Iieroism is the reason,” explains one of Achilles’ opponents,rn”that the princes are first served at banc[riets.” Goodness was alsorna class distinction (as at Rome), and the agathoi and the aristoirn(like Cicero’s honi) were members of the hereditary nobilit)-,rn’I’he crustv reactionar’ Theognis complained that virtue wasrncontaminated when good men, who had fallen on hard times,rnmarried the...

Dougrnby Bruce GuernseyrnWhen my father came liome from the warrntwo years after I was bornrnI couldn’t match his voice with his picturernand cried each time he came near.rnLearning to talk, I called him, “Doug,”rnthe way my mother did,rnthis strange man who tried so hard to hold me —rnhow could he be my Dad?rnMy father was...

The Bare Bodkinrnby joe SobranrnAbe-WorshiprnAt the end of the recent remake oi Planetrnof the Apes —[um the page now if ‘ou stillrnplan to see it—the hero escapes from saidrnplanet and its monstrous chimp-tyrant,rnC^,eneral Thade. Returning to Earth atrnnight, his spacecraft crashes in, of allrnplaces, the Reflecting Pool at the WashingtonrnMall, and he solemnly marchesrnup the...

large part because they are about memoryrnitself: “Tbc mystic chords of memoryrn. .. The world will little note, nor long rememberrn. . . My fellow citizens, we cannotrnescape history. We of this Congressrnand this administrahon will be rememberedrnin spite of ourselves. . . The worldrnwill not forget…”rnBut Lincoln had haunting memoriesrncloser to home, which he...

thinkers of the 1950’s Old Right, WiUmoore Kendall was perhapsrnthe most noted for his endorsement of a kind ot conservativernpopulism that saw the emhodiment of public virtue in thernpeople rather than in the largely imaginar’ aristocracies of contemporaryrnEurope and New England. It was the pseudoconservativernpolitical nincompoop Peter Viereck who actuallvrnthought Adlai Stevenson was a modern-da...

Since tlie- are seeming])- wedded to the support of elitism in allrncircumstances, what are they to do about a left-wing elite? Thernmonstrosih, conceptual as well as political and practical, mayrngo tar to explain the ntter irrelevance of conentional conservatirne thonglit to the crisis of American and Western socich- thatrnthe managerial reolution represents.rnDespite the conxentional depiction...

Wins of their elites. For a while, they may loudly protest departuresrnfrom inherited beliefs; in the long run, however, they willrnfollow societs”s trendsetters, whose attitudes will be transmittedrnthrough their ehurches, sehools, colleges, music, newspapers,rnand TV programs. I’radihon cannot defend itself v ithout itsrnown strong and sophisticated elites, and the deterioration of traditionrnwill soon weaken and...

emptying societ}’ of what makes it eivilized. For example, for allrnto start from scratch, there would have to be no inheritance.rnWas it concern about equalih’ of opportunit)’ that once gavernthe United States the most confiscator)’ estate taxes in the Westernrnworld? Or were those taxes inspired by the related presnmphonrnthat self-made men are especially admirable and...

Indian wars and die American Revolntion.rnIn 1788, after studing law and being admitted to the bar,rnJackson was appointed the pnblic prosecutor for the “westernrndistrict of North Carolina,” a region that would shortly tiecomcrnthe state of Tennessee. The area was still a wild frontier, andrnJackson did more hidian fighhng than prosecuting. The hidiansrnwere allied witli various...

for gallantPf- at the Battle of Antietam, was commissioned a secondrnlientenant. Demonstrating exceptional leadership and valorrnin fight after fight, he was promoted to major, “If it be my lotrnto fcill,” wrote McKinley in his diary during the war, “I want tornfall at m’ post and have it said that I fell in defense of my...

CHRONICLES INTELLIGENCE ASSESSMENTrnThe E.U. Charter of Fundamental Rights:rnA New Totahtarianismrnby Roberto de MatteirnThe F,.U. Charter of Fundamental Rights, approxed inrnNice on December 8, 2000, sets forth the principles uponrnwhich the future European constitution should be based.rnDrafted by a commission of experts from various countries, therndocument consists of a preamble and 54 articles. It was presentedrnto...

and ])ciuilizec1. While pretending to gnarantee (false) freedoms.rnArticle 21 poses a seriovs threat to (true) freedom. Therncharter of rights, like an totalitarian regime, attempts to denyrnIreedom of c]5ressi()n.rnIf we ajjpK this egalitarian criterion to all the “cuialities” mentionedrnin Article 21 (inclnding language and being a memberrnol a national minorih), we realize that, besides the tamih’,...

