Subversive SanitynPOW’s in the concentration campsnof the mind, our children suffer thenvindictive vagaries of the Educationahstnbureaucracy. Their teachersn”are just following orders.” Thenrest of us pin on our yellow ribbonsnand dream of a Scarlet Pimpernelnor Rambo to rescue them. If I werenRichard Crenna, I would parachutenin Richard Mitchell, professor ofnEnglish at Glassboro State Collegenin New Jersey....

“For intellectual and spiritual supportnand reinforcement, parents will want to readnTHE FAMILYn^mericas-n- HAROLD MrnVOIH-^nJAMKSniiiraicocKnA M E R I C A H O P En…it will lift your spirits and strengthen your determination to fulfill the role you andnGod have undertaken together: that of being the best parents you can possibly be innspite of those who...

There is more than a httle truth in this percephon, yetnsince 1900, these debates ha’e proved increasingly to benmere academic exercises, setting the stage for a newnformulation of the Malthusian controversy. The raw realitynto be faced in our century is the overwhelming triumph ofn”neo-Malthusianism” as practice, rather than as idea. Thisnictory came, in part, through...

Paranoia as Prudencen”Believing where we cannot prove. “nEdith Efron: The Apocalyptics:nCancer and the Big Lie: HownEnvironmental Politics ControlsnWhat We Know About Cancer;nSimon & Schuster; New York.nFor nearly two decades, secularnprophets have intoned warningsnof the terrible impending retributionnfor our technological sins ^beginningnwith the original sin of the IndustrialnRevolution). According to the aggregatendisaster scenario of Paul Ehrlich,nBarry...

uinely unique species of lifen(whether created by God or evolvednin the course of millions of years) isna laughing matter. The only prominentnAmerican conservative whonspeaks out on conservation wouldnappear to be James Buckley, whosensingle term in the Senate is a testamentnto personal integrity.nReal conservation—as opposednto the nuts and berries Malthusianismnof the Sierra Club—is conser-native; it is...

unbounded confidence that the Americannpeople can accomphsh a greatndeal. Where people do not think ofnthemselves as victims, they are likelynto seek ways of contributing that mostnof us can barely imagine. Gingrichnrarely criticizes the institutions of thenWelfare State directly, in deference tonthe good intentions of legislators whonestablished them. He does, however,ndwell on many of the anomalies...

character of the novel’s chief protagonist,nMarge Hogan, who is herself thenquintessence of ambivalence. She isnmeant to be regarded, for all her foiblesnand failings, as a noble sort,nwhose tenacious loyalty to the landndeserves our respect. But, looked atnsquarely. Marge Hogan proves to be anremarkably undistinguished humannbeing, and we should not be deceivedninto interpreting her intemperate andnoften...

abuse which conservationists regularly heap upon thatntradition. The Hebrews were required not to harvest thenedges of their fields (Leviticus 23:22), and to leave the landnfallow every seven and every 50 years, explicitiy to allow thenwild things space to move and grow (Leviticus 25:6f). Theynwere not to hunt any creature to extinction (see Deuteronomyn22:6f), and always...

New life ofnSolzhenitsyn:n”huge”… “enthralling”,nand yours FREEn$29.95 in stores —free when you joinnthe Conservative Book ClubnThe raves pour in — even from sources sometimes criticalnof Solzlienitsynn”Huge … absorbing … valuable.”—H/a// St. Journaln”Enthralling … the scholarly sifting and disentangling only adds to thenfascination.”—WY Timesn”By far the most comprehensive and authoritative biography … clear andngracefully vjuXten.”—Philadelphia Inquirern”Richly detailed,...

the empiricist tradition of Hume tonargue that animals do behave “rationally,”nat least by the measures we haventhat human beings are rational. Thatnis, some animals seem to follow contractsnwith other animals and withnhuman owners, will tend to injurednmembers of the species, will shownaltruism, will “act guilty” when caughtnstealing, will solve problems, will usentools, will anticipate or...

