Category: Imported

tive. Marxists interpreted Nazism as thenlast gasp of capitalism, anti-Germannpolemicists condemned it as endemicnto German character, and others saw itnas exaggerated nationalism.nThere are many reasons for studyingnNazi Germany 40 years after its demise.nOne is that many post-WorldnWar II societies, as unstable as WeimarnGermany, are tempted by totalitariannmovements. Like Germany,nmany of the new countries achievednnational identity...

36 I CHRONICLESnEpigones of thenLost Generationnby Carl C. CurtisnAfter the Lost Generation by JohnnW. Aldridge, New York: ArbornHouse; $6.95.nNear the end of this fine book, JohnnAldridge observes: “The history of thenperiod from 1890, roughly, to 1940nmight . . . have been the history of thendisappearance of the novel as an artnform in society. . ....

40 I CHRONICLESnSCREENnGround Zero, 1950nby Kate DaltonnDesert Bloom; written and directednby Eugene Corr; produced by MichaelnHousman; Columbia Pictures.nIn December 1950, at the Nelhs AirnForce Base outside of Las Vegas, thenAtomic Energy Commission set off thenfirst atomic bomb since Nagasaki. Thenyear before, the Soviets had conductedntheir first atomic test—an unpleasantnsurprise to most Americans — andnMao had...

he is no fan of those tests, or of thenAEC, but he doesn’t pontificate.nThere is no wailing and gnashing ofnteeth. Instead, he holds the MissnA-bomb of 1951 contest, advertisesnAtomic Coiffures, has the schoolnblood tests conducted in the “FunnRoom,” and then has Rose quietlynwonder why everyone in town is beingnasked to wear dog tags. The few...

Dead.” The first edifice of the Nazinregime was a monument to fallenncomrades, opened with great fanfarenon November 9, 1933. This was followednby a steady stream of statues,nmonuments, ensembles, even specialn”Castles of the Dead.” The idea behindnall these memorials to dead Nazisnwas to arouse in people a feeling ofnveneration for the history of the ThirdnReich. “Berlin...

Significantly, the Palace of Sovietsnwas never built (an enormous publicnswimming pool was constructed on thenspot instead), but the endless series ofnmonuments to Stalin erected after thenwar all over the country was crownednby his truly cyclopean image on thenVolga-Don Canal which, in all respects,nmatched the scale of the projectednstatue of Lenin atop the Palacenof Soviets.nThe construction...

kind. He, for example, even forbadenthe printing of photographs thatnshowed him in Bavarian lederhosen ornwearing eyeglasses or with a small dog,nbecause he considered that such photographsnwould detract from the grandeurnof image that the leader of thengreatest nation must project.nIf what Hitler thought of himself isnwell-known, Stalin’s perception ofnhimself is shrouded in mystery. Henrose from the...

Letter From Polandnby James H. BowdennGraveyard VigilnProbably the most moving event of mynyear in Poland so far was my visit to thenPow<|zki Cemetery on the evening ofnAll Saints. It is an old cemetery, withnnothing like it that I know of in America.nIndeed, the most similar I cannrecall is found in Maple Grove, thenold cemetery in...

46 / CHRONICLESntoo, and was able to warm my chillednfeet at the same time: a mathematieiannacquaintance estimated the number ofncandles then burning at 70,000.nThere were about as many aroundnthe Katyn monument, recently erected:nit consists of a large but simple andnrough-hewn cross in an area surroundednby a low fence. Someone hadndefaced the cross by painting on...

stant. Annie Dillard, in her wonderfuln”An Expedition to tlie Pole” in ThenYale Literary Magazine’s anniversarynissue, was the first to make me questionnmy own convictions: If littlenthings like inane lyrics and the inescapablenmessiness of human fellowshipnStamped With the Image ofnthe KingnThe “matter of Britain” has beenninspiring European writers sincenthe 12th century, when Geoffrey ofnMonmouth chronicled the...

48 I CHRONICLESnweek, we witness the same miracle:nthat God is so mighty he can stifle hisnown laughter.”nAnd, to be honest, I glean hopenfrom the belief that all this will pass,nthat it’s a fad, albeit a tenacious one.nThe verticality, the up-and-downnsense, of worship and our relationshipnwith God will return, perhaps evennstronger than it was before we...

that comes of intricate ritual faultlesslynperformed”: ritual is a tool, nothingnmore or less, which helps us to DO holynthings even though we can’t BE holy.nLiturgical predictability takes the intellectnout of worship—and with it thenego—and lets us participate even if wendon’t particularly “feel like it.” Is ritualnin worship, like ritual in craftsmanship,na lost art, to be...