REVIEWSrnAs We Go Marchingrnby H.A. Scott Traskrn%et no one believe that children a hundred years from now in the future of Americarnwill not be sick for what our fools and unconscious criminals are doing today.”rn— Robinson JeffersrnThe New Dealers’ War: F.D.R.rnand the War Within World War IIrnby Thomas FlemingrnNewYork: Basic Books; 561 pp., $35.0(rnWho has...

cent of the public remain steadfast inrntlieir opposition to American interventionrnin tiic European war, FDR had assuredrntliem on the ee of tlie 1940 electionrnthat “our boys are not going to be sent intornan foreign wars.” He even persuadedrnJoseph P. Kennedy, the American ambassadorrnto England and a strong anti-intcr-rnentionist, to endorse him for the presidencyrnand to...

New Deal universally extended and applied.”rnIronieally, Wendell Willkie, Roosevelt’srnRepnblican opponent in the 1940rnpresidential eleetion, shared the messianicrnvision of the New Dealers, both atrnhome and abroad, hi his 1943 book. OnernWorld, Willkie insisted that the UnitedrnStates should use the war to imposerndemocracy and freedom on the entirernworld. According to Willkie, the Britishrnand French empires had to...

Wittgenstein (who destroyed the foundationsrnof Russell’s work), has a penetratingrnintelligence and vigorous narrative st^’le.rnHe has mastered the enormous amountrnof archival material aird expertly exposesrnthe weaknesses in Russell’s fallacious arguments.rn(He misses one logical flaw,rnhowexer. Russell states: “A hen, whenrnscared by a motor-car, will rush across thernroad in order to be at home, despite thusrnrisking its life,...

Letter From Rockfordrnby Scott P. RichertrnThe Tower of BabblernThe first call conies late on a Fridayrnnight. “Welcome back,” says Mark Dahlgren,rnthe organist at St. Mary’s Shrine,rnwho is nine months through the one yearrnof probation he received for hugging arntree at Tom and Jan Ditzler’s farm (seern”For Keeps! A Christian Defense of Property,”rnViews, April). “You probablyrnhaven’t...

low parishioner at St. Mar}”s Shrine andrnneighhor of the Dahlgrens), and BobrnWhalcn (an airhne pilot and eonservativernacti’ist) appear on Bowman’s show, andrnthe lines light up with angr)- callers whornsee the 30-day clause as jnst another examplernof Rockford’s backroom politics.rnChris devotes most of his radio show tornthe issne, and when he convinces TomrnPoulos (the president of...

CORRESPONDENCErnLetter From Romernby Alberto CarosarnAmerican Handgunners SeekrnVatican RecognitionrnFrom time to time, the Catholic Churchrnhas to address the thorny problemsrncaused bv those liberal faithful who challengernher principles and tenets. Muchrnmore rarely do we hear about initiativesrncoming from the other side of the spectrum,rnsince these initiatives generally dornnot pose any threat to Church doctrine,rnbut are limited to...

customers in a cafeteria, including thernparents of Su/.anna Gratia Hupp. Shernowned a handgnn, whicli she had tornleave in her antomohile, because Texasrndid not pennit the carrying of concealedrnhandguns at that hme, and she contendedrnthat she could have saved her parentsrnand others had she had the handgun withrnher. Around the same time as the cafeteriarnkilling, Gov....

for which I brought a large tub of CoolrnWhip for all to enjoy. This fall festivalrnhas become quite popular, with over 400rnguests attending, much more than the littlernchurch hall can handle all at once.rnBesides the neighbors, attendees includernsuch luminaries as former U.S. Sen. GaylordrnNelson, who is originally from nearbyrnClear Lake, and Amery Mayor andrnformer State...

the equally mythical —or should one say,rn”mystical”? — cause of “Corsiean nationalism.”rnThere are those — such as AlainrnMadelin, a former finance minister andrnnoted “liheral” in economic matters andrnhimself of Breton origin—who argue thatrnthe Corsicans have as much right to haverntheir own “language” taught in theirrnschools as have the Basques, the Bretons,rnthe inhabitants of the Languedoe...