permits Midgley to explore issues ignorednby most other writers on animalnrights. She unveils persuasively, fornexample, the symbohc meanings ofnwomen and animals in human cultures,nnoting the mystery and dangernwe find in that symbolism and concludingnthat these deep meanings arensignificant barriers to the equality ofnthese creatures. She sharply criticizesnsocial contract thinking, both becausenits model of reciprocity limits...

schools.)nSexual biases are not the only onesnunder scientific scrutiny in NaturalnHistory. In his column “This View ofnLife,” Stephen Jay Gould asserts thatnfrom a genetic standpoint there is nongood reason for even naming races.nGould believes that it would be “poornlogic … to hinge a moral or politicalnargument upon any factual statementnabout human biology.” He assures usnthat...

PERSPECTIVEnFRIENDS OF THE FAMILYnE eryone wants to save the American family. Not a dayngoes by, it seems, without some pohtician or professornissuing a call to arms or an invitation to a congressionalnhearing. For a long time the family had been a conser’ative/nRepublican issue, but last fall both Mr. Mondale and Ms.nFerraro made a great show...

OPINIONSnPowder PufiFs & Loose Peanutsn”It is a bard task to treat what is common in a way ofnyour own.”n—HoracenJill McCorkle: The Cheer Leader;nAlgonquin Books; Chapel Hill, NC;nS15.95.nJill McCorkle: Julv 7th; AlgonquinnBooks; Chapel Hill, NC; S17.95.nLouis Rubin is easily the most respectednand celebrated scholar ofnmodern Southern literature, but it willnnever be said of him that he...

But there is a singular and importantndifference between the way EudoranWelty and Flannery O’Connornemploy such accurately tedious detailnand the way our later novelists use it.nIn Welty and O’Connor the intentionnis clearly satiric; the reader is expectednto judge the taste, intelligence, andnethical -alues of the characters by theninescapable trashiness of their dailynlies and to find them...

Mormons and Modernismn”So pale grows Reason at Religion’s sight,nSo dies, and so dissolves in supernatural light. “n—John DrydennLeonard Arrington; Biigham Young:nAmerican Moses; Alfred A. Knopf;nNew York.nRichard L. Bushman; Joseph Smithnand the Beginnings of Mormonism;nUniversity of lUinois Press; Urbana,nIL.nJan Shipps: Mormonism: The Storynof a New Religious Tradition;nUniversity of IlHnois Press; Urbana,nIL.nErnest H. Taves: Trouble Enough:nJoseph Smith...

(Her biographer does not recordnwhether the domestic staff was composednof men or women.)nThe sustained rise of American hvingnstandards over the last century has,nit goes without saying, broadened opportunitiesnfor everyone, especiallynwomen, who are no longer bound tondomestic duties by necessity. There isnno disputing that the changes of societynwrought by modern economies havenaffected relations between the sexes....

lobb>- is seldom confronted by an antimilitarynpension lobby. In these andnother areas the national interest is leftnto shift for itself, and the public isnexpected to pick up the tab.nE”en more dangerous than thenWashington scandals are the inentionsnof the “rights industry.” Thesenactiities tamper \ith the ery fabric ofnthe Constitution. The Constitutionnand the English language sere to...

Psychen16/CHRONICLES OF CULTUREnWords like liberal and conservativenhae been losing whatever meaningnthey once had. An old Tory wouldnnot hae seen anything very conservatienin free trade, and SenatornBob Taft would certainly have hadnreservations about America’s role asninternational policeman. But liberalnstill has discernible significancenin ethics, where the great liberalntraditions of Locke, Adam Smith,nand the Utilitarians are carried onnby...

