Feds & Narcs in a Comparative ScholarshipnJames Q. Wilson: The Investigators:nBasic Books: New York.nby Charles E. RicenOince the death of J. Edgar Hoovernin 1972, the Federal Bureau of Investigationnhas been subjected to extensivenscrutiny and criticism. In the process,nthe realities of what the Bureau actuallyndoes have been obscured. We havenneeded a balanced look at those realities.nFortunately,...

“He utterly transformed a disgracetulnbureau into a modern investigativenagencv in which personnel were selectednon merit alone, held to the mostnexacting standards of behavior, ruthlesslynpunished at the first sign ofnimproper or partisan behavior, andnsupported with a remarkable svstemnof files, fingerprmt records, and scientificnlaboratories.”nHoover’s administrative system “wasnbrilliantly successful in eliminating thenobvious abuses of power and in cultivatingnfavorable...

plays, a huge body of short stories, manynof them first-rate. Yet rejection of ailnhe achieved, the basic meaninglessnessnof worldly success and recognition, isnnot so puzzling when one realizes thatnescape from the world is a motive appearingnfrequently in his work. An artistnescapes to the South Seas (The Moonnand Sixpence), a young man escapesnthe world, via Eastern...

the artists who created this one. so thenstory finally results in inarticulateness.nEven the skill of intimation is. in thisnmovie, sleazily deficient and ineffective:nthe audience does not know exactly whvnthe hybrid monsters gestated by the invadingnpods sometimes talk and at otherntimes can utter nothing but a savagenhowl, or why San Francisco is totallvndevoid of the premier...

philosophers and balladeers perceivednin crime the impulse of righteous protest—benit against injustice, or boredom.nor the constraints of civilization. Nationalnmagazines began to speculatenthat there must be some justification innequating past centuries of racial andnethnic abuses with the current robberynand murder in the streets. The sensationalisticnvoyeurism of the media conferredna celebrity badge on any act ofneven the...

of the past, lately cured bv history snpainful experiences. We are thus quitendisturbed to find it again in a writernof Mr. Grass’ caliber and influence.nEspeaaily in the light ot the latest, quitenalarmina. news from Germanv aboutnthe sinister revival oi Nazi mystiquenamong German youth—which wouldnindicate that the “psychologicallv” victoriousnGerman writers of Mr. Grass’nstripe are not as...

JournalismnNew Times’nTimely DemisenISeiv Times died not long ago. andnwe have little reason to mourn it. It wasna sequel to the ’60s journalism of socialnconscience tor instant sale, and its endnreads like the dispersal of the acid fumesnthat beclouded the American mind fornmore than a decade. The ’70s provednnot to be exactly the new times whichnNew...

ton students, as if thev had nothing tondo with all those dementet: antics bvntadical Ivy League faculties ‘.hen theynnonneaotiably clamored for revolutionarynconscience as curriculum. Bv thatntime education was seen bv the liberalsnas a process of full equalization iinnrights and value) of the educator andneducated, and those who insisted thatnmoral training was inseparable fromnknowledge were branded...

modish nymphomaniacal criticism,nhiahiy appreciated among the liberalncommissars of V’oi^ue and The NewnYorker. Her reasoning has the gracefulnessnot disco dancing, and it runs intonpeculiar mental arpeggios, as the followingnconclusion of her review of ThenDeer Hunter, an obviously masculinenmovie, demonstrates:n”… but Michael, the transcendentnhero, is a hollow figure. There isnnever a moment when we feel. Oh mynGod....

Editor^s CommentnWe have completed the first full year of the Chroniclesnof Culture and it’s time for a bit of summing up and soulsearching.nWe e are most often accused of two venial sins: liberalbaitingnand negativism. Of course, both charges have thencommon rockbottom. We concentrate on Liberal Culturenbecause it is the reigning sociocultural sovereign whosenwisdom and morality...

the political totalitarianism of the left, they somehow, oddly,nsee in it not evil, but aberration. But they do perceive wickednessnand horror in the totalitarian movements of the right.nWe do not quarrel with that, but we must vehemently rejectnthe special moral tariff accorded the ideological thugs andnhoodlums whom the marxian sacraments exempt, in the eyesnof a...

opinions & ViewsnSelling Darkness & BloodnPeter Collier: Downriver; Holt,nRinehart & Winston; New York.nby Edward J. WalshnIn this, an age of cultural brutalitynand obscenity, brutal and obscene literaturenbecomes numbingly routine, muchnlike the bleak rows of motion picturenmarquees along New York’s 42nd Streetnfrom Seventh Avenue to Times Square.nBut occasionally one display is so singularlynvile that it forges...

the possibility of any subtle blending ofnemotions, and leave the reader againnsickened and bored.nX he upshot, then, is that Cabell Hartnis alone in the world, but for his sisternCharley, who has moved to the NorthernnCalifornia town of Halcyon to beginnher. life anew with her illegitimate son,nwho suffers from a clubfoot, his sharenof the Hart family...

