/CHRONICLESntion of novelty as a literary theme. If in the traditionalnEuropean novel, characters tend to move in an environmentnalready discovered and subdued by law, class hierarchy,nand established custom, experience for Americans isnan entity actively sought as destinahon and quarry, andynamic and elusive state of both being and perpetualnbecoming which needs to be tracked down, grappled...

which novehsts throughout the world have carried on thenprocess of demythifying experience and eviscerating ournillusions, it seems also to be true that at some point thendialectical balance had radically shifted. For we now suffernfrom a surfeit of negation and an apparent failure ofnunderstanding of just what values have been negated, whatnwere the illusions we once...

14/CHRONICLESnmalevolent in our own age. We have, in fact, institutionalizednall the famous old disaster syndromes and so assimilatednthem into our way of life and patterns of thought thatndisaster has become not only our central preoccupyingnexperience but our principal fantasy of salvation. If religionsnof the past offered promise of some form of transcendentalnredemption, disaster holds out...

with the technology of all his personal processes, to seenthem, as he sees himself and other people, as objects to benanalyzed and evaluated for their correctness according tonvarious behavioral measurements and sociological surveys.nSince instinct qr simply intelligence can no longer bentrusted as a guide to feeling and conduct, since thenprecedent of the past is considered...

is to preserve the state of physical hfe, however unrewardingnit may be, for as long as possible and to seek distraction fromnthe prospect of death as best one can.nThe two attitudes—the suspicion that life has becomenempty of meaning and the desire nevertheless to avoidnconfronting its meaningless end in death—are well-dramatizednin our tendency to subject to...

181 CHRONICLESnexploitation inevitable. Like the aristocracy or the verynrich—or like “true” artists for that matter—they had to benrepresented as a special breed marching to a drummer thatndid not beat for ordinary mortals and blessed with the moralndispensations proper to special breeds. So the term “movienstar” has become a metaphor for an enhanced form ofnexistence, thereby...

and at the same time prevents the development of undesirablensocial traits.nGiven his interest in ESP, hypnosis, acupuncture, mysticism,nand his suspicion of the general direction of secularntechnological society, the value Huxley placed on druginducednpsychedelic experience may seem inevitable. Hisnown experiments with drugs were few enough—mescalinentwice and LSD three or four hmes, as he wrote to ThomasnMerton...

20/CHRONICLESndefinition of art as a high-risk enterprise whose naturalnenemy is the risk-wary censor.nAt the Boston trial even some of Burrough’s defendersnhad to concede that his novel was structurally deficient, thenconcession having to be understood with reference tontraditional expectations of formal clarity. So far as the artistnis the intrepid hero of experience, this is an easily...

midnight, call your sister/brother a jerk, or get a tattoo,neven if Jennifer-Jason-Amy-Josh has been granted suchnprivileges since birth, even if your teacher says it’s okay,neven if you want to trade me in for a better model—and bynthe way, I wouldn’t trade you for the world. It is thenwillingness to be, from time to time, very...

24/CHRONICLESnThe Uses of Diversity:nRecovering the Recent Pastn(continued from page 9)nW.B. Yeats, Allen Tate, Flannery O’Connor, and WalkernPercy. It is more than a little ironic. This was the eranforetold (accurately, for the most part) in which Westernnman was supposed to discover that his God was dead. Thenancients faced a similar shock in late antiquity. Plutarch, innhis...

In the face of industrialization and the enhghtened selfinterestnpreached by philosophes, utilitarians, and liberalncapitalists, the Romantic poets sought refuge in the landscapesnof nature and the human heart. They discovered thenquaintness of common people—Wordsworth in his ballads,nScott in his antiquarian Scottish novels, and a wholenmovement of English and European writers who celebratednthe Folk.nAs the century wore...

historian. It was as historian, philosopher,nand artist that Carl Beckerngave us his great Heavenly City of thenEighteenth Century Philosophers (onnwhich Peter Gay did not so much asnlay a glove in.his tirade); add to thatnalso wit—precisely the kind of wit thatnwe find in Gibbon.nBless Professor Vaughn for includingnHerbert Butterfield’s “The Dangersnof History.” “The dangers of historynare...

28/CHRONICLESnA rousing romp with the documentsnhas succeeded in banishing many anphilosopher’s or social scientist’sn—and historian’s —delusion of “irrepressiblenconflict,” “inevitable rise (ornfall),” “overpowering trend,” and “inexorablenmovement.” Historians arenoften as prone as novelists to ascribenmotives to the principals of historynwhen they don’t know any more aboutnsuch motives than they do their nextdoornneighbor’s. A sudden windfall ofndocuments often...

