Category: Imported

the values of our Founding Fathers arernbeing eroded through processes overrnwliicli there are scarceh’ am democraticrncontrols.rnhi detailing this abandonment, thernauthors rightly stress the ccntrality ofrn”equalit’ before the law” and thern”democratic ideal” to the liberal tradition.rnWith the emergence of “equalityrnbefore the law,” the individual was liberatedrnfrom the constraints of “birth, privilege,rnand class” that determined hisrnplace and...

Principalities & Powersrnby Samuel FrancisrnEnemies of the StaternThe Great Republican Revolution took arnbrief trip to the benches last summerrnwhen committees in both House andrnSenate paused in their deliberations tornburrow into the federal atrocities at Wacornand Ruby Ridge. The resulting hearingsrnwere by no means as much fun asrnthe 0.}. Simpson trial, and the Houserninvestigation of the...

agcnc” until the New Deal era, when itrnacquired the legendary status it retainedrnuntil the 1970’s, and the modern FBI isrn’er’ much a creature of the New Deal.rnWhile Coolidge’s Attorney GeneralrnHarlan Fisk Stone had withdrawn thernBureau from the red-hunting that was J.rnEdgar Hoover’s first love, the Presidentrnwho put the FBI back into the domesticrnsecurit’ business was...

CORRESPONDENCErnLetter FromrnMexicornbyRayLowiyrnLawless RoadsrnIt is 10:00 P.M. as you step off the Greyhoundrnbus in Laredo, Texas. By all rightsrnyou should feel exhausted after your 36-rnhour ride from Minneapolis. But therntruth is, you feel pretty good. The air isrncool but muggy on this late-Augustrnnight. You are told that the Rio Grandernis just a few blocks from the...

to, a gorgeous little town off the mainrnhighwav to Mexico Citw Like Zacatecas,rnGuanajuato was a silver town. But whenrnthe silver gave out, the government putrnthe miners to work digging a honeycombrnof tunnels throughout the hills uponrnwhich the town is built. The resultrnis a unique place where pedestrian walkwaysrnand automobile passageways cutrnthrough the mountains like so...

Andres de Larrainzar for several months.rnThe small rebel zone is surrounded—rnprotected would be a better term—^by arn”civil corridor” of Red Cross workersrnwho, in turn, are surrounded by the MexicanrnArmy. Cholera is endemic in thernrebel zone. Lengthy negotiations aboutrnthe possibility of negotiating the commencementrnof negotiations continue.rnMeanwhile, tourism, the one sure-firernincome producer that the state of Chiapasrnhad...

night, too.rnSan Cristobal is a beautiful little town,rnbut it’s filled with refugees. Thousandsrnof impoverished Indian people from therncountrsidc begging, or trying to sell littlernplastic trinkets. Several of} our fellowrnpassengers say it just wasn’t this way arnfew ears ago—before the Zapatistasrnstirred things up. All these people livedrntheir traditional lives in their traditionalrnvillages. But that is oer...

condition of the poor. Today there arern280 organizations affiliated to CEDIC,rnthe state-level Council of Indians andrnPeasants. Despite their great diversity ofrnperspectives and goals, the central issuesrnof justice and dignity give unity to themrnall, emphasizing agrarian policy, land, respectrnfor individual and communal humanrnrights, politics free of corruption,rnjust prices for their products, and publicrnservices such as running...

subside back below them—as if they hadrnnever been, like some latter-day “land ofrnlost content.”rnAs vou get closer, and slip into thernwinds’, grass’ immensity, you relinquishrnreal life with relief. You fall into numinousrnabstraction, as ou look over thernbare desolation, and cannot but think ofrnunworkaday things—how the moonrnrides high and white over the damp le-rnels, of flocks...

VITAL SIGNSrnM E D I ArnThe Truth About thernMilHon Man Marchrnby Marc MotanornCi It’s time for the government to payrnus reparations for the 500 yearsrnof slavery that they put on us,” declaredrna marcher in the Million Man Marchrnin Washington, D.C., on October 16. Irnattended the march on assignmentrnfor Rush Limbaugh, The Television Show.rnMy coverage of...

