Bricks, Mortar & TouchstonesnAmitai Etzioni: An ImmodestnAgenda: Rebuilding America Beforenthe Twenty-First Century;nMcGraw-Hill; New York.nby David R. Sandsnl-/espite all the talk about neoliberalism,nit appears that the centralnintellectual debate in American politicsntoday is taking place within the RepublicannParty, between two very distinctnnotions of conservatism. The Reaganntriumph of 1980 clarified the debatenwithout settling the fundamental issues.nThe impulse to...

Between the government and the individualnmust come the mediating structuresnof family and community.nLiberalism has resorted to undemocratic,ncoercive methods to further its ambitions—^primarilynthrough sympatheticncourts and activists within the Federalnbureaucracy. Etzioni applauds Mr.nReagan’s efforts to get the governmentnout of our hair, but we must also makencertain that the community can handlenthe responsibilities it is being given.nEtzioni’s three...

COMMENDABLESnBuilding a Better Fingernail FilenTrevor E Williams: A ShortnHistory ofTwenUeOhCentutynTechnology c. 1900-c. 1950;nOxford University Press; New YoAnA low-budget TV commercialnoften shown during late showsntouts the advantages of becomingna computer programmer. Thenad—a technological extensionnof the matchbook cover thatnheralds home-study courses innelectronics—features a man whonsays he wanted a job wherein henwouldn’t get his “fingernailsndirty.” He walks through...

from Letitia Baldridge to BUI Blass,nfrom Joyce Brothers to Alan Aldanand Johnny Carson, therebynachieving a perfect democracynof minds. The advice of the firstngroup has been many times recorded;nthat of the second isnbleated frequently from Peoplenand New York magazine, andnothers of their ilk. So why stillnanother tome on the subject?nOne of the advice-givers innGood Advice is...

SCKKK.NnSemipseudo Cinema Verite and Benighted ViewersnWilliam Rothman: Hitchcock—ThenMurderous Gaze; Harvard UniversitynPress; Cambridge, MA.nDonald Crafton: Before Mickey: ThenAnimated Film 1898-1928; The MITnPress; Cambridge, MA.nby Stephen MacaulaynIn all areas of artistic endeavor therenis typically a distinct, synthetic separationnbetween practitioners who are considerednartists and those who are considerednentertainers. In contemporary letters,nfor example, there are two novelists,nTom Robbins and...

producers—a group that would bentermed “highbrow” by phrenologicalnpartisans. According to Tyrmand, whennthe closing credits roUed on the screen,nthe reaction wasn’t a mere jaded shrugnindicating self-importance (i.e., “I’vendone the same things many times in mynfilms”), but a standing ovation, honestnadmiration firom a knowing group. Theynhad been taken in by the magic on thenscreen; their sense of...

youngsters and by the more knowledgeablenin the early decades of this centuryn(the adoration of the latter group is evidencednin the work of Gilbert Seldes).nToday, adults are too sophisticated forncartoons.nThis has led to a bias in film studies, asnnoted by Donald Grafton, who says thatnhis praiseworthy Before Mickey: ThenAnimated Film 1898-1928 is “the firstnbook to concentrate...

XMLSICnMadder MusicnSomething is happening in the arenanof contemporary music which seems tonindicate that it—in some cases, atnleast—is in a state of progressive ferment;nothers might simply define it asnschizophrenia. Neil Young was once,nnot so many years ago, a Canadiannfolksinger. The themes and musicalnflavor (e.g., “Cowgirl in the Sand” andn”The Emperor of Wyoming,” respectively)nwere in the Western...

genuinely equal: self-respectingnatheists, self-respecting homosexuals,nand other relativists with self-regard arenexceptionally beautiliil creatures whosenpublic aims must be vouchsafed by thentender compassion of the same crusadersnwho are zealously driving self-respectingnreligionists, traditionalists, and othernconservative dragons from Camelot’snpublic square. Moral Majority mustnnever be allowed to “enforce privatenmorality” upon even the most lasciviousnelements of the body politic, but advocatesnof welfare-state...