40/CHRONICLESnLetter FromnManaguanby Wallace KauhnannA Devil’s Dictionary From NicaraguanRevolutions attempt to give newnmeaning to life. Sometimes changingnthe definition of words is part of thenattempt to change reality. At otherntimes,, reality changes first. Nowherendoes the traveler have more old wordsnwith new meanings than in revolutionarynNicaragua. To help thosenwhose first days in the country are asnconfused as mine,...

Latin America with its own army; tlienpolitical party that “exercises controlnin the name of the workers … or tonput it another way, the workers controlnpower through the FSLN” (SandinistanNational Directorate, 1979).n”Heroes and Martyrs”: a phrase usednto distinguish government-approvednorganizations from their privately organizedncounterparts, e.g., CON-nAPRO is the independent Council ofnProfessionals, and CONAPRO Heroesny Martires is the...

42/CHRONICLESn—“Peace is a vague concept,nsimply the absence of war.nPeace is something hke milkntoast—weak, passive andnboring.” (Now really-do younknow any 15-year-olds whonhave heard of milk toast ornwould use language like that?)n—“Nobody is doing muchnabout peace. We arenpowerless.”n—“The future may neverncome and it probably will notnbe better than today.” (Huh?)nSo far, so good; I agree that these...

Letter Fromnthe Lower Rightnby John Shelton ReednWhy Don’t We Do It in the Road?nA pathologist who recently movednhom Vermont to North Carolina hasnwritten an article in the Americannjournal of Forensic Sciences about thenold Southern custom of lying in thenroad. The good doctor was apparentlynunacquainted with this pracdce, andnhe was upset to discover that everyncouple of...

44/CHRONICLESnOn ‘Old Adam,nNew Eve’:nThomas Fleming’s article, “OldnAdam, New Eve” (Perspective, Junen1986) failed to mention the women innthe line of fire between feminists andntraditionalists.nSure, we all decry militant feministsnwho want to turn science, the sexes,nart and, indeed, all society into anprogressive’s hodgepodge of leftist doctrinenand Marxist Utopia.nBut what about us hybrids? As ansingle professional woman, I...

46/CHRONICLESnSCREENnCritic’s Choicenby Sam KarnicknHannah and Her Sisters; written andndirected by Woody Allen; OrionnPictures.nLike any civilized society, Americanreveres its artists. Unfortunately, innthis as in most other things, we tend tongo overboard. Consequently, we arenall too often subjected to the spectaclenof a ludicrous buffoon like Gore Vidalnon national television pontificating onnpublic policy questions, or a NormannMailer—a man...

films and works of literature, and borrowingsnfrom other people’s plots allnadd to his ability to get his pointsnacross while minimizing his deficienciesnas a storyteller. And, as it turnsnout, most critics have praised him fornthe bandages without noticing thenwounds.nThis formal eclecticism, however, isna disadvantage to him as a filmmakernin two important ways. First, the devicesndon’t always...

481 CHRONICLESnthey love me?”nOn the subject of sanity versus insanity,nGuare is—and therefore wenare—far more sympathetic with Bananas.nIn all of his works, Guarenfocuses on paradoxes and regards themnfrequently by inverting our expectations.nIn Bosoms and Neglect, for example,nScooper tells Deidre, his newn”girlfriend,” that “you become sanernmuch quicker than you go mad.”nAlthough Bananas is the certifiablenlooney who is...

only identifiable legacy. The choice ofnsyphilis was ineluctable for Guare,nsince it not only conjures up Ibsen (tonwhom Guare is paying deliberatenhomage in this series of plays), but itnalso suggests comparison with thenmore recent sexual utopianism of then60’s. But what is most useful to usntoday in Guare’s grandiose scheme hasnbeen either o’erlooked or ridiculed bynthe critics...

definition, and “a round ball” is thereforenredundant—as is the poet’snstrange need to anticipate a situationnin which the cartographer, ready to getndown to some serious mapmaking,nsuddenly discovers he has no suppliesnor tools. Besides, why “quickly”?nAnyway, the professors thought Inwas criticizing Donne. Indeed, wasn’tn”redundant” a bad word in the creativenwriting courses they had taken in theirnday, along...

only identifiable legacy. The choice ofnsyphilis was ineluctable for Guare,nsince it not only conjures up Ibsen (tonwhom Guare is paying deliberatenhomage in this series of plays), but itnalso suggests comparison with thenmore recent sexual utopianism of then60’s. But what is most useful to usntoday in Guare’s grandiose scheme hasnbeen either overlooked or ridiculed bynthe critics...

definition, and “a round ball” is thereforenredundant — as is the poet’snstrange need to anticipate a situationnin which the cartographer, ready to getndown to some serious mapmaking,nsuddenly discovers he has no suppliesnor tools. Besides, why “quickly”?nAnyway, the professors thought Inwas criticizing Donne. Indeed, wasn’tn”redundant” a bad word in the creativenwriting courses they had taken in...