lective coercion that Man had ever invented.rnThis was both a blessing and arncnrse: A blessing, since no human communityrncan possibly subsist without arncommon, collective means of communication;rna curse, since this indispensablernuniformity of speech can easily generaterna constricHng herd mentalit}’, which arn”healthy” society should be ever ready torncombat. This was what had already happenedrnduring the French...

ian. pA-en though Carlo Goldoni, thernmost prolific of Italian dramatists (no fewerrnthan 2 50 plays!), occasionally wrote hisrnplas in the VencHan dialect, it was forrnhim a local divertimento, no more. Mostrnof them were written in Italian, and evenrnin French—which, in 18th centun,’ Europe,rnwas regarded (rightly or wrongly) asrnthe language par excellence of polite societ’,rnand thus...

will toss in the sponge and grant the islandrnits independence. This would constituternthe sweet, long-overdue revenge of therngenuine patriots against the pinzutti (literally,rnthe “pointed ones”), the sarcastic appellationrnapplied by the “natives” to the intrusivernFrench because of the pointedrncaps (similar to those of the Redcoats duringrnthe American War of hidependence)rnworn by King Louis XV’s soldierv’ when,rnafter...

nonpareil ricotta fruitcake of Sicily.rnTherefore, I’m going to buy a summerrnplace here, a decision as irrevocable as itrnis closely reasoned. I have now spent arnmonth at Villa Igiea, the sister hotel ofrnthe Grand Hotel delle Palme, goingrnaround with Alfredo and his manyrnfriends, one of whom, Maglio M —, is arnformer mayor of Palermo and an...

The problems seemed insurmountable.rnThe state debt soared toward $50rnmillion, and there was no money to payrnit. hi marched the occupation troops andrnthe carpetbaggers. Billy Mahone, a formerrnConfederate general, mastermindedrna Readjuster-Repnblican Parry, ralliedrnnative blacks, Orccnbackers, KnowrnNothings, and Readjuster Democrats tornhis side, won a seat in the U.S. Senate,rnbroke a tie by voting with the Republicans,rnswept the...

The American InterestrnNATO Expansion:rnHarmful and DangerousrnAfter President Bush’s meeting withrnRussian President Vladimir Putin in Italyrnin )ul’, it is almost certain that a newrnround of NATO expansion will be announeedrnat the forthcoming summit inrnP rague, rega rdless of Moscow’s misgrrnings. ‘Phe alliance will include Slovenia,rnSloakia, the three Baltic republics, andrnpossibU’ Rumania and Bulgaria. Thernconsec[uences of this...

pean ethnic lobbies that never see the forestrnfor the trees, but it will jeopardize Europe’srnchances of long-term siuvival.rnThe United States should understandrnwhy some former Soviet satellites have arnvested geopolitical interest and an evenrnmore acute psychological need to treatrnRussia as the enemy, but it should neverrnallow itself to be seduced by their obsessions.rnTake Czech President VaclavrnHavel,...

VITAL SIGNSrnCHRISTIANITYrnChurch andrnDemocracyrnby Thomas MolnarrnThere is no docunientan- evidenee ofrnan’ period in the histor- of tlicrnChurch when dignitaries such as bishopsrnworild hac been “democratically” electedrnb’ the assemblage of “‘oters.” On tiiernoriier hand, popular election was neerrnexcluded in die form of acclamation Arnfamous ease of acclamation was that ofrnSt. Ambrose, bishop of Milan, who, beforernhis eleation,...

day’s “conciliarists” —the various critics,rnwhetlier laymen or theologians —demand?rnThere is no question that, all told,rnthe Church resisted democratization underrnan’ political climate—whether underrnpagan tribal chiefs. Renaissance princes,rncritical intellectuals, modernist currentshutrnthat She managed to do so by adoptingrna nondemocratic structure. The roots otrnthe Church’s rejection of change may bernfound in Chrisf s legacy to St. Peter, but...

world vill follow Christianity at all.rnWell, setting aside Orthodox suspicionsrnthat papal supremacy is likeK’ to remainrnless negotiable than other differences,rnand that any prospective unionrnwould mean, as it always has in the past.rnOrthodox subordination to Rome, andrntherefore precisely a question of whatrnbrand of Christianity the union produces,rnthis seeming indifference to dogmahcrnquestions is indicative of how littlernthe...