Alternative iews of American historyrnwere abundant. A group of men callingrnthemselves Moroccan Moors claimed tornbe the Founding Fathers of America. Arnmember of the group stated, “Our flag,rnthe Moroccan flag, was cut down in 1776rnb- General George Washington on SixrnChestnut Street in Philadelphia Thisrnis the Moroccan empire of the West. . . .rnWc helped frame the...

iCrnFloggingrnby Sherman McCallrnBoys had been beaten since historyrnbegan and it would be a bad dayrnfor the world if ever, ineonceivably, boysrnshould cease to be beaten.” So said C.S.rnForester in Lieutenant Hornhlower.rnClarence Davis, a black Democraticrnmember of the Maryland House of Delegates,rncourageously proposed restoringrnjudicial flogging in Maryland last year.rnCourts would give up to ten lashes with...

The Hundredth Meridianrnby Chilton Williamson, Jr.rnHunters and GatherersrnThe carcass lay across a slab of rock atrnabout tlie leel of mv knees. I estimatedrnits undressed weight to liave been aroundrn700 pounds: substantial for a two-yearoldrnelk. I had managed to position it sornthat when I drew the guts out they fellrnclear of the slab onto the rocks...

through the steep soft clay to the bottomrnand across a succession of giillevs to thernfence, where we dismounted and tiedrnup to sagebushes to eat our lunch, whilernthe cows bedded gratefully at a discreetrndistance of 50 yards. Wc ate ham andrncheese sandwiches and drank fruitrndrinks, and were concerned with dividingrna Twinkle in three pieces when thernflatbed...

Recent articles:rnSteven Weinberg on scientificrnmethodologyrnDavid Riesman on higher educationrnDonald Kagan on Western civilizationrnRobert Conquest on threats to culturernJohn Finnis on scholarship in therncourtsrnPaul Hollander on political correctnessrnJohn M. Ellis on feminist fallaciesrnAlbert Braverman on medical schoolsrnHeather Mac Donald on TonirnMorrisonrnGerald Early on AfrocentrismrnCarol lannone on women andrnliteraturernHenry A. Turner on fraudulentrnscnolarshiprnPaul R. Gross & Norman...

INCLUDING ESSAYS BY.rnPETER BRIMELOWrn{Forbes Magazine)rnALLAN CARLSONrn(The Rockford Institute)rnJEAN BETHKE ELSIITAINrn(University of ChicagornDivinity School)rnRICHARD ESTRADArn{Dallas Morning News)rnTHOMAS FLEMINGrn{Chronicles Magazine)rnSAMUEL FRANCISrn(Nationally SyndicatedrnColumnist)rnPAUL COTTERIEDrn(Elizabethtown College)rnGARRETT HARDINrn(Professor Emeritus ofrnHuman Ecology)rnHANS-HERMANN HOPPErn(University of Nevada,rnLas Vegas)rnDONALD L. HUDDLErn(Rice University)rnE. CHRISTIAN KOPEErn(University ofrnColorado inrnBoulder)rnkrnnrnirn^rnIMMIGRATIONrn* AND THE *rnAMERICAN IDENTITYrnSELECTIONS FROMrnChronicles: A Magazine of American Culture,rn1985-1995rnskirnr.rnf”rnrrn”^rntrnftrnKrnRICHARD D . LAMMrn(Former Governor ofrnColorado)rnJOI [N LUKACSrn(Professor Emeritus...

EDITORrnThomas FlemingrnMANAGING EDITORrnTheodore PappasrnSENIOR EDITOR, BOOKSrnChilton Williamson, ]r.rnEDITORIAL ASSISTANTrnMichael WashburnrnART DIRECTORrnAnna Mycek-WodeckirnCONTRIBUTING EDITORSrnHarold O./. Brown, Katherine Dalton,rnSamuel Francis, George Garrett,rnChristine Haynes, E. Christian Kopff,rnClyde WilsonrnCORRESPONDING EDITORSrnBill Kauffman, William Mills,rnJacob Neusner, ]ohn Shelton Reed,rnMomcilo SelicrnEDITORIAL SECRETARYrnLeann DobbsrnPUBLISHERrnAllan C, CarlsonrnPUBLICATION DIRECTORrnGuy C. ReffettrnPRODUCTION SECRETARYrnAnita CandyrnCIRCULATION MANAGERrnRochelle FrankrnA publication of The Rockford Institute.rnEditorial and Advertising Offices;rn934 North Main...

