came to full bloom in the activities andnpostures of such men of God as the Berrigans,nRev. William Sloane Coffin andnmany like them—which, perhaps, confirmsnthat old Biblical truth: nothingnserves God better than man’s humblenessnof mind and heart (which tells himnnot to be so sure that he has the answernto every earthly dilemma). The accountsnof the hostages ably bear out ournsuspicions. One of them, Mr. CharlesnJones, openly accused some of the visitingnclergymen of serving his oppressorsnand our enemies.nEnvironmentalist ChutzpahnThe member of President Reagan’snCabinet whose nomination was responsiblenfor more liberal face contortionsnand psychotic eye squints than evennSecretary Haig’s was Secretary of thenInterior James Watt. He was viewed asna 20th-century Tamerlane, a zoologicalnfiend, a fire-belching dragon whosenlife’s mission was to turn the Americannlandscape.into heaps of coal dust andnpools of greasy oil. Every bona-fidenAmerican procommunist operative instantlynbecame an exalted, bucolic lovernof meadows and swapped his copy ofnLenin’s Selected Works for a manualnon the cultivation of grasshoppers atnthe very mention of Mr. Watt’s name.nThe fascinating thing about thisnwitch hunt was the insolence of the invertedntruth. Mr. Watt grew up in Wyoming,nso he must have known somethingnabout his native land, he mustnhave felt some sentiment for the majestynof God-given splendor of the vicinity innwhich his cradle stood. Nonetheless, hisndetractors at The Nation and RollingnStone—who live in the fetid canyonsnbetween Sixth Avenue and Carl SchurtznPark, whose sole contact with nature isnwhen they encounter dog droppings onnthe sidewalk—assumed that he hatednWyoming and that he wanted to destroynit. According to this, they were the onlynones who knew how to love sagebrushnand sierras. DnHello, Repulsive!nAccording to legend, Mr. AlexandernWoolcott, the famed New Yorker criticnand paragon of petulance, used to greetnpeople in the morning with the phrase:n”Hello, repulsive!” Justly or not, henassumed that nothing but abominationnwas to be expected from every fellownhuman who chanced to cross his path.nWe do not share his pessimism but wenare tempted to admit—after leafingnthrough this nation’s newspapers, magazinesnand journals of opinion—thatnMr. Woolcott’s salutation contains atnleast a nugget of healthy wisdom.nOf late, no one deserves this greetingnmore than a certain Alan Wolfe,nThe Nation s hyperactive editorial contributor.nWe have quoted him beforenin these pages as wishing America tonbe “divided, disrupted and disunified.”nHere are a couple of other samples ofnhis Nation-a.1 views:nIn the last few years, the United StatesnLiberal CulturenDe mi-Inte lie dualitynTo call Mr. John Huston anlowbrow would raise manynbrows. To call him demi- or quarter-intelligentnwould still seemnimproper. But what should wenopine on the basis of this quotenin an interview he gave to RollingnStone?nI’m too sympathetic towardnthe criminal mentality.nThomas Mann saw a verynprofound relationship betweennthe criminal and thenartist. So do I. I know whatnhe meant. They’re bothnoutlaws.nnnhas embarked on a course so deeplynreactionary, so negative and meanspirited,nso chauvinistic and self-deceptiventhat our times may soon rivalnthe McCarthy era.nProfessor Wolfe is part of the highestpaidnacademic organization in the country—CitynUniversity of New York. Henpublishes whatever he wants in a oncerespectablenand still-influential weekly.nHe can indulge with impunity in anynprevarication.nAnd then we could read the followingnfrom Professor Wolfe on the subjectnof Israel versus the PLO:n. . . actions speak louder than words,nand Israel has taken most of the offensivenactions.nOf course, it was Israel that first murderednschool children, kidnapped andnexecuted unarmed athletes, plantednbombs to kill at random even infants,nwomen and elderly people. Hello, repulsiven…. nnAnyone with secondaryschoolnedification knows thendistinction between outlaws,nrebels, nonconformists and innovators.nGiotto was not an outlaw;nneither was J. S. Bach; nornwas Thomas Mann. They allnseem to us to have been artistsnin a more lasting sense than Mr.nHuston. Mann saw nothing ofnprofundity in relating the criminalnmentality to artistry. Henwrote a novel. Confessions ofnFelix Krull: Confidence Man, anpicaresque scherzo in which.henprobed the connection betweennartistry and charlatanry, or rathernactorship—not criminality.nMr. Huston must have misreadnthe novel, or perhaps he justnreadjusted it to match some kindnof demi-intelligent conclusion. DnMarch/April 1981n