About the War and the CampsnMilovan Djilas: Wartime; translatednby Michael B. Petrovich; HarcourtnBrace Jovanovich; New York andnLondon.nJ. K. Zawodny: Nothing butnHonour: The Story of the WarsawnUprising, 1944; Hoover InstitutionnPress; Stanford, California.nAbram Tertz (Andrei Sinyavsky):nA Voice from the Chorus; translatednby Kyril Fitzlyon and Max Hayward;nFarrar, Straus & Giroux; New York.nRobert Conquest: Kolyma: The ArcticnDeath Camps; Viking...

was not so. In the midst of battle or justnbefore it he can behold the mountains,nor the glowing slowness of light in thenearly dawn, with the eyes of the newborn.nIn one terrible moment he looksnupon a scene of unheard-of beauty andnknows in his head it is beautiful butncannot feel it in his breast and guts:nhe...

was to be any hope of an independentnPoland. People understood that they hadnto do something for themselves, if theninternational promise of the independencenof Poland was to have any bite.nBut something deeper than politicalnconsideration showed itself in thenfighting—something much like the experiencenDjilas describes but withoutnhis guilt: the insurgents themselves didnnot expect the strength that came overnthem...

method was delay—and entanglingnGreat Britain and the United States inncomplicity with that delay.nIf there was ambiguity about Stalin’snactions, there was none about his attitudes.nHe was contemptuous and suspicious.nHarriman saw Stalin in a furynat a Polish underground pamphlet (fromnthe area of Poland already conquerednby the Red Army) declaring there wasnno difference between Stalin and Hitler.nStalin had...

does not exhort, it is fearful. And maybenit also teaches that the Odyssey is anfearful work.nSinyavsky’s silence about camp detailsnmeans: we all know what it is likenby now—you know what it is like. Itnmeans, this has now become j)^o«r worldnas much as ours:n”Notions like ‘human dignity’ or ‘theninviolability of the person’ are to mynmind a...

terrible to know but dangerous to forget:n”Of the three million—or more—ndead whose bones now lie in thenPensioners’ PowernJeremy Rifkin and Randy Barber:nThe North Will Rise Again: Pensions,nPolitics and Power in then1980s; Beacon Press; Boston.nby Harold C. GordonnIn the mid-1920s, when Russia’sntriumphant Bolsheviks realized thatnworld revolution was not forthcoming,nthey settled down to the grim businessnof building...

poor. This was the plaintive cry of thosenwho wanted to bail out New York City.nIn fact, as then-Secretary of the TreasurynWilliam Simon has observed, New Yorknwas systematically looted by its municipalnunions.nBecause of their vast power, the city’snunions were able to secure salaries,nfringe benefits, and pension rights farnin excess of those accorded workersndoing comparable jobs in...

regions become competitive with NorthnCarolina, Mississippi, or Taiwan. Youncan bet your bottom dollar that privatenindustry will then come knocking at thendoor again.” They overstate the case.nActually, if tax-cut fever were to hitnthe Gray belt, if public spending couldnbe reduced, and if unions could be persuadednto moderate their wage demandsnand give up the antiquated work rulesnthat...

Sweden, or as if it did not exist even innhereditary monarchies or the medievalnCatholic Church. Bureaucracy, peoplenlike Katz contend, is instituted in modernnAmerica specifically to reinforcenclass attitudes and racial discriminationnthrough a forced regimentation vifhichnimposes mandatory education on a reluctantnproletariat.nThe facts are just the opposite of thisncontention. The immigrant and the nativenworking man have always correctlynseen...

Harvard’s DegringoladenJohn LeBoutillier: Harvard HatesnAmerica: The Odyssey of a Born-nAgain American; Gateway Editions;nSouth Bend, Indiana.nby Walter TrohannvJurs is a society in which high esteemnwas once given to the search forntruth in our institutions of higher learning.nThis search was conducted in annatmosphere as dedicated as t^at ofnPlato’s groved academy, but one hallowednby the measurement of socialnvalues...

did not mean physically. As an undergraduate,nMr. LeBoutillier was startlednat how the general condemnation ofnthe American system was combinednwith the remnants of snobbery he foundnsurviving in the old line campus clubs.nAs a graduate student he was appallednby the reverse side of the coin in thenhighly-regarded Harvard BusinessnSchool, where he found instruction andndiscussion geared to the...

worthy person was the British ForeignnSecretary, Anthony Eden.”nWe do not think that Anthony Edennis more to blame than the liberal press,nwhich was so infatuated with the Sovietsnimmediately after the war (and neverncompletely shook off this infatuation)nthat it saw fit not to report on everythingnthe Soviets did, not to reviewnbooks which brought to light crucialnevidence of...

that a novelist who tries to convince hisnreaders that fools die is a cheap pub raconteur.nHis place on the bestseller listnis thus assured by fools. And that’snabout everything that can and shouldnbe said about a piece of fiction whichnbrings things sexual to the status ofnpunctuation.nMr. Puzo produced The Godfather,nan honorable pulp, a poorly written epicnof...