the mother of the red man…. The earthrnis not the white man’s brother but hisrnenemy….” The French original gi es usrnthe gift Burns asked for, “to see ourselvesrnas others see us.” Near the beginning,rnGoldsmith notes that although thernAmerican Gross National Product hasrnquadrupled in the last 50 years, “Americanrnsociety is in serious social crisis.” InrnFrench, “La...

mative action in California. Predictal^K-,rnthe CCRI and its authors have becomernthe target of vicious attacks by blacks andrnliberals, in the grip of a collective hysteriarnnot seen since the publication of ThernBell Curve.rnAccording to the Contra Costa Timesrnon October 7, Fred Jordan, the head ofrnthe California Business Council of Organizationsrnfor Equal Opportunity, warnsrnthat the state will...

high” (Hebrews 1;3), for the suggestionrnthat the right hand is a place of honorrnmight upset left-handed people (thisrnleft-handed editor, until his eonsciousnessrnwas raised, was not upset; in fact, hernis not upset even now, no doubt an indicationrnthat he is so insensitive that herncannot even recognize derogatory insinuationsrnthat apply direetlv to him).rn”Darkness” must also be eliminated,...

PERSPECTIVErnThe Illusions of Democracyrnby Thomas FlemingrnWe live by our opinions. While other people’s opinionsrnare called illusions, if they pose no threat to our interests,rnand prejudices if they do, wc call our own opinions “truth”rnor principles, if we are fools: “the most positive men are thernmost credulous,” as Pope observed, probably having scientistsrnin mind. If we...

school have excluded the teaching of English as a practicalrntechnique of expression; literary theories prevent us fromrnenjoying fiction and poetry and from applying them to our ownrnlies. Psychological and sociological theories—rooted inrnnothing more solid than verbal playfulness—may even corruptrnour morals and stunt our sense of responsibility.rnAmong the most dangerous of our theoretical illusions arernthe political...

his life was higher than it was for a yeoman or a serf. Today,rnagain, human lives are not equal: a child in the womb ma bernmurdered with impunity, and a large majority of the black populationrnapparently believes that the murder of white people isrnjustified on the grounds of the general racism in Americanrnsoeiet’. The political...

two parties and whose outeomes are determined Ijy bribery, isrninduced (bullied or bribed) to pass a bill. In many cases,rnCongress is not even consulted by the federal judges and bureaucratsrnwho have taken law and public administration intorntheir own hands.rnWhen liberal theorists like Seymour Martin Lipset speak ofrndemocracy, they do not mean either everyday democracy orrneven...

literatures is a highly recent activity of the Western mind. It isrnlate 18th eenturv. Literary theory, by contrast, is ancient. It hasrnbeen there since Plato and Aristotle, even if its life over twornthousand years is less than continuous. Though more literaternthan numerate, I cannot accept that 200 vears is longer thanrn2,000; and in light of...

France. When ideas die, a wit onee remarked, they go to America.rnWith the new age of international conferences on criticalrntheory, nobody thought Sir Philip Sidney had anything muchrnto do with the matter, or even Coleridge or I.A. Richards. I suggestrnit is time we did.rnAs Roland Barthes said, one never knows what is not to bernfound...

taint, whereas with a French sentence I could offer only a tentativernand unreliable opinion, hi that case, it is clear, an abilityrnto define is not evidence of knowledge, relatively speaking, butrnof ignorance. Anv dependence on grammatical rules is likely tornhe c idcncc of inadequate knowledge; anv dependence on thernrules of acting, or even an excessive...

The highest moral command, perhaps the only one, is to respectrnthe Otherness, the alterity of every Other in the world.rnImposing our metanarrative on others is intellectual colonialism,rnas bad as, no, worse than the literal colonialism of the Europeanrnempires of the 19th century. A passion to show up eachrnearlier generation’s metanarrative, its indifference to alterityrnand the...

