Category: Imported

Expect the unexpectedn^ …from reasenn//nASNHSrnWASnMMMWeasl ,nMM MUX”nWho writes for Reason? Some ofnAmerica’s best writers and most incisiventhinl(ers—Including Tom Bethell, EdithnEfron, James Oberg, Alan Reynolds, WilliamnTucker, and Walter Williams, tonname a few. It’s no wonder a recent surveynshowed that/7easo/i is America’s fastestgrowingnmagazine of ideas.nYou can Iry Reason now at 40 percent offnthe regular price—only $15 a...

36 / CHRONICLESnWalden PondnSocialistsnby Herbert LondonnAn Environmental Agenda for thenFuture; Edited by Robert Cahn;nAgenda Press; Washington, EXD.nNietzsche’s comment that “the enemynof truth is not hes but convictions”ncomes to mind while reading An EnvironmentalnAgenda for the Future, ancollection of statements by leaders ofnmajor environmental organizers. In anbook of scatter-shot propositions, a fewnhits are inevitable: the contributors...

SCREENnMaterial Wealth andnSpiritual Povertynby Sam KarnicknDown and Out in Beverly Hills; Directednby Paul Mazursky; Screenplaynby Paul Mazursky and Leon Capetanos;nTouchstone Films.nDown and Out in Beverly Hills has anlot going for it. The film was directednand co-written by Paul Mazurskyn(Moscow on the Hudson). It has RichardnDreyfuss, Nick Nolte, and BettenMidler in the lead roles, as well...

38 / CHRONICLESngoes to bed with Jerry. Her behavior isnwildly out of character, and Mazurskynmakes no effort to explain it. It isnapparently enough for the director ifnhe can turn the screws a litde tighternon his film’s protagonist. The episodicnstory lines of his films are not forcednupon him by the travels or picaresquenadventures of his characters,...

America and the world is expressed,ndiscussed, and analyzed.” His cause isnthe “intrinsic value” of rock ‘n’ roll, itsn”fruitful cultural tradition,” and itsnpolitical potential for dragging “thenunwanted and faceless, the pissed-offnand brokenhearted into the spotlight.”nMarsh’s primary theme is that “thisnis the day of the Big Lie, not just aboutnthe meaning of the music but aboutn. ....

40 / CHRONICLESnit quickly took over the plot (leavingnothers to fight for their survival—nanybody remember Eddie Fisher?).nRock suggested to its large and readynnatural audience—adolescents (not tonbe confused with mythical Teenagers)n—an outline of their own special disposition:nit was spontaneous, funseeking,ndeliberately but not dangerouslynprovocative, and naive — angood-natured blufiF, an inside jokenshared by millions. Because the musicndid...

him, revolution was no laughing matter.nWhen a friend of ours spent anresearch year in Romania and camenback a fervent anti-Communist, Alntold him, “You’re a good man, Dan.nToo bad we’ll have to shoot you.” Dannswears to this day that Al meant it.nMy usual defense against leftwingersnis to tease them, but thatndidn’t work with Al. He either...

42 / CHRONICLESnletters come from close to the surfacenof our hearts and intellects—but whonon earth is qualified to say what mightnlie deeper?nAn informal survey of 11 newspapersnin eight Midwestern statesn—editors in Illinois, Kansas, Minnesota,nMissouri, Montana, Nebraska,nNorth Dakota, and South Dakota answerednmy query—turns up resultsnwhich should surprise no one whonlistens to friends or reads his localnpaper...

thing, but human intellect and heartntake over as we grow to adulthood,nwhere instinct runs dry in the lowernanimals. The result is family—which,nif it is healthy, grows to gather innneighbor, city, state, nation, world, innhope if not always in joy. Thus we donwrite about issues long-removed fromnThe Man of Moden”Man at his best” is both the...

44 / CHRONICLESnhappens to hold the spotHght.nIt’s a lot like a musical comedynroutine. All the pretty girls arenlined up across the stage. Onensteps out and does her specialtynand, for a moment, attention isnfocused on her, along with thenspotlight. Then she steps backninto line.nThe dancing girl metaphor did notnfit the Esquire of the 30’s nearly so...

