381 CHRONICLESnCOMMENDABLESnIn Turbulent Seasnby Tommy W. RogersnOtto Scott: The Other End of thenLifeboat; Regnery Books; Chicago;n$18.95.nRobert Ruark has nothing on OttonScott for ability to provide simultaneousnpolitical commentary and Africanntravelogue. A careful historian andnshrewd observer with the ability to setnforth his observations with apt parsimony,nScott has written a book eclectic innsweep, including incisive commentarynon the state of Western morality, medianand culture, and pious chicanery. Scottnis a master at describing the links betweennthe events and the undergirdingnideas of time past and time present. Hisnaccount and contemporary vignettes ofnSouth Africa—pleasant train travel,nmusic as if it were the 1950’s, radionreported as decidedly more literary thannthe U.S. counterpart, “women [who]nseemed, with their soft voices and carefulngrooming, more feminine thannours,” lunch at the Blue Room in thenJohannesburg railway station and thenLanzerac in Stellenbosch, landscapesnthat at times appeared to be in a timencapsule of their own—prove as engagingnas a work of imaginative fiction, yetnare firmly rooted in a perilous reality.nScott has the ability to rightly connectnevents and to delineate the phenomenologynof common events whichnmight appear disparate. He understandsnespecially how a failure of Americannnerve since World War II and a naivenwillingness to help the Soviets dismantlencolonialism have exposed millions tonthe tyranny of communist despots. ThenUSSR is today embarked on a course ofnunmistakable imperialism, seeking tonincorporate the critical geography andnvital mineral resources of Africa intonthe Soviet Empire. The same patternsnof thinking which made it palatable tonjoin with the Soviet barbarians in reducingnthe global power of other Westernnnations make it easy to regard SouthnAfrica as the evil spot of the contemporarynworld. That South Africa has nonUntouchables, is a land of remarkablenBOOKSHELVESneconomic progress for Blacks (where thentraveler moves freely and the press isnamong the freest in the world andnwhere Blacks are fleeing to for thenadvantages of comparative economicnprosperity and political justice), is thenmost advanced region in Africa, and isnthe most tolerant in religion—all this isnwholly irrelevant to those who cannotnbear the thought of confronting Sovietnmight. Nor is it regarded as importantnthat South Africa has no single Blacknmajority, but contains 48 Black tribesnand languages and respects their autonomynfor racial separateness, traditions,nand culture in an integrated society ofntheir own.nNot long ago Rhodesia succumbed tonthe combined effect of Western pressure,nChinese bankrolling of Mugabe,nand Soviet support for Nkomo. But asnsoon as Black rule was established, U.S.ntaxpayers were hit for $225 million tonsupport the new state. Tribal massacresnunder Mugabe stir no more ripple innthe American press than did the plightnof the Vietnamese boat people. Whennthe push for African independencenreached the take-off point in 1960,nAfrica produced 95 percent of its ownnfood. Today every African nation exceptnthe Republic of South Africa exists onnthe eleemosynary tolerance of thenwhite-ruled world. The independentnAfrican nations “are today free mainlynin the sense that their rulers can murdernthem without having to face Europeannjustice.” Modern Africa demonstratesnthat odious dictatorship and tribal turmoilnand cruelty are the predictablenconsequences of Western support ofnleftist regimes.nThe double standard that exoneratesncorruption and brutality among Blacksnand leftists but condemns white SouthnAfricans for lesser offenses makes sensenonly when we understand the hubris ofnegalitarian ideologues and only whennwe acknowledge the decadence of thenWest.nHaving emerged in the postwar worldnas global social worker, busybody, ineffectualnpoliceman, and bag woman ofnthe world, the United States has demonstratednso little respect for the differencesnamong mankind that its leadersnhave assumed that the nouveau statesnwould assume a “democratic” pattern.nnnThe American colonial separation fromnBritain was accomplished within thencultural context of a Reformation lineagenwhich ensured freedom in the midstnof order. The notion that decolonizednareas with entirely different culturalnhistories would adopt the Americannpattern has proved to be an ideologicalnillusion.nHistory shows us the unfolding, thenworking out, and the denouement ofnthe beliefs by which men live. ThenEnlightenment philosophes dreamed ofnearthly utopia and opposed all colonization,nbut the bloody course of thenFrench Revolution exposed the groundlessnessnof their basic assumptions.nToday the continuing conflict betweennthe Reformational and Enlightenmentnlineages continues in South Africa.nSouth Africa is not perfect, and legalismnhas doubtless overstepped liberty.nScott reports that a majority of thenAfrikaners themselves feel apartheid isntoo rigid and causes too many individualnhardships. But for the Afrikaners, thenessential features of their governmentnand their way of life are justified bynCalvinist doctrine.nBy consistently refusing to distinguishnbetween its friends and its enemies,nthe United States has dangerouslynisolated itself We send grain to thenmasters of the Gulag while we debatenwhat penalties should be imposed onnSouth Africa. The moral sclerosis is sonadvanced that several years ago thenCarnegie Endowment for Peace, nonless, drafted contingency plans for thendestruction of the Republic of SouthnAfrica by military force.nSouth Africa does have its internalnproblems. The government has shortsightedlynadopted many of the same sortnof social programs which have been sondisastrous in the United States. Theft bynredistribution does not appear to worknany better in South Africa. South Africanis also not without the influence ofnits own septicemic intelligentsia andnfree-thinking theologians, many ofnwhom Scott has interviewed. Hownmuch internal change, if any, the Afrikanersnshould make in their country,nand by what methods and for whatnpurposes, is probably open for question.nBut it remains a fact of contemporarynreality that South Africa and the Unitedn