Americans, on the otlier hand, professrn”American exceptionalism.” They assertrntliat the United States is unique amongrnthe countries of the world because shernalone has successfully funcHoned underrnthe same Constitution for more than 200rnyears. According to “American exceptionalism,”rnthe government of the UnitedrnStates has never been overthrown, andrnthe U.S. Constitution has never beenrnchanged — except through the amendmentrnprocess, as...

from his stormy role in French “musicalrnpolihcs and his battles with the corruptrnestablishment, and his reputation wasrntied to the famous Dore caricature—flyingrnwild hair and coattails. Those whornwanted to listen to what Berlioz created,rnrather than to what the critics said ofrnhim, had little more to go by than a fewrnrecorded excerpts from the Damnation ofrnFaust, and...

In The Darkrnhy George McCartneyrnThe School of SavageryrnThe 1968 film Planet of the Apes wasrnbased on b’rench novelist Pierre Boulle’srn196^ Swiftian satire. On sereen, thernadaptation beeame a wildly popular and,rnnot coincidcntallv, satirically tamer narratirne.rnThe moie resembles an expandedrnTwilight “Lone episode. That’s not surprising:rnRod Serling worked on thernsereenpla’. Charlton Heston plays an astronautrnwhose roeket takes a...

mongerers —by rigorously limiting thernfilm’s point of view. We see the world entirelyrnthrough the eyes of Enid and Rebecca.rnThe view is chastening, especiallyrnsince they are far more innocent thanrnthey would dare admit.rnThe friends wander about their Californiarnsuburb’s strip malls, trucking theirrnway along the sidewalks in clunky platformrnshoes and laughably abbreviatedrnskirts. Their getups unflatteringly accentuaterntheir wide...

The Hundredth Meridianrnbv Chilton Williamson, jr.rnGetting SomewherernJackson Hole is burning up. GerryrnSpence liad to evacuate his ranch aheadrnof the wildfires, and Dick Cheney couldrnbe next. I lere above timberline in thernSnow Range of the Medicine BowrnMountains, 400 miles to the southeast,rnthe breeze is cool, the grass is fresh andrngreen, and the ponds of standing waterrnare...

spaced trees over mainly level ground,rnmade for easy travel and echoed the horses’rnfootfalls like a drum. We rode onrnthrough the woods a mile or so beforerndaylight broke through the treelinernahead and we came to an open park borderingrnthe willowy bed of a creek and risingrntoward granite cliffs across the stream.rn”This is what I like best,”...

At Last!rnA book that exposes the true cultural significance of the Clinton presidencyrnThe Nonpatriotic President: A Survey of the Clinton Yearsrnby Janet Scott BarlowrnWhitewater . . . Filegate . . . Monica LewinskyrnThe scandals are only the beginningrnIf vou think that Bill Clinton’s influence will end when hernleaves office, vou need to read this book....

^le^^o/in f7la/i€fo//:>A GlitA Gonie^ to^xx^/ofu/rn2001: the 225thrnanniversary ofrnthe AmericanrnRevolution and thern25th anniversaryrnof Chronicles andrnThe RockfordrnInstitute.rn.>*1»-^rn<^°;<^^^^rnThe Rockford InstituternandrnChronicles: A Magazine of American CulturernPresents:rnThe 12th Annual Meeting ofrnTHE JOHN RANDOLPH CLUBrn”Tyranny and Revolution”rnNovember 9-10, 2001rnSince the Revolution, limited government, personal liberty, and states’ rights have beenrnground away by the forces of the counterrevolution that concentrated political powerrnin...