Christopher Norris was awakened to the implications of CriticalrnTheory by the Gulf War, or rather by an article on the crisisrnwritten by a leading postmodernist, Jean Baudrillard, in thernleftist Guardian a few days before the war broke out. (See hisrnUncritical Theory: Postmodernism, Intellectuals and the GulfrnWar, 1992.) We live inside language, according to the tenets...

Tlic cstablisliment and explanation of texts, philology in thernold sense, is the oldest and most theoretically sophistieated arearnof literary studies. Its history goes baek to the royal lil)rarians ofrnPtolemaie Alexandria in the third eentury, B.C. Americans likernthe late Fredson Bowers and diseiples and critics from G.rnThomas Tansellc to Flershel Parker haye continued to explorernthe tlieory...

and consequence in hindsight, necessarily provide a chronologicalrnstructure of such a summary, dictate the emphases, andrnthus appear to occur as a result of preceding such events. Arnshortage of space produces an emphasis on order and policy,rncauses and results, as opposed to disorder and confusion. In therndomestic context decision-making is simplified, and pressuresrnare said directly to...

The French Ambassador in London discerned a fear that thernEstates General would lead to a revival of French strength as arnresult of royal power being more solidly based. In January 1789,rnthe Count of Aranda, formerly the Spanish Ambassador inrnParis, suggested that the Third Estate would support the crovn,rnin order not to be crushed b- the...

but against the smuggling of categories of crime and punishment,rnfor example, into the definition of mental illness. In a recentrnessay, Szasz adroitly sums up the dual edge to his critiquernof contemporary psychiatry: “The focus of my conceptual critiquernis the distinction between the literal and metaphoricalrnuse of language; and the focus of my moral-political critique isrnthe...

lice force. And here Szasz, in his full passion, returns to the ethicalrnbasis of all issues connected with health. It is worth quotingrna passage from his Cruel Compassion, because it is both anrnapt summary of his ethical position and, no less, a warning tornthose with a monopoly of power—including the power to treatrnpatients.rnIt is dishonest...

psychiatric mainstream. This in turn fueled Szasz’s sense ofrnthe political. He became involved in the politics of libertarianism.rnFor his work moved from a critique of a profession to a defensernof the person, or as Szasz liked to put it, “to a struggle forrnself-esteem.” His approving citation of C.S. Lewis serves Szaszrnas a final judgment, not...

formula, describing the national community,rnthe civic religion, and the politicalrncreed,” each of which also reflectedrnthe interests of the rulers of the regimes.rn”Federal republicanism,” essentially aristocraticrnand decentralist and drawn fromrnBritish Old Whig political doctrine, wasrnthe defining political creed of the FirstrnRepublic; “federal democracy,” based onrna larger and more centralized nationalrnstate and more directly democratic, wasrnthe political...

political coalition that would directlyrnthreaten its dominance. One of his basicrnmisconceptions about the overclass isrnthat it depends on inheritance far morernthan it really does. Earlier elites, hernrightly points out, have depended on inheritancernand have become true oligarchiesrnas a result. He tries (but fails) tornshow that the overclass does the samernthing. Unlike earlier elites such as...

overclass and the swollen federal bureaucrac)rnit controls is the abandonment ofrnraeial manipulation and a policy of simplernnondiscrimination, without preferences.rnNondiscrimination bv the state isrnunobjectionable, but Lind wants nationalrnoutlawing of all discrimination, publicrnand private, on grounds of race, gender,rnand sexual preference. That policy, ofrncourse, would simply intrude the nationalrnstate into the management and “radicalrnreconstruction” of independent socialrninstitutions...

different picture: God, like Satan, continuesrnto nag at our consciousness sorntenaciously that people still feel the needrnto argue with Him, even denounce Him.rnFor all their academic detachment, bothrnNhles and Pagels are remarkably grippedrnby this supposedly extinct mythology.rnjack Miles’ Biography (presumablyrnunauthorized) is based on the view thatrn”Many in the West no longer believe inrnGod, but lost...

scope for icebergs,” icebergs that includernVolkswagens, horse-drawn carts, and justrnabout every other vehicle Europe canrntoss out on the highways.rnTheoretical education behind him.rnCoster is off to Russia—”straight on pastrnthe Pizza Ilut, left at the Kremlin”—rnand ready to give the reader lessons inrneconomics, sociology, and history. Tornthe truckers of the European EconomicrnCommunity, we learn, Hungary is thernpirate...