24/CHRONICLES OF CULTUREnCOMMENDABLESnFast-Living Frumpnby Daniel HarrisnBarbara Pym: A Very Private Eye: AnnAutobiograpiiy in Diaries and Letters;nEdited by Hazel Holt and HilarynPvm; E. P. Dutton; New York; ‘nSi9.95.n”Be more wicked, if necessary,” BarbaranPym’s agent once suggested as shenre ised her early novels and prepared tonmake her first wild dash through thengaundet of London publishers. “Cannou imagine...

us should be biennial!y given a “qualitativenoverview of current art actiityn… the cutting edge.” The bad prosengives you a good idea of what to expectnin the current Whitney Biennial,nwhere one of the few well-staged displaysncan only be seen in the women’snrestroom. Wiser visitors contentednthemselves with attacking the Camembertnmountain and refrained from asking,n”What does it mean?”...

in a factory town. It is dull-looking,nand by American standards it has startlinglynfew shops and recreation areas.nBut by the standards of Africa’s Marxistncountries, it is the fulfillment of andream: the dream of having runningnwater and electricity, a sturdy roof overnone’s head, and enough food to fendnoff hunger.nThe Crossroads slum near CapenTown is different. It consists...

elections or cobbling legislative bills. It requires a vision ofnwhat American society should be like and of the way itnought to work. It requires, in other words, a politicalnphilosophy, standards by which we can judge all thencandidates, issues, and programs that are paraded before us,nlike so many bathing beauties, on the evening news.nIs there anything...

are living in a time “of more and morencomprehensive plans.” A plannednWorld-State “has become imperative.”nIt was apparent to even the most dullpatednliberal that Wells with his commitmentnto “brains” was on the rightnside.nHe was also a certified, albeit parttime,nmeliorist, enamored as he was ofnthe philosophy of progress. He wrotenfrequenriy of the impulses and movementsnof the world...

OVERPOPULATION: ILLEGALnTHE BUREAU OF POPULATIONnAND ENVIRONMENTn14815 PENNSYLVANIA AVE.nWASHINGTON, D.C.n00100-DF-XXXY3420nIn these early years of the 1990’s the data presently available confirm that we indeednlive in apocalyptic times. We a-t the Bureau of Population and Environment intend tonimplement the following drastic measures:n1. Pregnant women with more than one 3.nchild will undergo mandatory FTRnprocedure (Fetal Tissue Removal)n2. Product...

is certainly correct about modern artnand poetry. At their best, they don”probe new frontiers” of the imagination..nMore typically, they shatternsomething more serious than preconceptions.nSo much of modern literaturenand art has been informed bynhatred of the way things are, not just innthis historical period, but throughoutnhuman history. Distinctions of sex andnclass might have been with us...

imposed upon the literary and historical texts of ourncivilization. Methodology comes first and the reading of thenbasic Western texts, second.nLukacs put “method itself at the center of our educationalnwork.” A report (released on October 1, 1984) of thenWorkshop on Interpreting the Humanities sponsored by thenWoodrow Wilson National Fellowship Foundation atnPrinceton appears to echo Lukacs in...

OPINIONS & VIEWSnInventing Lost Worlds by E. Christian Kopffn”It is to be all made of faith andnservice . . .nIt is to be all made of fantasy. “n—William ShakespearenAs You Like ItnJ. R. R. Tolkien: The Monsters andnthe Critics and Other Essays;nHoughton Mifflin; Boston.nJ. R. R. Tolkien: The Book of LostnTales: Part One; Houghton Mifflin;nBoston.nThe...

in Paul Craig Roberts’s book. Roberts,nnow a professor at Georgetown University,nserved as the Assistant Secretarynof the Treasury for EconomicnPohcy, 1981-82. He had previouslyndrafted the Kemp-Roth tax cut plannand fought in the vanguard of thensupply-siders both on the staff of thenSenate Budget Committee and as annassociate editor of the Wall Street Journal.nIt is this fight to...