BOOKS BYnWalternLaqueurnEUROPEAN PEACE MOVEMENTS ANDnTHE FUTURE OF THE WESTERN ALLIANCEnWalter Laqueur and Robert Hunter, editorsnThis extraordinary compendium concerns the future of the Western alliancenand the development of the peace movements in Europe and in thenUnited States. The peace movement is an old phenomenon given new life bynNATO decisions concerning nuclear deployment in Europe and the...

46 / CHRONICLESnartists into self-indulgent and temperamentalnstars before they’ve masteredntheir craft.” Editors, Gingrich complained,nwere “kowtowing to punks”nbecause they were “afraid to give themnthe spanking they deserve, becausenthey can sense the presence of otherneditors just waiting … to grab thenspoiled brats and woo them away withnmore and larger lollipops.”nBut fashion promoters can’t afford tonbuck trends: Gingrich...

On “Afternthe Big Bang”nI read with great interest Bryce Christensen’sn”Before the Big Bang” in thenMarch 1986 issue. In what is otherwisenan excellent review, I must bringnyour attention to a most grievous error.nMr. Christensen writes:nAfter all, before then no onenexcept Chrishans had believednthat the physical universenappeared suddenly fromnnothing.nThe obvious reference to Genesis as annexclusively Christian possession...

“For intellectual and spiritual supportnand reinforcement, parents will want to readnTHE FAMILYn^i^ytmericas—n-H.IROLDM-nVOTII-nJAMESnHm:H(:ocKnA M E R I C A ‘ S H O P En…it will lift your spirits and strenjjthen your determination to fulfill the role you andnGod have undertaken toj^ether: that of beinjj the best parents you can possibly be innspite of those who...

6/CHRONICLESnA poet laureate of the United Statesnhas been named: Robert Penn Warren.nIn Britain the poet laureate is appointednby the Queen’s ministers, whichnmakes the choice a pohtical queshon.nAsking why Mrs. Thatcher’s conservativengovernment appointed TednHughes is hke asking why she chose tondestroy the D’Oyly Carte opera or proposedn(allegedly) to eliminate the RegiusnProfessors of Greek. But here in...

administrators are worried aboutnmaintaining a “critical mass” of Jesuitsnnecessary to maintain the institution’snidentity. Marquette in Wisconsin isnengaged in a similar court battle involvingnits education department.nTexas is the only state in the Unionnthat still permits church-supportednBible chairs at its universities, butnTexas Attorney General James Mattoxnis out to change that. Last SeptembernMattox advised North Texas State thatnits...

8/CHRONICLESnPERSPECTIVEnROCK N’ ROLL NEVER FORGETS:nHEALING THE WOUNDS OF THE 60’Snby Thomas FlemingnIn 1985 the senior members of the baby boom generationnturned 40. Many of them are surprised to be still around.nThe films and songs of the 50’s and 60’s were so full ofn”disorder and early sorrow” that it was, perhaps, no surprisenhow many real-life actors...

night the family all gathered together to watch the EdnSullivan Show.nAs we have suggested before, the 1950’s were more annexperiment than a return to normalcy. Among the postwarnleadership there was a desire to recreate the world ofnNorman Rockwell in a suburban setting. Planners, journalists,npoliticians, and textbook writers attempted to reinventnthe United States as the land...

must be some attempt to deal with inequalities in thenconditions under which talents and other qualificationsndevelop. The argument can be dramatized with an examplenwhich I will borrow from the English philosopher BernardnWilliams. In order to acquire some perspective on theneducational and job qualifications built into our daily lives,nlet us imagine a different kind of society—one...