Nashville was about the ugliness ofnAmerica. A pigheaded obstinacy innportraying America as ugly is as nonsensicalnand repulsive as presenting hernas an unassailable happy-ending paradise,nbut Altman appears not to noticenthis elementary equation. A Weddingnis about the ugliness of affluence andnsocial custom, about the hideousnessnof the comfortable Middle-Americannstratum. There is no attempt to structurena parable here, every...

and a meager jazz combo in the background.nThis is why Ain ‘t Misbehavin ‘isnsomething more than a routine musical,nthough—as with everything that is simplenand modest but nonetheless impressive—itnis difficult to explain why it isnso. Why does a spectacle devoid of plot,ndialogue, structured scenes, or dramaticntension, make us wait for what followsnwith that inner anticipation which...

counterbalance Russia and thereby actnwith a general sense of the nature ofnthings. President Carter took over theirnideas and, characteristically, has botchedneverything.nSupporting the weaker and less oppressivenin the conflict between two ofnour foes is pragmatic, commonsensicalnand is called Realpolitik in the lingo ofnpolitical scientists. A century ago, itnmeant foreign policies with an adherencento the most practical...

In earlier epochs,na critic tormented only the writers…nOf all the cants which are canted in this canting world—nthough the cant of hypocrites may be the worst—nthe cant of criticism is the most tormenting. Laurence StemenIn ours, he torments everybody.nRegardless of what we wish to knownor ignore, we live with cultural eventsnand their consequences.nThese events reappear...

later, all The New Yorker’s ideologistsnhave to do is to look at the map to discovernthat the spheres of influence haventurned into a pure Bishop Berkeley construct,nand a new, hard reality. And wendo not only have in mind the outrightnconquests through arms or subversionnin the Western hemisphere, Africa andnAsia; we are thinking also of what...

A Voice We RespectnIt is that of Irving Howe, a distinguishednProfessor of Enghsh at the CitynUniversity of New York, editor ofnDissent, one of the most respectablensocial-democrats to walk the streets ofnManhattan. Dr. Howe, liberal as he is,nhas never hesitated to speak out againstnthe Liberal Culture, as if he were awarenof the discrepancy between his ideologicalnheritage...

dom, whose high priests preach libertynof opinion but live by intolerance andnsuppression of views. Thus, we rejoicednwhen reading the most recent offeringnfrom New York City. It is entitled thenCultural Watchdog Newsletter, with ansubtitle: “Reviewing the Reviewers.”nIt is published by an energetic gentlemannby the name of Louis Ehrenkrantz,nwho is a radio personality, a man ofnletters and...

A. At this writing, there are 96 femalenspecial agents in the FBI. J.nEdgar Hoover never married, rarelynescorted women to social functions.nThere is no evidence, however, thatnhe was a homosexual. He seemed tonThe Libcultural MadnessnAs a rule, it begins with marxism, anso-called sensitivity to the needs of thendowntrodden and the abomination ofninjustice. Then comes an injection...

believes that The New Yorker’s readersnare his best potential clientele.nWhich confirms our suspicion aboutnthe linkage between the Liberal Culturenand all the “Reverend” Jim Jonesesnof this country.nNev^f York’s Literary CriticismnNew York Magazine, the rosary ofnlibcultists, on Dirty Work: the CIAnin Western Europe, the latest oeuvrenof Mr. Philip Agee, an admirer of thencommunist world enterprise:n”This is not...

But, Gross reports, therapists who haventhemselves undergone therapy are subsequentlynless effective at “curing” patients.nControlled studies show thatngroups of patients kept on “waiting lists”nto see psychiatrists get better in thensame proportion as those who arrivenin time to tell their troubles. This isnhardly encouraging, suggesting stronglynthat time heals psychic wounds regardlessnof the psychiatric couch. Psychiatristsn(whose suicide rate...