The Emerson No One Knows by Otto Scottn”At bottom, [Emerson] had no doctrine atnall. . . . He was far from being, like anPlato or an Aristotle, past master in the artnand the science of life.”n—George SantayananJohn McAleer: Ralph WaldonEmerson: Days of Encounter, Little,nBrown; Boston.nThe dedication of this latest biographynof the individual known tonearlier generations...

resemblance to Christianity as does thenEthical Culture Society to Judaism. InnEmerson’s embrace of Unitarian principles,nhe rejected Christianity asnopenly as he dared. His DivinitynSchool Address in 1838 did this sontransparently that Harvard was barrednto him for a generation. (For a fullndiscussion of Emerson’s heresy, seenMarion Montgomery’s recent essay innModern Age.)nEmerson himself didn’t bother tonattend even Unitarian...

The Aesthetics of Haten”Thus wit, like faith, by each man isnappUednTo one small sect, and all are damnednbeside.”n—Alexander PopenPauline Johnson: Marxist Aesthetics:nThe Foundations Within EverydaynLife for an Enlightened Consciousness;nRoutledge and KegannPaul; London.nT. W. Adorno: Aesthetic Theory;nRoutledge and Kegan Paul; Lxjndon.nOf Marx’s numerous ex cathedranpronouncements, none has presentedna greater hermeneutical challengento the faithful than the assertionnthat...

believed the present, however unpromising,nto be pregnant with a betternfuture, Johnson’s emphasis on a consciousnessnof “radical needs” as thenspringboard to revolution is largelyninspired, if that is the right word, bynHeller’s extensive writings.nIn the last two-thirds of the book,nJohnson discusses briefly, and inadequately,nwhat translations she couldnlocate of work by Walter Benjamin,nBertolt Brecht, Theodor Adorno, HerbertnMarcuse, Louis...

also to provide a paradoxical vision ofnUtopia. “Nowadays,” he wrote, “darknessnis the representation of . . .nUtopia. Art’s Utopia, the counterfactualnyet-to-come, is draped in black.”nUtopia, in the post-Auschwitz world,nwas not a vision of heaven but annevocation of hell; not a dream but anscream. Indeed, reading Adprno is likennothing so much as contemplatingnEdvard Munch’s famous painting.nAdorno...

the literary historian. From the 1930’snthrough the 70’s there were few importantnBritish writers whom he did notnknow. During this time he was considerednby many to be the most talentednmember of his generation. And yet,nhis real gift seemed to lie in producingnexcuses for his failure to realize thatntalent. As David Pryce-Jones (the editornof his journal) observes:...

by falling off a bar stool (like LionelnJohnson) or suffer martyrdom for thenlove that dare not speak its name (likenThe New Story of SciencenWhat does modern science have tonsay about God, the mind, or beauty?nAs any schoolboy or high schoolnscience teacher knows, these wordsnmean nothing. Beauty is a culturalnprejudice which influences ourne’aluation of sensory experience...

VIEWSnTHE NEW PROBLEMS OF PAYINGnFOR ART by Ronald BeimannThere was a time before public education was compulsory;nwhen museums were run on their private endowments;nwhen artists and writers, symphonies, and schools ofndance were dependent on patrons or themselves. Things arendifferent now: we assume that money for culture shouldncome from taxes. The norm is for a cultural...

international cultural exchange. But, instead of taking suchnexchange as a good in itself—admiring the Tutankhamennexhibition as a manifestation of ancient Pharonic geniusnrather than as an indicator of modern Egyptian benevolencen—we politicize art, values, and ideas. After a review ofnarguments that those who support culture are given creditnfor a kind of moral reform of their national...

interpret it, it is a fairly open proposition that one statesubsidizednagency should support another in order to satisfyna constituency. The constituents have identified what theyndo—which is the production of crafts and hobbies—withnsomething else, hi order technically to qualify for funds,nwhat they do has been called art. But the bottom line is thatnthey are being rewarded...

middle class, between bureaucrats and politicians, betweenngreat institutions of the arts and small, unnoted regionalnhopefuls, between established forms like opera and thenyet-to-be-evolved forms of avant-garde. Far from settling thenmatter of arts patronage, the operation of the British ArtsnCouncil seems to have made hostilities much more visible.nAnd clearly the object of most hostility is what one...

national theaters, or a Vienna Opera, which flourishes innAustria precisely because few other enterprises are allowednto compete with it. Built into our political process is thenwisdom, so-called, of distribution. Second, there is thenwisdom of equality. As one looks through the annualnreports of the National Endowment for the Arts, thenCongressional Record, and the various statements of...