12 / CHRONICLESntalents and other qualifications in their children. Only ifnthis process were interfered with, in a systematic manner,ncould both the principles of merit and of equal life chancesnbe achieved. Perhaps a massive system of collectivizednchild-rearing could be instituted. Or perhaps a compulsorynschooling system could be devised so as to even outnhome-inspired developmental advantages and...

merely on the basis of arbitrary native characteristics, so asnto reward the most qualified members of the group (whonwill, as a statistical matter, tend to come from its morenadvantaged portions). Hence, the irony of the De Funis andnBakke cases. De Funis, a Sephardic Jew from a relativelynpoor background, was not admitted to the University ofnWashington...

within our framework, while the program it avoided andecision on in De Funis (providing preferential treatmentnfor race as such) would not be.nWe should mention one persistent counterargument tonthis conclusion about preferenhal treatment. Preferentialntreatment based merely on race (or on other arbitrary nativencharacteristics) is sometimes supported, not as a remedy forndevelopmental disadvantages in the present, but...

16 / CHRONICLESna wide variety of topics.nJames MacGregor Burns, professor of political science atnWilliams College and an award-winning biographer ofnFranklin D. Roosevelt, published John Kennedy: A PoliticalnProfile. Burns portrayed the 42-year-old senator as deeper,nmore reflective, more responsible than the public, baskingnin the candidate’s good looks and eloquence, even imagined.nHe was “a serious driven man,” addicted...

Executives.nBut cracks in the Kennedy image (beyond Lasky) began tonappear as early as 1964. Richard J. Whalen’s carefullynresearched biography of Joseph P. Kennedy revealed annunscrupulous manipulator, shamelessly willing to plot andnspend in order to propel a son into the White House. All ofnthe Kennedys, including JFK, were seen to be wholly undernthe influence of the...

18/CHRONICLESndictated by his father.nIn 1980, historian Herbert S. Parmet pubhshed Jack: ThenStruggles of John F. Kennedy. A sympathetic study, it wasnnevertheless the most reliable biography to date, makingnuse of recent scholarship and adding valuable informationnand analysis. The author was especially strong on Kennedy’snearly education (revealing his I.Q. to be 119), hisnreligious skepticism, his heavy reliance...

was quickly taken over by the most radical elements.nBy the mid-60’s, it was clear that what might have startednas high-spirited populist reaction on campus had turnedninto a small-scale civil war between the generations. Demographynonly partly explains what happened. The babynboomers, it is true, were and are a disproportionate share ofnthe population and would have exerted...

tions as politically cynical puffery. Innaddition, he suggests, it is only thenprejudices of secularism that can explainnthe cavalier dismissal of religionnin the thinking of John Locke, uponnwhom some of the founders drew sonheavily. Reichley acknowledges thatnnot all the founders would pass recognizedntests of Chrishan orthodoxy, butnsome of them would, and almost all ofnthem were quite...

22 / CHRONICLESnbility,” but the liberal main line, fornthe most part, chose to interpret Hartfordnas an assault upon the interests ofninstitutionalized liberalism. Similarly,nhe notes that eflForts such as the Institutenon Religion and Democracy,nwhich seek to nurture the connectionsnbetween faith and free society, havenbeen uncritically assailed by an increasinglyndefensive and indeed beleaguerednmain-line Protestantism.nReligion in American Public...

“The Chesterton Review is keeping alive what hasnbecome a fugitive tradition of social criticism.”n— Joseph Sobran, The National Review (New York).nA Special Issue ofnThe Chesterton ReviewnCharles Dickens. November 1985 issue deals withnChesterton’s work as a Dickens critic. Contributorsninclude Sylvere Monod, President of Dickens Fellowshipnand Merja M. Makinen, Dickens House Scholar in 1983.nOther Special IssuesnFATHER BROWN...

ies, Fan’s about the Blackfeet andnShkilnyk’s about the Ojibwa, shows usnsomething about cultural change andnsurvival. The two authors, one a historiannand the other a regional planner,nhold two very different views of whatnconstitutes the essential core of traditionalnculture, how fragile is that core,nwhat are the dynamics of culturalnchange, and what is necessary for “culturalnsurvival.” In response...