50 I CHRONICLESnbut now he lives in upstate New York.nHe clearly wants us to recognize thatnhe’s come a long way from his Mississippinroots, and, for better or for worse,nhe obviously has. But origins will telln—he writes like an angel. I just wish Inagreed with more of what he has tonsay.nHarkness went back to his hometownnfor...

61 CHRONICLESnJean Genet (1910-1986). Only twonbooks made me” feel physically sick:nOne was the work of the Marquis denSade; the other was Sartre’s Saint-nGenet, Comedien et Martyr, whichndepicts the playwright Jean Genet’snprison years and homosexual enjoyments.nDid the thief-pederast deserve anbiography, and more to the point, didnhe deserve incandescent praises whilenhe lived and obituaries when he diedn—not...

Coast papers like the New York Times,nWashington Post, Christian SciencenMonitor, and Boston Globe receivenmore than their share of awards (andnspots on the prize juries). More troubhngnis the discernible thematic bias.nWriters like Seymour Hersh, SydneynSchanberg, David Halberstam, BobnWoodward, Jack Anderson, EllennGoodman, David Broder, and MarynMcGrory capture the Pulitzer spotlightnby betraying state secrets, agitating fornprogressive reform, or...

8 / CHRONICLESnwriters for Saturday Night Liven—noticed that virtually all of the pastnmasterpieces of art were created bynmen. From Phidias to Saint-Gaudens,nfrom Giotto to Picasso, painting andnsculpture have been as masculine asnhunting deer or chewing tobacco. Typically,nthe only women in the studionwere models.nFor two decades, this bias in naturenand history has been faithfully representednin the...

Why Should Human Events BenYour Source of News from ournNation ‘5 Capital?nPresident Ronald Reagan:n”… I became a Human Events reader years ago, and I continue to regard itnas essential reading. H.E. contains aggressive reporting, superb analysis and one ofnthe finest collections of conservative columnists to be found I share andnapplaud its commitment to limited government,...

10 / CHRONICLESnPERSPECTIVEnJOURNALISTS AND OTHERnANTHROPOIDS by Thomas Flemingnt is over 60 years since the Scopes Trial attractednI journalists like Henry Mencken and Joseph WoodnKrutch to Dayton, Tennessee, and yet the teaching ofnevolution is once again as controversial as it was in 1925,nMost of the debate is carried out between militant fundamentalistsnand equally militant materialists. While...

occasional cognitive scientist, continue to speak of humannnature. What is more, their views are remarkably similar,nalthough neither side much cares to admit it.nDo Darwinists point to the prime significance of reproductivensuccess? They might quote Genesis: Be fruitful andnmultiply. For the Darwinist emphasis on competition andnstrife, we have the enhre Old Testament—beginning withnthe story of Cain...

societies during historical times—ancient Egyptians, Bunyoro,nNyanza, and so on—institutionalized brother-sisternincest for royalty and a few other groups of high status. Butnthe practice is (or was) hedged with ritual, and in everyninstance the incestuous males are (or were) permitted tontake additional wives and hence to practice outbreeding.nThe avoidance of brother-sister incest originates in whatnpsychologists hae called...

14 / CHRONICLESn(whose genetic relatedness is easily proven) over the childrennof their brothers. The avuncular bias is strongest innthose societies when paternity is generally least certain.nSuch correlations do not always exist. Recent studies havenfound that in contemporary industrial societies reproductionnoften decreases with wealth and status rather than thenopposite as predicted by natural selechon theory. Butnthe...

IB I CHRONICLESnshould have felt even more ashamed for having spoken innhis Autobiography of his imperceptibly slow “evolution”nfrom belief into mere agnosticism. As one who throughnmuch of his adult life had to dissimulate his true views lest andeeply religious and beloved wife be hurt, Darwin finallyncame to believe that he was not dissimulating anything.nHe might...

evolutionary mechanism known as natural selection.nThe mathematical analysis carried out by R. A. Fisher innthe late 1920’s made natural selection appear in a lessnunfavorable light. Of course, no mathematics could providenin the first place the reality of cobreeding individuals whosentotality is the species. The reality of species has not ceasednto remain a pointer to a...

18 / CHRONICLESnbeen at least “in embryo.” This is not to suggest that in thenmanner of preformationists a homunculus should be imaginedninside the membrane of the human sperm or that ansoul should be attributed to each and every pollen driftingnthrough the air, because human soul or mind clearlyncrowns the evolutionary process. What is suggested is...

Mencken couldn’t help himself: it was the journalist innhim talking. At best, journalists are useful idiots; at worstnthey are, in Sartre’s phrase (which is best applied to Sartre),nmen of bad faith. This is not to say there have not beennprincipled and learned journalists like Chesterton, AlbertnJay Nock, Joe Sobran, and Mencken himself, but thenNice Guys...

and says so frequently, that “there isnno undemocratic road to sociahsm;nthere are only undemocratic roads thatncan bring, and have brought, nationsnto barbaric mockeries of the socialistnideas.” Why, then, is relatively littienthought gien to the resistance of thensocialist ideal to the numerous attemptsnto realize it? Why the determinedninsistence that the distortion ofnthese ideals, in the process...