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Editor^s CommentnIn contrast to what the liberal propaganda infuses intonthe popular American consciousness, the modern secularnantiliberalism is fundamentally an intellectual movementnwhich — thus far — has yet to reach the masses in a coherent,npolitically processed manner. A few decades ago, itngained impetus from a group of university professors whonperceived the moral horrors of communism, the...

in an uncompromising way.nX he matrix of liberal heinousness, villainy and deceit isnthe media. These are, indeed, strong epithets, but they donnot originate in anger, rather in a necessity for precision.nDuring the last midterm election, anchormen of all threennetworks reported on the victory of the conservative senatornfrom North Carolina, each hastening to add that his...

opinions &. ViewsnA Tale of Two Ef (ph)ronsnNora Ephron: Scribble Scribble:nNotes on the Media; Knopf; NewnYork.nby Kenneth KolsonnWhen Thomas Jefferson and AlexandernHamilton squared off “like twoncocks” in Washington’s first cabinet, itnwas understood that the ground rulesndid not prohibit the press from beingnemployed as an instrument of partynwarfare. Accordingly, Jefferson andnJames Madison brought Philip Freneaunto Philadelphia...

Democratic candidate, HubertnHumphrey, for the Presidency overnhis Republican opponent.n—The networks actively opposed thenRepublican candidate, RichardnNixon, in his run for the Presidency.nIn summary, “the Presidential campaignnof 1968 and its major issues were handlednin a partisan fashion by all threennetworks.” Efron exhaustively documentednthis partisanship and its multifariousnforms of expression, whichnranged from blatant propagandizingn(for example, a reporter’s characterizationnof...

lessly dishonest old hack HubertnHumphrey is until you’ve followed himnaround for a while on the CampaignnTrail. . . . [Humphrey] should be putnin a goddamn bottle and sent out withnthe Japanese current.”nMr. Thompson’s unique brand ofnlunacy is entertaining, to be sure, but itnis also instructive insofar as it representsnthe New Journalism in its mostnpure form....

New York Daily News, or People, orneven the National Enquirer? Hencenmy conviction that while the New Journalism’sndisrespectful treatment of thenOld may (like Khrushchev’s denunciationnof Stalin) be good for a heartynchuckle or two, it should inspire thosencitizens most sensitive to the claims ofnjustice to demand that Ms. Ephron andnher cult-followers be given the skeweringnthat they so...

rabbis wouldn’t be so excited. Psychoanalysisntoo is received as a panacea bynmany. Bits and pieces of it are givennout, out of context (e.g., Scientology),nto solve all problems; and the dubiousnpractitioners who offer them in evernnew distortions acquire the prestige lostnby institutionalized religion. The healingnpseudo-sciences or therapies havenbecome a growth industry. Understandablynso: if cancer is widespread,...

Saint Marx or OversimplificationnJacques EUul: The Betrayal of thenWest; Seabury Press; New York.nby Paul GottfriednThe Betrayal of the West is JacquesnEllul’s latest indictment of particularnaspects of modern culture. In hisnearlier books and in his lectures asnprofessor of law at the University ofnBordeaux, Ellul gained a reputationnfor himself both as an apologist fornChristian revelation and as...

In spite of his ridicule of leftist obscurantism,nEllul leaves little doubtnabout his own allegiance to revolutionarynradicalism. He asserts that “liberal,nbourgeois capitalist democracy”nnever honored its commitment to “thenindividual, reason, and freedom”; “thenvalues [that bourgeois democracy] proclaimednwere abstractions; they werenalgebraic signs and hypocritical justificationsnof a reality that was utterlyndifferent.” At the same time, “thenLeft, and only the...

GNP and the Spiritual Defects of Modern MannIrving Kristol: Two Cheers for Capitalism;nBasic Books; New York.nby Stephen Maloneyn”Even if we are spared destructionnby war, our lives will have to benchanged if we want to save life fromnself-destruction. We cannot avoid revisingnthe fundamental definitions ofnhuman life and human society. Is itntrue that man is above everything?...

our times consists of Nixon and Krushchevnarguing over the number of televisionnsets in America. In a world withoutnideas, numbers become the onlynreality. The great summas of the pastnseem to have been replaced by pocketncalculators. Instead of examining thencontents of heads, we count them. Kristolnsays our society is now based on thenquestionable assumption that “”there isnno...

Ignorance, Power, and LibertynTom Wicker: On Pr^i^/Viking Press;nNew York.nby Jeffrey St. Johnn””Most of the evils that continue tonbeset American journalism today, inntruth, are not due to the rascality ofnowners, nor even to the KiWaniannbombast of business managers, butnsimply and solely to the stupidity,ncowardice, and Philistinism of workingnnewspapermen. The majority ofnthem, in almost every American city,nare...

zona Republican as a Nuclear Napoleonnabroad and a heartless characternout of Charles Dickens’ Oliver Twistnat home. “”For the first time in a fifteenyearncareer in journalism,” Wicker observednof the angry fists of the 1964nGOP delegates directed toward thenCow Palace’s press box, “”I was forcednto acknowledge to myself that my colleaguesnand I were hated and feared bynmillions...