OPINIONS A U:\S~7nOn Nisbet: A DuologuenRobert Nisbet: Prejudices: A Philosophical Dictionary; Harvard University Press; Cambridge, MA.nMan-of-the-World Conservatismnby James HitchcocknIhe first question that should be asked about this book isnwhy it was written. The subtitle is somewhat misleading in thatnthe contents are a mere 70 topics, hardly a dictionary in the fiillnsense. But the first word...

bad, are at the bottom of the Americannconstitutional ethos, we risk petty animositiesninstead of an enriching discourse.nAH lexical badinage notwithstanding,none emerges from reading Mr.nNisbet with the feeling that the exactnessnand seemliness of his thinking and argumentnare sam reproche, but that somethingnis wanting. That “something” wasnpresent and is still discernible in thenminds, words, and opinions of...

feeling, thinking, and believing, of thengeneral awareness of our common destiny.nIn a marginal but nonethelessnbizarre aftermath overlooked by manynbut which may epitomize our age, thenconservative in America is now hated bynthe conservationist—that is, the liberalnor radical bigot or worshiper of old,nfailed, stale prejudices. In order to be anfighting philosophical proposition, Mr.nNisbet’s tract not only should...

Sainte-Beuve RevisitednIn its recent attempt to dcnigniie ihenliterary status of social critic Tom WoH’c.nMother janes, a magazine of prncmnmunistnscholarship, conceded th;ii his influentialnessay “Radical Chic” was “mnwell written and mostly clearly obsi-ned”nbut then added this bit of nciu-ricncriticism:nYet Wolfe is striking muJi hardernthan a satirist would. His intt-ni ion wa<nreally to do harm, and he...

might reassess long-forgotten stock fromngreat-grandfather’s safe. When henspeaks of the perils of egalitarianism ornthe virtues of feudalism, it goes withoutnsaying that in a time of test-mbe babies,nApple computers, and Social Securitynthe notion of hierarchy has to be reinvented,nrevalidated, and morallynrefined—especially in light of the factnthat rigid hierarchies and purely feudalninterdependencies actually are bloomingnin our present...

ordinary to anyone who is a little betternread. A Parisian is startled whenninformed that the Hottentots cut o£fnone testicle from a male infant. ThenHottentots are likewise astonishednthat the Parisians keep both of them.nThat is Voltaire’s trump card, anmesmerizing, inimitably wise lightnessnof touch which, in perennial ideologicalntournaments, converts admirers intonsupporters and followers. Voltaire, likenSocrates (his sad...

many fetuses do look exactly like smallnbabies and that their humanity cannotnbe denied. It seems odd that Nisbet doesnnot find it necessary even to address thisnmoral concern.nA book of this kind is meant to be provocative,nand Nisbet is undoubtedlynaware of what he is doing when he tellsnantiabortionists that their proclaimednloyalty to family values actually worksnagainst...

tolerable. What is even odder is that sonperceptive a sociologist would miss thenpoint that Christianity was precisely supposednto bring about a moral revolutionnin the world. It would be strange indeednif the morality of the early Church differednin no significant way from that ofnthe Roman Empire. I do not know whatnNisbet’s personal religious and moralnbeliefs are....

Contours of the TextnElizabeth W. Bruss: BeautifulnTheories: The Spectacle of Discourse innContemporary Criticism; JohnsnHopkins University Press; Baltimore.nRoland Barthes: A Bart he s Reader;nHill & Wang; New York.nRoland Barthes: Empire of Signs; Hilln& Wang; New York.nSusan Sontag: A Susan Sontag Reader;nFarrar, Straus & Giroux; New York.nby Gary S. VasilashnAn important change in thinkingnoccurred because of Albert...