Dartle. They suggest sexuality innthemselves, not other parts of thenbody. And of course novelists do whatnthey want anyhow—]ane Eyre is completelynopen about the heroine beingnflat-chested. She and Mr. Rochesterncan even joke about her well-endowedn(I think that’s a euphemism) rialnbeing “a real strapper.”nI like Plausible Prejudices, not leastnbecause it too has to make good out ofnbad....

19th century and thereafter to say, “Indo not beheve in God.” Before thatntime “atheism or agnoshcism seemednalmost palpably absurd.” For all practicalnpurposes, America before 1800ndoes not seem to have harbored ansingle person who did not believe innGod. Thereafter, and quickly, unbeliefnemerged as a plausible choice fornmillions. Without God, withoutncreed, “the center fell out of intellectualnlife.”...

261 CHRONICLESnperennial problem to which religionnhad always responded—suffering. OlivernWendell Holmes Jr. asserted thatn”suffering is a wrong which can be andnought to be prevented.” Both ideasnare, necessarily, man-centered, the resultnof a new appreciation of personalitynwhich, unchecked, came to be individualism.nSince it was the individualnand not God who made choices, beliefnin the supernatural became offensivento one’s moral...

28 / CHRONICLESna deity or a soul) and therefore permissible?nAs Minamiki points out, thendiscussion of this problem in somenpapal bulls and other early sourcesnanticipates Robert N. Bellah’s attemptnto define a “civil religion,” a phrasenwhich itself raises the related questionnof whether it is appropriate to speak ofna “religion” which lacks an ontology ofnthe sacred.nThe Chinese rituals...

express the fervent wish that we set ournsails to pass safely between the Scyllanof willful blindness to such cultures asnthat of China, in the hope that suchnxenophobia will help us restrengthennour fraying Western roots, and thenPhysicists & PublicistsnAfter isiting England in the earlyn18th century, Voltaire reported innhis Letters Concerning the EnglishnNation that the entire country...

34 / CHRONICLESnnewfound sophistication and tolerancento the test. She flunks.nIn a candid and generous “Author’snNote,” Flake complains about the difficultynof writing about the religion shenfled. As an ex-evangelical, I can understandnsome of her ambivalence. But thenmixture of “criticism and kindness” shencame up with as a solution to thendilemma is a peculiar and unpleasantnconcoction. This is...

SCREENnThe Virgin andnthe Paparazzonby Sam KarnicknHail Mary; Directed by Jean-LucnGodard: A Gaumont/New YorkernFilms release.nThe battle lines are drawn. On onenside, Pope John Paul II and the FrenchnNational Federation of Catholic FamilynRelations, along with numerousnreligious groups in this country. Onnthe other, the American media, includingnNew York magazine, the NewnYork Times, Gannett newspapers, andnmany, many more.nThe issue:...

elements of considerable power andninsight to go along with the oftensophomoricnhumor. The film’s explorationnof the conflict between sciencenand nature, logic and intuition, andnknowledge and faith occasionalhnuorks: the shot of a tiny, distant airplanencrossing the sun does succeed inneoking conception, man’s conquestnof the material world and his scientificntriumphs, and the tininess of man’snaccomplishments (the plane) comparednto...

“Niagara Falls. Views of the American Fall, taken from Goat Island.nAquatint: painted and engraved by W.j. Bennet, 1831. At The NewnYork Historical Society. January 22-April 27, J986.nin which Niagara Falls once embodiednthe spirit of America, both here andnabroad. Until the era of modernnadcrtising—with its pitches for Niagaranstarch, Niagara biscuits, and othernnoble additions to the notion...

38 / CHRONICLESnTo make theater more accessible tonstudents, workers, and the less affluent,nsome theaters offer “two-for-one”ntickets; others give free admission ton-certain .groups at certain performances.nIn an attempt to extend their run,nsome plays are scheduled for onlynthree or four nights a week. Theaterncompanies also tour the provinces tontap new audiences, some of whomnmay one day be...

—A guerrilla movement . . .nthe only way . . .n— Not practical . . . with anstrong neighbor to the North, itnwould not work.n—Educate the peasants . . .nmost are illiterate . . . When Infinish college, I’ll go and teachnthem . . . work with .them.n—We need to get betternorganized at all levels...

