4 / CHRONICLESnGlasnost American style is all the ragenamong the nation’s literati. At over andozen universities, American academicsnare now waking up to the Sovietnequivalents of Good Morning Americanand Richard Simmons. After years ofnwatching our own People’s BroadcastingnSystem, students and faculty alike maynnow get a glimpse of the real thing.nAmerica being America, however, thenlanguage presents a real problem. Studentsnhave enough trouble understandingnstandard English, much less Russian.nAt Tufts, they have arranged simultaneousntranslators for their joint seminarnwith Moscow University. The topic?nOddly enough, it is not the novels ofnSolzhenitsyn or even Tolstoy, but armsncontrol. We feel sure the American stu­nCULTURAL REVOLUTIONSnIn the forthcoming issue of Chronicles:nBack to Naturendents stand more to gain than theirnRussian counterparts. The Soviets alreadynknow everything about arms controlnnegotiations, and, apart from thenMafia, there is no one in the U.S.nstreet-smart enough to deal with mennwho have had to climb their way to thentop along the same stairs walked bynthird-century Roman emperors and thenBorgias.nSpeaking of a life of crime, that amiablencrime novelist Julian Semyonov isnrunning around Manhattan these daysnpromoting the International Associationnof Crime Writers. Ever faithful to thenSoviet interpretation of “international,”nSemyonov wants to incorporate both thenMystery Writers of America and thenPrivate Eye Writers of America into hisn”In short, in a technological world there is no room for annethics other than an ethics of technology. This is not thenconsequence of ill-will or of anybody’s act of decision. Ancivilization consists of myriads of microscopic acts, interpretednaccording to a network of significations, themselves invisiblynpulled together by some master-concepts. The mechanizationnof man is the master-concept presiding over ournforms of existence, and mechanization itself is the product ofnscience. . . . Thus all that our age is able to produce is annethics of technology which is not a moral reflection about,nbut a method of finding ways to adjust to it. The truth is,none cannot harness technology without demoting science asna master-concept.”n— from “Technology and the Ethical Imperative”nby Thomas MolnarnnnMoscow-backed organization. Wonder ifnthere’s a chapter in Kabul? According tonthe New York Times, Semyonov declaresnhimself an “aflEcianado of New York.” I,nfor one, believe him.n”For constitutional governments,nclose associations with tyrannies arenrisky.” That was Demosthenes’ advice tonthe Athenians on their own set of culturalnand diplomatic exchanges with thenfourth-century Mike Gorbachev, Philipnof Macedon. Of course, every Greeknknew the Macedonians were barbarians,nbut Philip spoke good Greek, displayedngood manners when he needed to, andnpointed to his legendary descent fromnHercules. It took more than regularnbaths and a nodding acquaintance withnliterature to convince Demosthenes,nwho pointed out that Philip never madena treaty without intending to break itnwhen the time was right. Reading Demosthenes’nPhilippics for the first timenback in 1964,1 remarked to my Greeknprofessor, “This guy sounds as crazy asnBarry Goldwater.” My professor, anGoldwater Republican, agreed. Unfortunately,nPhilip succeeded in suborningnenough Athenians to quiet their fears,nand when he finally did conquer theirncity, the appeasers blamed Demosthenesnfor stirring up their friendly adversary. Asnanother Greek, Pindar, put it: “I sing tonthose who can understand,” that is tonsay, don’t blame me when all Americannstudents will know how to speak idiomaticnRussian. (TF)nGlasnost is a two-way street. Thenmodel’s husband, Billy Joel, recentlynmade a much-heralded tour of the SovietnUnion, which was reported in great detailnby magazines ranging from USAnToday to Entertainment Tonight. “SeenBilly rock. See Ivan boogie.” If Joel weren