EDITORrnThomas FlemingrnEXECUTIVE EDITORrnScott P. RichertrnSENIOR EDITOR, BOOKSrnChilton V/illiamson, ]r.rnASSISTANT EDITORrnAaron D. WolfrnART DIRECTORrnH. Ward SterettrnDESIGNERrnMelanie AndersonrnCONTRIBUTING EDITORSrnKatherine Dalton, Samuel Francis,rnGeorge Garrett, Paul Gottfried,rnPhilih Jenkins, J.O. Tate, MichaelrnWashburn, Clyde WilsonrnCORRESPONDING EDITORSrnJanet Scott Barlow, Bill Kauffman,rnDonald Livingston, William Mills,rnWilliam Murchison, AndreirnNavrozov, Jacob NeusnerrnFILM EDITORrnGeorge McCartneyrnFOREIGN-AFFAIRS EDITORrnSrdja TrifkovicrnLEGAL-AFFAIRS EDITORrnStephen B. PresserrnRELIGION EDITORrnHarold O.J. BrownrnCIRCULATION MANAGERrnCindy LinkrnPUBLISHERrnThe Rockford InstituternA...

nally does triumph, but by that time, thernmain characters have been shown to bernfar less than admirable and wholly susceptiblernto one or another form of moralrncorruption. This includes the tailor’srnwife, whom McCartney wrongly describesrnas “entirelv immune” to the appealrnof the womanizing agent. Hence,rnthe apparent message praised b}’ McCartneyrn—that good exists and that bad deedsrnhave bad...

CULTURAL REVOLUTIONSrnPRESIDENT BUSH wants to do forrnchurches and Cliristian charities whatrnthe Department of Education has donernfor pubUc schools; Attach them so firmlyrnto the teat of big government that itrnwould be impossible to unlatch themrnwithout financialh’ crippling them. Thernfunny thing is, this does not appear to berna concern for most Catholics, evangelicals,rnand mainline Protestants, as long...

as the law dictates. Thus, the tvvo first witiiessesrn— Lloyd Cutler, White Houserncounsel to Jimmy Carter and Bill Clinton,rnand Boyden Gray, White Houserncounsel to the first President Bush andrnpresumably an advisor to tlie second —rnseemed to surprise Senator Schumer atrnthe first of these hearings, held June 26,rnwhen they argued that it was wrong tornconsider ideology...

group Akin Gump. Strauss, who gainedrna reputation as a man-about-tovvn inrnWashington while a Democratic Partyrnfixer, helped American businesses profitrnfi’om the insider privatization deals of thernYeltsin era and, like Bunker, knew a goodrnlobbying opportunity when he saw one:rnAkin Gump suddenly discovered it wasrnvery concerned about “freedom of thernpress” in Russia and enlisted Toby Goti,rnfreshly retired chief...

free-market liberals —the sort who willrnimpose free-market solutions beforernthere is a market—and ex-communistsrnlooking for jobs in economic administration.rnThe theory satisfies the bureaucraticrnneed for an orthodoxy.rnThe Yugoslav economy was ruinedrnlong before 1991. It was in shamblesrnwhen Tito died. But the invocation ofrnEurope is simply implausible. Europernnever really wanted to deal with Yugoslaviarn—and it still doesn’t. It...

PERSPECTIVErnFriday Breakfastrnby Thomas FlemingrnShakespeare and the CannibalsrnRobinson Crusoe, as the lit boys would say, is an “iconic”rncharacter, whose mastery over nature —and over the savagernFriday—expresses the West’s sometimes contemptuousrnsense of superiority over other cultures, hi the 500-ear-longrniconoclashc age that is just now coming to an end, icons arcrnmade only to be broken, and in such...

purpose, however, is to debunk the entire coneept of higher andrnlower civiHzations, declaring that “there is nothing barbarousrnand savage in this people . . . except that each man calls barbarismrnwhatever is not his own custom.”rnThis ulterior motive explains the curious beginning of the essay,rnwhich invokes King Pyrrhus’s famous observation that thernRomans might be barbarians...

Crusoe’s place, they would have begun by indoctrinating Fridayrninto the theory of class struggle and ended by having him forrnbreakfast. Shakespeare, by contrast, understands human weakness,rnand he holds out hope even for the savage Caliban, oncernhe comes to his senses and realizes that, in following a butler insteadrnof a duke, he was “an ass ....

Breaking Glassrnby Philip JenkinsrnObligatory HolocaustsrnI feel sorry for Afrocentrists—those weirdrnand wonderful folk who claim that civilization,rnphilosophy, and science wererndiscovered in ancient Africa, before beingrnstolen by the white man. True, membersrnof the movement are cranks, withrnnothing worthwhile to support their positions,rnbut they are no more ridiculousrnthan many other historians who dominaternthe intellectual mainstream.rnTo illustrate this, let...