Paradise, 1985 by Colleen Brownivj:. nit i Add to Favorites

This one book distills the conservative Mrisdom of t^ironcenturies. You can buy it in a bookstore for $I7.9S.nOr you can take it here^ FREEnTHE PORTABLEnCONSERVATIVE READERnNew vohime in Viking’s celebrated “Portable Library” •nSelected, with introduction and commentary, by Russell Kirkn57 generous selections by 44 distinguished authors from EdmundnBurke to Irving Kristol • inchides British and...

61 CHRONICLESn”The Cannes festival, the largest andnmost prestigious film showcase, hasngenerally favored less commercial,nmore artistic films often with a leftistnpolitical message—the choice of filmmakersnrather than moviegoers.” Thisnis the voice of the New York Times,nfriends and readers, not that oiChronicles.nAnd the New York Times—like ilnDuce—ha sempre ragione. She is alwaysnright. This year, however, wasndifferent. The festival...

luminaries—Pitirim Sorokin, EmilenDurkheim, Max Weber, and GeorgenHomens—were hardly leftists. Butndon’t look for Eliot or Sorokin in thenEnglish or sociology departments ofntoday’s American campuses. Withnsome honorable and courageous exceptions,nthese departments are fillednwith excellence-haters who wouldnhave trouble selling shoes if they everngot off the dole. No wonder they hatencapitalism. Faced with the prospect ofnbeing educated by such...

81 CHRONICLESnexperience. They are even encouragednto build altars to their ancestors andnmake “altar offerings” on them.n(Cunningham has the cultural insensitivitynto describe these activities asn”bizarre.”)nThe Department responded to thenblowup which followed the publicationnof the report by telling its Denvernoffice to release it only to those whonrequested it. John K. Andrews’ IndependencenInstitute got hold of it andnsent...

lectual quality of our schools andnmake us more competitive as a nation,neconomically, culturally, andnpolitically. (ECK)n”Censorship a big loser” in Maine—nor so the headlines went after a proposednobscenity law went down tondefeat in a statewide referendum. Thenlaw—which specified penalties of upnto five years in prison and fines of up ton$10,000 for anyone who chose “tonmake, sell,...

to I CHRONICLESnPERSPECTIVEnSHORT VIEWS by Thomas FlemingnSome people love to go to Washington. The sight of sonmuch power and wealth is exhilarating, especially fornyoung conservative writers who discover that their namesnare recognized on the Hill. For many, however, thenreaction is just the reverse. Within a few hours they arenmulling over certain scriptural passages in Eliot—“Oh...

who cannot endure the mediocrity of sociaHst hfe. As fornthe “wretched refuse of your teeming shore,” I’m not sure ifnthat can be read as anything but an insult. Besides,n”masses” is a dubiously Marxist term that usually refers tonthe urban proletariat—hardly an appropriate term fornland-hungry peasants from Sweden, Italy, and Ireland.nHow the Statue of Liberty got...

tor. On the whole, however, Nash’s contention is misleadingnand betrays a basic misunderstanding of McCarthyismnand its impact on public opinion. Nash equated the termnalmost exclusively with the Senator, a basic error.nIn fact, McCarthyism was a word invented in early 1950nby the Washington Post cartoonist Herbert Block (Herblock).nIt labeled a ruthless technique employed frequentlynby conservatives (almost...

14 I CHRONICLESn1950 with a reckless speech in Wheeling, West Virginia.nImmediately members of the militantly anti-Communistnright rushed to his assistance, realizing that his chargesncould not be substantiated. McCarthy quickly became thenleader of the pack because of his daring, his passion fornpublicity, and his rapidly developed zeal for rooting outnwhat he actually believed were subversive elements...

“Kim” Philby was discovered to be a Soviet spy in 1967,nNational Review proclaimed that Joe McCarthy “has beennproved right.” The following year, William F. Buckley Jr.ndeclared that “the continuing blindness” of liberals towardnCommunism was a “deep psychological problem” producingnparalysis. (As recently as March 21, 1986, on the Todaynshow, Buckley linked Philby’s discovery with McCarthy’snactivities. Roy...

while the Communists ignored the treaty, conquered thenally, and defeated the United States for the iirst time in itsnhistory. He did not embark on foreign and defense policiesnthat permitted the most savage and aggressive tyranny innworld history to become the equal of the United States innstrategic weapons and pronounce it a step toward a generationnof...