CORRESPONDENCErnLetter FromrnInner Israelrnby Jacob NeusnerrnThe Goyim Aren’trnAlways WrongrnA small people with a distinctive religion,rnthe Jews throughout history have triedrnto avoid imitating the Gentiles (that is,rneverybody else), lest assimilation destroyrnthe faith and the group that embodies it.rnIn fact. Scripture’s passionate denunciationrnof idolatry led the ancient rabbis,rn”our sages of blessed memory,” to condemnrncertain practices under the rubricrnof...

the country, its massive congregationsrnon Sabbaths, its pleasure in pubhc witnessrnto the faith in countless ways, itsrnunashamed love of God. And 1 am inclinedrnto think that when Jews beginrndecorating their homes for Hanukkah,rnthe Lubovitch Hasidim will lead the wa}.rnThen people will think it is very Jewishrnand forget where it came from, the wayrnthcv think that...

equally massive, massy Krishna temple inrnLondon—which seems inevitable, gicnrnthe feebleness of (especially Anglican)rnChristianity, the anti-Western bias ofrnthe multieulturalist ideolog’, and thern1991 Census statistics which demonstraternthat white Britons in the boroughrnof Brent will almost certainl- be in thernminority within 20 years. John Major’srnfamous speech to the contrary, it looks asrnif there will not be too many...

VITAL SIGNSrnO C I E T YrnRace, Aids, andrnSexual Behaviorrnby J. Philippe RushtonrnFor the past decade or so, m researchrnhas focused on assessing racial differencesrnin brain size and intelligence,rnsexual habits and fertility, personalityrnand temperament, and speed of maturationrnand longe’it-. Startling and alarmingrnto main people is my conclusion thatrnif all people were treated the same, mostrnracial...

U.S. AIDS figures increased from 26 torn31 percent, Ilispanics increased from 14rnto 17 percent, Asians and Amerindiansrncombined held at less than one percent,rnand whites decreased from 59 to 51 percent.rnIn mv book Race, Evolution, and Behavior,rnI documented numerous surveysrncarried out around the world showingrnracial differences in frequency of sexualrnintercourse. The results show that bothrnbefore and...

munity itself laughing at the follies committedrnin the name of promoting a betterrnunderstanding of mathematics.rnTo take an example, the language ofrnthe “theory of sets” had been basicrnamong mathematicians for 100 years,rnand can ease enormously the path tornmuch that people find perplexing inrnschool. Anyone should be able to learnrnenough about sets and this vocabulary inrna verv...

peting theories will fail due to thernimpossihility of an uniting metaperspectivernand because of the (related)rnnonexistenee of a universalrnlanguage. How to proeeed, then?rnGood question.rnRalph A. Raimi is a professor of mathematicsrnat the University of Rochester.rnO L I T I C SrnMerry Kwanzaarnby Nicholas StixrnWhat are you doing this year forrnKwanzaa? T’his was onee a ludierousrnquestion, but...

is no substitute for working-class action.rnTlic’ prepare for a whirlwind that supposedlyrnwill sweep away the garbage ofrnhistory, leaving clear the road to progress,rnhistcad, this whirlwind will blow awavrnthe nation’s moral and religious foundations,rnla ing waste to all roads, knockingrnout all sign posts, and leaving a panicked,rnconfused people to find its way—or tornvield to someone claiming...

tarians gave cover for politicians to dornwhat they like to do most: transfer morernmoney from the private sector to thernpublic sector.rnAs astonishing as it sounds, the idea ofrnlowering the government’s total tax takernfrom its present level is gone entirely.rnThe lost revenue from targeted taxrnbreaks for children (even that’s still up inrnthe air) will have to...

onl- l^e explained in light of the ongoingrn”Tenth Amendment movement,” thernattempt (bv mostly Republicans) to re-rn i c the last number of the Bill of Rights.rnThis amendment, passed beeause of thernFounders’ fear that the federal governmentrnwould overwhelm, erush, andrnfinally dissolve the state governments,rnwas designed to preserve our system ofrnfederalism, or dual federal and staternsovereignty. The...