While much literary theory of todaynseems to imply a hermetic state, it’s clearnthat a large number of external factorsnaffect it. However, on their way to constructingntheories with “an artificialnlanguage,” which is basically composednof fragments seized from the sciences,nseveral theorists eschewed clarity andnadopted a style not unlike that used byneconomists or petrochemical engineers.nIndeed, graphs and charts...

cut up so they can be grasped by sticks,nbut also the chopsticks exist because thenfoodstuffs are cut into small pieces, onenand the same movement, one and thensame form transcends the substance andnits utensil: division.” In an essay innMythologies, “Myth Today,” Barthesnprovides an explanation of the trinity ofnstructuralism: the signifier, the signified,nand the sign; he seized...

umphs of Nature. Semiology (my semiology,nat least) is generated by an intolerancenof this mixture of bad faith andngood conscience which characterizes thengeneral morality.” Barthes set out to examinenmuch more than novels and plays;nhis objective wasn’t simply to put downnwords about words. He spoke of beingninfluenced by Saussure, Sartre, andnBrecht: a linguist, an existentialist, and ansmelly...

capacity as an excuse.nSontag went to North Vietnam whennit was an act of defiance—legally andnmorally—to do so. Although she opensnher essay implying that she will be ancritical observer and reporter, any rigornrapidly becomes naivete. For example,nshe spots what she is told is the grave ofnan American fighter pilot in a village.nShe knows it to be...

This journal dl opinionnis bcijiii brought lo younby The Rockford Inslitulc.nJI you aro already a subscriber,nyou arc aware ihat we siand toursquarenatiainsi today’s Liberal Culturenand the passive publishinii eult of nietooisrn.n11 this is your first issue o Chronicles ofnCulture (or you’ve been bi>rrowina a eop’nand yearn lor your own), and you are intriiriiednby wlial we...

200 Years Without TraditionnMarieB. Hecht: OddDestiny: TheLifenof Alexander Hamilton; Macmillan;nNew York.nLou Cannon: Reagan; G.P. Putnam’snSons; New York.nby Daniel J. O’NeilnJL ogether these two books providenvaluable insight into the nature ofnAmerican conservatism. The Hecht bookntells persuasively the story of AlexandernHamilton. It is a fascinating tale, tellingnof his illegitimate birth, his youth ofnpoverty and struggle, his college...

hierarchy of political concerns.nAmerican political conservatismnseems to lack philosophical conservatism’snsense of the tragedy of human existence.nOur business-oriented conservativenparty optimistically sought tonpopulate and to develop a continent—nand succeeded. It envisaged a society ofnvirtually unlimited opportunity andnmobility. For generations it dreamed ofnthe New Jerusalem isolated fromnEurope’s sordid history. Hence onenseldom finds in American political conservatismnthe belief that...

The Literature of EngagementnMario Vargas Llosa: Aunt Julia and thenScriptwriter; Farrar, Straus & Giroux;nNew York.nMaria Luisa Bombal: New Islands andnOther Stories; Farrar, Straus & Giroux;nNew York.nManuel Puig: Eternal Curse on thenReader of These Pages; RandomnHouse; New York.nby Stephen L. TannernNorth America knows Latin Americanimperfectly. Many Americans condescendinglynview Central and SouthnAmerica as a collection of nearly...

strong social commitment become politicallynconscious as they practice theirnvocation. They inevitably encounter thenhandicaps and miseries of underdevelopment,nwhich are not confined to peasants,nworkers, or minorities. Illiteracy,ncensorship, cultural deprivation arenobstacles for the writer, whatever his classnor social philosophy. Consequently, thenLatin American writer is pressured innboth obvious and subtle ways towardnsocial commitment. There are somenpositive aspects in this...

W ritten in English and set in NewnYork City, Manuel Puig’s Eternal Cursenon the Reader of These Pages is scarcelynrepresentative of Latin American fiction.nThe story, told exclusively in dialogue,nbrings into intimate relationship an74-year-old Argentine and a 36-year-oldnAmerican. Ramirez, exiled from Argentinanfor political reasons, has beennbrought to the United States by anhuman-rights group and is an...

of six mixed freely and equally. Thenschools diat existed in die Middle Agesnenrolled 40-year-olds and 10-year-oldsnalike. Young people had access to allnforms of cultural behavior. Playing withnthe privy parts of children and exposingnyoung people to bawdy language weren”normal” practices. Emotional commitmentnto one’s natural children was correspondinglynlow; infant and child mortalitynwas appallingly high.nThe concept of a...

tinue without that particular concept.nProbably so. Yet there is a price thatnwill be paid. Reputable authoritiesnagree, for example, that the real incidencenof child abuse is indeed rising innthe United States. There were 711,142nreported cases in 1979 alone. Postmannsuggests, correcdy I think, that part ofnthe reason for this increase is thatnchildren are now commonly perceived asnthey...