40 / CHRONICLESnLetter From thenSouthwestnby Odie FaulknClosing the Campus FrontiernThe recent drop in the price of oil hasnbeen welcome indeed to most Americans,nfor it portends a boost of epicnproportions for the economy. However,nthe blessings of cheap petroleum donnot fall evenly across the land. InnTexas and Oklahoma, as in other oilproducingnstates, the drop from $40nto $15...

During the 20th century it was thenwidespread availabiUty of education—nespecially higher education—whichnpreented class lines from becomingnrigid. The average poor youth desirousnof advancing his economic and socialnstation in life found that a universityndegree opened doors of opportunity.nAnyone wishing to become an officernin the Armed Forces needed a bachelor’sndegree; anyone wanting to work atnthe white-collar level found...

42 / CHRONICLESn(nonstop kung fu). This is part of thenpleasure of such places. Having livednat close quarters with New York intellectuals,nI personally treasure their absencenas one of the delights of life innthe islands. Somehow we have to getnby without Andy Warhol, NormannMailer, Duran Duran, the HarveynMilk homosexual High School, andnjournals devoted to black lesbians.nAfter the...

the previous Prime Minister fromnAmerica. It was played a lot over ournradio station, but where is it now? Inhave never succeeded in acquiring anplate or tape of it anywhere. In a fewyears’ntime, Trinidadians will be askingnwho Gairy was. Great satire isnuniversal.nThen, Sparrow being too notoriouslynextra-insular. Bishop organized annindigenous pro-Jewel calypso from ournown Flying Turkey, a...

44 / CHRONICLESnchair, glad to tell us everything in annavalanche of soft foreign sounds; thenroomful of translators hasn’t a prayer.nOpen complaint is 90-proof luxury forntired L., and he savors it. I know whatnhe’s saying without a translator: thenstories are ahvays the same, with nevernan interesting twist. I feel silly fornasking — how naive he must...

place, the permanent staff regard themnwith undisguised hostihty, as interlopersnwho will be replaced after the nextnDemocratic victory.nThese people, administrators andnstaff, are the ones who keep sendingnme missives by Federal Express. Atnfirst I thought it was outrageous thatnthis grotesquely expensive form ofncommunication was used to transmitnthe triial stuff that I was getting, but Inhave come to...

CONCERT IN THE PARKnby Andrei NavwzovnLike most, that sound was infusednWith darkness as with tea leaves,nAbsorbed, like some amazing news,nBy the still night’s Darjeeling.nIt crumbled like a sugar cube.nDissolving, sweetly tentative.nIn the warm summer that imbuednThe cupped yet rimless entity.nI mean the night. So keen its eye,nIts ear such tones of azure.nThat both the sound...

(one wonders how he would approach,nfor instance, StaHn’s contribution tonthe study of Hnguistics), and is not tonbe taken for a fellow traveler’s Bonnvoyage! In a word, he has an opennmind. Perhaps not as open as hisneditor’s: Mr. Miller opines in his “hitroduction”nthat “it is probable that thenmonuments assailed by Deconstruction—thenliterary text, the literary tradition,nauthorship—will ....

Are you as informed as you’d like to benabout all the great events and movementsnof your lifetime?nFor the first times a sweeping, detailed survey ofnthe significant events of our century —nby a conservative. And one who managesnto be both stylish and bluntnRarely does a work of history receive from major publicatioas the unbridlednenthusiasm that is...

61 CHRONICLESnJesse the farmer has been makingnheadlines in the Midwest. Now credentialednas an American diplomatnpromoting peace with Syria, Cuba,nand the Soviet Union and as the onlynlegitimate spokesman for oppressednminorities, Jesse Jackson has recentlynproclaimed himself a leader of thennation’s troubled farmers. Last spring,nthe Rev (wearing overalls and a hatnbearing the slogan “I’m Proud to be anFarmer”)...

dig into the essays of Irving Babbitt,nRichard Weaver, T.S. Ehot, and RussellnKirk before presuming to speak forn”conservatism.”nOn the other side, it must be concedednthat the neocons do a muchnmore credible job of analyzing policynissues with the tools of the social sciences.nThey do not disguise their interestnin politics and administration,nand, quite frankly, they have demonstratedntheir aptitude...

8 / CHRONICLESnPERSPECTIVEnFRUITLESS GRAIN by Thomas FlemingnThe great American story for at least 100 years has beenna tale like Mr. Smith Goes to Washington or Hawthorne’sn”My Kinsman Major Molineux”: the rube whoncomes to the city and loses his innocence. Like Jack in thenfairy tale, we are eager to trade in the family cow for anchance...

the population. Southern Baptists, Germans in Missouri,nNorwegians in Wisconsin all eame from quite differentnsocieties, but they shared a set of commitments—principlesnwould be too strong an expression—to their family, theirnchurch, to a way of life that can only be described asnagrarian. Now most of their children can sing (with HanknWilliams):nI left my home out on the...