18 I CHRONICLESncenters of American society. In a word, the rising liberalnelite had become a liberal establishment.nThe environmentalist premises of liberalism, its socialnengineering methods, and its Utopian or meliorist implicationsnare not fundamentally distinct from those of Communism,nand indeed the two ideologies share common roots innthe pleasant fantasies of the Enlightenment as well as innwhat Whittaker...

incompetent—these are the most charitable interpretationsn—to avail themselves of reliable evidence on the presencenof Communists and security risks in sensitive positions ofnthe Federal government.nThe Moss and Rothschild cases are only two relativelynclear instances in which McCarthy exposed the presence ofnCommunists or subversives in government. His investigationnof security risks in the defense establishment in 1954nled to...

20 I CHRONICLESnlegitimacy or its basic loyalty and integrity, nor did theyngenerally suggest that it was a distinct social and political, asnwell as an ideological, formation, implicitly and inherentlynalien and hostile to the mainstream of the nation. Hatrednand destruction of McCarthy were the only possible responsesnto this kind of attack. Thomas Reeves says in hisnbiography...

recent years how campaigns such as the antinuclear movement,nmuch of the opposition to American pohcy innCentral America, the movement to weaken the CIA andnFBI, and opposition to virtually every new weapons systemnproposed by the Defense Department have been led bynpersons and groups whose attitude toward Communism andnthe Soviet Union is at best equivocal and who...

221 CHRONICLESnPresident Mitterrand’s favorite leftists. They, too, werenconcerned about their moral credentials and wanted tonshow the world that they supported the American left’sndesire to dispel the unfortunate impression that “moralnequivalence” was really a double standard.nWhen the protest march reached the Soviet Embassy, itnstopped on the sidewalk outside to regroup while a delegationncomprising Speaker Tip O’Neill,...

IInTHE ENCOUNTER SERIES will contribute sreatly tonour undcrstandins of the part that faith plays in the continuinsnAmerican experiment”nArlslns out of the conferences sponsored bynthe Center on Relision and Society in NewnYork City, the Encounter Series presents the dialoguenof a diverse group of theologians, ethicists, philosophers,nand public policy experts from across thenpolitical and religious spectrum. The...

Short Viewsn(continued from page 11)nsplendid contempt for political idealism, in fact for everynvirtue known to ethical science. When the Baudelaire ofnrock begins to pound the pulpit, then—to borrow one of hisnlines—“the absurd courts the vulgar.”nHuman beings simply cannot think on a global scale.nLawrence Kohlberg, who is responsible for a famous outiinenof ethical development, recently conceded...

their way, Mr. Botha will chew on the exile’s bread alongnwith Mr, Marcos, to be joined in the near future by thenleaders of South Korea, Taiwan, Chile, and Saudi Arabia.nAt the same time, we can’t find enough nice things to saynabout the liberal regime in mainland China. Judged by thenstandards we apply to South Africa,...

nated in the attack on Pearl Harbor.nOnly a few years later, the communistsnseized power in China, where,nfollowing the Opium War of 1839,nWestern powers had attempted to imposentheir conceptions of law and diplomacy.nForced to submit, the Chinesenwere never converted—witnessnoutbreaks of xenophobia such as thenBoxer Rebellion and, more recently,nthe “Cultural Revolution.” Nor werenthe British able to exercise...

respect, then, the record of the UnitednStates is superior to that of any communistnor non-Western country, although,nas Sieghart indignantly reports,nit has not ratified any of the globalnor regional human rights treaties.nThe U.S. has displayed good judgmentnin its refusal to ratify these treaties,nas well as an awareness that eachnnew document is more cynical thannthe last. This...

tent, to some readers, will not seem allnthat encouraging. Space precludesnmore than a few examples.nOne of the best essays in GermanynToday is Laqueur’s chapter on what hencalls “the cultural revolution”: that is,nthe sea-change in the perception ofnbourgeois-democratic society and valuesnamong the West German culturalnelite. The radicals'”Generation ofn1968″ utterly failed to shift Germannsociety off its bourgeois-democraticnbase...

321 CHRONICLESnLaqueur therefore sees a politicalnsituation bearing significant signs ofnstability. In fact, the West Germansnhave done far better, over four decades,nthan anyone had a right to expect.nThis latter point is illuminating,nimportant, and encouraging. Nevertheless,nGermany Today consistentlyndelineates what may be deep structuralnchanges in German politics, society,nand (especially) intellectual culture—ndangerous changes, with possible verynnegative long-range impact. We...

Nicaraguan revolution. He evennknows that the Sandinistas officiallynapproved of the crushing of Solidarity,nbut this is glossed over as a strangen”misunderstanding” on their part.nIt is hard to believe that this appallingn(and one suspects willful) naivetentowards a Leninist regime would havenbeen shared for very long by Grass’snearlier hero, Eduard Bernstein. Indeed,nGrass in this essay becomes anpolitical pilgrim...