violence; the influx of the “new immigrants”n; not to mention the impact ofnthe electronic media on minds, youngnand old. Any serious educational reformneffort must address these questions innconcrete ways. Moreover, while the Proposalnprescribes the form which properneducation should follow, it leaves thenactual content of education—bothnsubstantive and moral—distressinglynvague. Finally, in its zeal for “equality”nand “democracy,” the...

unity of culture.” Of his learned colleaguesnin the arts, he therefore demandsnthat “talk and thought about art… conformnto the canons of common sense”nand that criticism be “written for thenlayman; an educated layman if possible,nbut a layman and not a professor.” Andnin his own work, Barzun convincinglyndemonstrates that such criticism is possiblenand that clarity precludes neithernsubtlety...

reached those points or why he advancesnthem.nU nfortunately, such consistency andnclarity are both among the burnt offeringsnthat Diane Johnson has offered upnto the wandering goddess George Sand,nwhose capricious infidelity seems aboutnthe only principle governing the reviewsncollected in Terrorists 8c Novelists. In hernpiece on Sand’s autobiography, Johnsonnprostrates herself before the faithlessnauthor of fife ^/X»/apparently for threenarmy...

Of Monsignors & MonkeysnGraham Greene: Momignor Quixote;nSimon & Schuster; New York.nBernard Malamud: God’s Grace; Farrar,nStraus & Giroux; New York.nby Robert C. SteensmanVjraham Greene and Bernard Malamudnare two writers whose novels arenrarely received apathetically by eithernreviewers or general readers. Unlikenmany of their contemporaries who infestnthe best-seller lists, both are masters ofnthe delicate airt of reaching, touching,nand...

staffed with friendly young ladies, andnuncomprehendingly watches a pornonmovie to which he has been drawn by itsnseemingly pious title, A Maiden ‘snPrayer, As his ancestor fought the windmills,nMonsignor Quixote attacks anfestival in which visiting Mexicans cover anstatue of the Virgin Mary with papernmoney. Confronting these blasphemers,nhe roars, “How dare you clothe her likenthat in money...

blessed them with, to diink and bathenin; the fertile green earth. They torenapart my ozone, carbonized my oxygen,nacidified my refreshing rain. Now theynaffront my cosmos. How much shall thenLord endure?” Man has not onlyntrate the reader. Who is Cohn? A secondnGod trying to create a new world or justnattempting to correct the mistakes Henmade in...

and Teddy White, then few with evennthe faintest pretensions of objectivitynor open-mindedness can turn their hearingnaids down low enough not to hearnsomething.nThe two objects of the indignation expressednin this book are “the liberal,nhumanistic elements of American societynwho do not play by the rules theynespouse” and the docile professingnChristians who have passively acceptednrelegation to “a cultural...

poignant of the selections here collected.nAmong the other contributions, thenreader will find a variety of rhetorical approachesnand philosophical concerns—nan articulate affirmation by MalcolmnMuggeridge of the abiding relevance ofnChristian doctrine, a scholarly explorationnby Allan Carlson of the historicalnlinkage between capitalism and thennuclear family, a scathing indictment bynJacqueline Kasun of the antinatalnpolicies governing U.S. foreign aid, anpenetrating...

Party, which had been gaining strength,naccording to the opinion polls. ManynAmericans and Europeans assumed thatntheir own distaste for Begin was widelynshared in Israel. Never popular in Washington,nthe testy Prime Minister was farntoo combative, particularly as comparednto Anwar Sadat. Some blamed him fornstalling the Camp David peace process.nEven well-informed Americans believednthat Begin would fall. But he...

close to earning a majority. WhennAllende tried to parlay this tepid endorsementnby the voters into a sweepingnMarxist revolution, there was resistancen—and it did not come merely fromnfascist army officers, CIA agents, andnassorted dupes of Yankee imperialism.nIn the months preceding Allende’snouster, hundreds of thousands—ntmckers, miners, gas workers, bus driversn—went on strike against his economicnprogram, a mishmash...