26 / CHRONICLESnabsence from her doctoral studies innurban and regional planning at MIT,nShkilnyk first visited the Grassy NarrowsnIndian Reserve (in Western Ontario)nin 1976 as a consultant for thenCanadian Department of Indian Affairs.nSix years earlier scientists discoverednsevere methyl mercury pollutionnof the English-Wabigoon River system,nthe river that was crucial to thenlivelihood of the Ojibwa people on thenreserve....

ting.” Lacking the family or communalnbase, we tend to go it alone. In ansense, we are all Ojibwa.nShkilnyk’s final exhortation showsnus how different from Farr’s is her viewnof culture. Authentic Indianness fornFarr lies in a private interior that isnsustainable even amid the most pervasivensettings of modern white society.nIn contrast, Shkilnyk sees culture asnsustained only by...

with a poignancy matched by few contemporarynAmerican writers: his descriptionnof his “Storm Home” inntown, his “storm parents,” thenKloeckels, and his imaginary visit tonthem as the refugee storm child;nElizabeth the phone operator’s recountingnof the time Keillor’s grandfatherntook her out into a cold winter’snnight to see a silver wolf sitting on ansnowbank; and Mr. Dahl, who keeps...

“deprivation and injustice in thenworld.” They clung to the pre-welfarenstate belief that whatever happens tonpeople is the latters’ own fault and thatnif suffering people had been more likenLake Wobegonians, “they would havenbeen all right.”nIn the end, the author of the 95nTheses lies awash in alienation andnself-hatred. He has grown to detestnneat-looking people like himself, peoplenwho...

32 / CHRONICLESnin the prose of Mark Twain or Hemingway.nIt is American English at itsnbest, in part because—because andnnot in spite of—the condition that itsnwriter is aware of the connectedness ofnthe New World to the Old (a historicalnsense which abounds, too, in his prosenpoems and essays).nThe second important element isnthis writer’s tactic. He is telling...

writing for other professional historians.nThose novehsts who, during thenlast 25 years, have been mixing “fact”nand “fiction,” by including bigger andnbigger — and usually undigestedn—chunks of history in their books, arenno good either. None of them has, asnyet, succeeded in creating a fine examplenof a new genre. The mixing of factnand fiction in their books has...

34 / CHRONICLESnwrong. Connell is full of respect fornMrs. Bridge; and while Connell’snmind and prose are often ironic, therenis a world of difference between thenprofound understanding of human naturenlatent within irony and the necessarilynsharp and brilliant artifices ofnsatire.nTen years after Mrs. Bridge camenMr. Bridge (1968). Connell wasnenough of a novelist to realize thatncharacters are more...

36 / CHRONICLESni Speakn%)anishnlike andiplomat!’nWhat sort of people need to learn anforeign language as quickly and effectivelynas possible? Foreign servicenpersonnei, that’s who. Mennbers ofnAmerica’s diplomatic corps are assignednto U.S. embassies abroad, where theynmust be able to converse fluently innevery situation.nNow you can learn to speak Spanishnjust as these diplomatic personnelndo — with the Foreign Service...

sketches (as well as his own journals,ndiaries, and other materials collectednon the North American expedition) innthe family castle near Koblenz, wherenthey remained undisturbed until beingndiscovered following World War II. ccnShehbaz H. Safrani is a writer andnpainter based in New York.nSTAGEnBeware thenLimelightnby David Kaufmann”Who can keep up with anythingnthese days?”n—Denis Donoghue,nThe New Repubhc, 3/10/86n”If a National...

44 / CHRONICLESnics have stipulated for the regionalnmovement is to fill that gap, to fosternan O’Neill, a Williams, a Miller.nWhile pleading for government subsidies,nits representatives compare thenpromise of regional theater to a garden,nproviding the soil conducive tonnurturing theatrical talent and to generatingnthe hybrid genius of tomorrow.nBut aside from Lanford Wilson (thenCircle Rep in New York),...