— both parts and even the TVnsynthesis—estabHshed a place for himnbeside Welles and Eisenstein, andnApocalypse Now barkens baek to thengrandeur of D. W. Griffith. Coppolancan, however, do effective work withinntight boundaries, as in The Outsidersnand Rumble Fish, but Coppola cannotnwork well with flexibility. Andnflexibility—a bit of give in the sides ofnthe production envelope, horror storiesnabout...

al, moving, making us feel that we cannbe proud of what was before us.nLaurie Anderson: United States;nHarper & Row; New York.nOozing with banal superficiality. Annattempt to sum up modernity innAmerica in images and lyrics by an”performance artist,” whom her publisherncalls a “superstar of the avantgarde.”nWhat’s “avant-garde” thesendays?nEdward Lucie-Smith: Art in the Seventies;nCornell University Press;nIthaca, New...

that they had all been active in thenResistance. Among the victims of thisn”legal” confiscation was the prewarnbourgeois daily, Le Temps. Within anfew weeks, without even bothering tonchange the lettering, Le Monde rosenfrom the ashes of its predecessor. Itsneditor in chief was Hubert Beuve-nMery, a Christian-Democrat, innFrench ideological context a leftliberalnwith, as is natural, a secretndesire...

explicit kind and with a degree ofndetail and variety which Larry Flyntnmight admire. This was too much fornthe intelligentsia which likes its subversionnfully clad — preferably withnthree-piece suit and necktie.nLaurens turned to the editorialnboard of writers which owns 40 percentnof Le Monde’s shares. They votednno confidence in projects of redressingnfinances. He next turned to printersnand...

right-wing wits have been pointing outnthat at least the Times is consistent:nthey are simply applying their positionnon arms control to the streets of NewnYork.nEven Mr. Goetz’s defenders arenalarmed by the implications of his act.nSelf-defense, they suggest, is only onenstep away from the jungle. What wenneed is more police, tougher laws, andnstricter judges. With a better...

Newspeak and TV surveillance ofnhigh-crime areas. All this fuss overnOrwell, in a way, helps to shield usnfrom the reality of life in the late 20thncentury. Liberals can play their coynlittle game of claiming, “It’s all happeningnhere,” and conservatives canngo on pretending that the main dangernto our society lies in the missiles of thenSoviet Union and...

were no more than drafts, “one way ofnsaying it.”nHow could it be otherwise? Completenessnrequires form, an impositionnof order upon the chaos of humannexperience. But modern poetsn—Hughes is hardly original in thisn—have retreated into the private worldnof their own senses, their personalnvision. They are capable of dropping anvivid phrase or flourishing a tellingnobservation, but nothing more....

specific theology was left to the numerous churches and thenyet more numerous Bible-readers.nThe current contrast between Europe’s moribund statesponsorednchurches and the relative vitality of Americannreligion confirms the wisdom of the Founders’ vision ofnnonestablishment and free devotion. Nonetheless, in late-n20th-century America, the relationship between religionnand government is uneasy and often troubled. Perhapsnnowhere are the causes and...

(Hitchcock continued)nrate that he was not a very seriousnCathoHc.” If anything, his electionndelayed the Catholic moment by angeneration, and possibly forestalled itnpermanently.nNeuhaus goes on to say that hendisagrees with those who say that thenCatholic Church began to unravel atnthe moment its spiritual son was electednto the nation’s highest office. Catholicism’sn”silly season” is now behindnit, Neuhaus...