Continuity..nA Journal of HistorynCONSERVATISM AND HISTORYnNumber 4/5nA Special Issue Edited by Aileen SnMyth, History and the Problem ofnDesacralized TimenMyth, Ideology and an Unfinished Tasknfor Conservative HistoriansnConservatism and the Problem of MythnCosmopolitanism and FederalismnConservatism and the MilitarynOn the Relationship Between Conservatismnand American Social HistorynThe Right Schools: Ideological Debate onnthe History of EducationnOn Being Right: Reality, Utopia,...

and the language of the liturgy andnScripture, Hardy nonetheless felt thatnthe only real function of Christianity wasnthe social cohesion it provided. Millgatenpoints out that Hardy was influenced asna young man by Auguste Comte, thenfounder of Positivism, and that he was anlifelong friend of the leading BritishnPositivist, Frederic Harrison. Positivism’sn”Religion of Man” is a wholesale transfernof...

available are science fiction / adventurenstories and Tono-Bungay, his one attemptnatjamesian, serious fiction. But itnwould be misleading to take this as thenonly measure of Wells’s impact onnmodern thought. His was the kind ofncorrosive intellect—like that of GeorgenBernard Shaw and Bertrand Russell—nthat provided a set of assumptions to fillnthe minds of secular liberals. More sinisternthan his...

least in terms of quotidian life.nMedicine, banking, design,neducation—these are but a fewnof the areas that have alreadynbeen changed by computerntechnology (e.g., CAT scanners,nautomatic transfer of deposits,ncomputer-aided design terminalsn, BASIC classes), and this listnbarely scratches the surface:nthink of your wristwatch ornpocket calculator. In the worldnthat is becoming, ignorance isnnot blissfiil and, like it or not, itnwill...

unionists.nMeany, conservatives willnrecall, often marshaled hisntroops under the liberal banner,nnot only on such matters asnright-to-work laws and situsnpicketing, but also on the largernissue of the Federal government’snrole as the guarantor ofnhealth, prosperity, and equality.nNevertheless, Meany generallyntreated conservative ideologicalnopponents with fairness and respectnand was a staunchndefender of the integrity of thenAmerican system. In his advocacynof welfare-state...

SCRKl-NnGreatness UnincarnatenGandhi; Written by John Briley; Directednby Richard Attenborough; ColumbianPictures.nby Stephen MacaulaynA reclining figure with a spine of casehardenednsteel: that was Gandhi. Fewnothers in the 20th century show, as hendid, that a tenacious belief in truth, innthe dignity of man, and in the power ofnideas is worth living and dying for. Gandhinhad charisma, though not...

ject is clearly evident, and the album isnwell produced.nAt last, in Philip McCracken, we findnan artist of distinction who declines tonmount a soapbox in behalf of political—nor any other—causes. In the very briefnbiographical sketch that opens this vol­nSmashing the Spheresnby Robert R. ReillynA good deal of 20th-century “music”nis experimental sound that has escapednfrom the laboratory....

Postmortem PsychiatrynWhen Mr. John Belushi. the liberalnluliure’s iliirling loniedian. died of andrujj overdose, most ob.server.s saw iinsimply as ihe natural though patheticnend of a particularly glamorized life. Ms.nBette Miiller. a noted psychoanalyst, explainednin a recent interview that mattersnwere more complex:nI lielieve Jiihn w.n biisiially playing; ancharacier. . . . Ht- w-jMi’t iliar kiml ntnman at...

Philip Glass offers a minimalist, somewhatnmechanical, but nonetheless pleasantnwaltz. This album is an engtossingnand economical means by which to acquaintnoneself with the various techniquesnof modern composers. The wildnheterogeneity of styles devoted to thensame form also tells us something aboutnour ruptured culture.nComposers Recordings has includednsome of Elliot Carter’s early works—nSuite from Pocahontas (1939), Symphonyn#1 (1939), znd...

Tin: AII:RI( AN PROSC I:MIMnThe Gravediggers of ReasonnAnyone who watches the interactionnof life and history is bound to notice,nsooner or later, that the most potentnmoving force in human affairs is plainnstupidity. Class struggle, spiritual elan,nall the forces of societal sacrifice are certainlynpowerful factors, but they do notnmatch the power of simple asininity.nThus, nations or states...