But the critical response to the presentnversion is based on previous experiencenwith the work. I am forced tonadmit I have not seen The Caretakernon the stage before. But that was a kindnof advantage. The full effect of a Pinternplay—and particularly this onen—relies on the freshness. For the audience,nignorance is primarily responsiblenfor the menace and the...

46 / CHRONICLESncomes far more complex than that. Innthis case, it’s comphcated by the introductionnof Mick, Aston’s even morenmysterious brother who, in keepingnwith the analogy, can be viewed as annalternate representation of Pinter designednto complement Aston, sadisticnwhen Aston is beneficent and soothingnwhen Aston becomes sadistic.nIf anything, the Steppenwolf renderingnlends itself more to such anninterpretation than...

ing the contrast between Christianitynand the other great monotheistic rehgions,nJudaism and Islam.nEllul, born in 1912, originally enjoyednconsiderable popularity in Protestantnecumenical circles, followingnWorld War II, in which he fought innthe anti-German Resistance. His earlynpopularity resembles that of thenGerman Lutheran theologian DietrichnBonhoeffer, who was executed in 1945nfor plotting against Hitler. Unfortunatelynfor his reputation in ecumenicalncircles, Ellul, unlike...

48 / CHRONICLESnfier d’etre chatre” (The most miserablenamong us are those who expect nothingn[from God] and who loudly proclaimnit with a sort of haughty selfsatisfaction,nlike a eunuch proud ofnbeing castrated). Needless to say, thisnsort of thing does not make one popularnin trendy church circles, where thenrevolt against traditional clerical celibacynmay be a sort of compensation...

Algeria would remain French, arguingnthat this might be possible if Francenwere willing to try an American experimentnin her restive North Africanncolony. What could be more shockingnthan for an intellectual to suggest thatnFrance ought to have kept her colonies?nOnly to propose that it mightnsuccessfully and happily do so by introducingnprinciples borrowed fromnAmerican industry and labor relations!nEven...

501 CHRONICLESnfrom the Coordinating Council onnLiterary Magazines, which got thenmoney from the National Endowmentnfor the Arts. The grant came when mynfledgling journal needed it most, andnwas unique in that even “for profit”npublications were eligible. I was, andnam, grateful. Still, when I look at thenlist of journals granted CCLM fundsnthis year, I get the feeling that...

trains preachers of the Gospel, as understoodnby Dr. Bob, and it trainsnthem well, by its own lights, offeringncourses even in “missionary aviation.”nBJU-trained missionaries—flying andnearthbound — have extended thenschool’s reputation to some of the leastnhospitable corners of the globe.nBob Jones calls itself the “World’snMost Unusual University” (its radionstation is WMUU), and it may benright. Although it...

The book that conOmies to he a centralnreference in a great national ffebale—nRIchanI John Neuhaa^ hest-selling analysisnof religion ami tfeniocracy in Anwrica.n^Public SquarenDirector Of The Rockfonlliistitute^s Center onnReligion & Sotaety, Neuliaus diallenges AmericantolmngUie vital moral anil reiigiousouestionsnbadtinto tlie “puMicsnuare.”nFrom tiie critics:n• “The book is elegant in execution and sweeping in scope.”n• “A laige and sympathetic...

6 / CHRONICLESnClassicists snubbing Bennettnscreamed the headline in the WashingtonnPost (Deeember 27, 1985). ThenPost went on to reveal that “a specialncommittee of the American PhilologicalnAssociation” had “voted down” anspeaking invitation to Education SecretarynWilliam J. Bennett. Since thenAPA is the national organization ofnteachers of Greek and Latin, and Bennettnhas long proclaimed the virtues ofngetting the Greek...

The quick and easynway to learnna foreign language!nBased on the U^ Military “Speed-up^’ Method of Language Learning.nProgrammed for Rapid Learning!nIt’s been scientifically proven that we remember words wenhear better than words we see. That’s why you’ll find thentwo audiocassettes in each Language/30 package morenuseful than all the language books money can buy. Justnstart Ustening to...