EDITORrnThomaa FlemingrnKXEC DTIVK EDITORrnScott P. RichertrnSENIOR EDITOR, BOOKSrnChilton Williamson, jr.rnASSISTANT EDITORrnAaron D. WolfrnART DIRECTORrnH. Ward SterettrnDESIONERrnMelanie AndersonrnCONTRiBlJTING EDITORSrnKatherine Dalton, Samuel Francis,rnGeorge Garrett, Paul Gottfried,rnPhilip Jenkins, j.O. Tate, MichaelrnWashburn, Clyde WilsonrnCORRESPONDING EDITORSrnJanet Scott Barlow, Bill Kaiiffman,rnDonald Livingston, William Mills,rnWilliam Murchison, AndreirnNavrozov, Jacob NeusnerrnFILM EDITORrnGeorge McCartneyrnppREIC^N-AIT-‘AIRS I<:DIT0RrnSrdja TrifkovicrnLEC;AL-AFFAIRS EDITORrnStephen B. PresserrnREI-ICION EDITORrnHarold O.J. BrownrnCIRCULATION MANAC;ERrnCindy LinkrnPUBLISHERrnThe Rockford InstituternA publication o f Hie Rockford Institute.rnEditorial and Adertising Offices:rn928 North Main Street.Roekford. IE 6II0s.rnWebsite: vAV\ .chroniclesn1aga7ine.orgrnEditorial Phone: (815) %T5(I54.rn,dertising Phone: (8IS) 964-5815.rnSubscription Depaitmenl: P.O. Box 800,rnVIoimt .Morris, If, 61054. Call 1-800-877-5459.rnCopyright ?•:• 2001 Irn/Ml rights resered.rnhe Rockford Institute.rnClironichs: A Idgd;:ine of American Culturern(ISSN 0887-5751) is published monthly for $59.0(1rn(foreign subscriptions add $12 for surface delier-,rn$48 for Air Mail) jier ear b The Rockford Institute,rn928 North .Main Street, Rockford, 11. 61105-7061.rnPreferred periodical postage jsaid at Rockford, IErnand addihonal mailing offices. POSIM.ASTER:rnSend address changes to CJmmlcks, P.O. Box 800,rnMount Moms, II, 6I05TrnThe ie\s expressed in Clironicles are thernauthors’ alone and do not necessarih’ reflectrnthe ie\s of The Roeklord Institute or of itsrndirectors, fhisolicited manuscripts cannot bernrelnrned unless acconi])anied b’ a self-addressedrnstamped emelope.rnChroniclesrnVol. 2S, No. 8 .’Vi-^usl 2001rni’riiilwl III (111.’ Uiiilr.l Slates of .MiicntarnPOLEMICS & EXCHANGESrnOn the Managerial StaternIn “The Proletarian Weapon” {Principalitiesrn& J^owers, May), Sanuiel Francis hasrnrestated his theon,- that we are living “in arnsociet}’ that is between civilizations,” thernold one being “bourgeois, Western, andrngcnerallv Christian” and the new onern”managerial, non-Western . . . egalitarian.”rnWlien he first said this, I thought he wasrnbeing ironic, but apparently he wants us torntake him seriously. I must demur.rnAs Pitirim Sorokin pointed out in ThernCrisis of Our Age, great civilizations cannotrnsurvive without a considerable measurernof “ideational” content —widelyrnshared religious beliefs that strike deeprninto the soid of man. To use C.S. Lewis’srnterms, the spiritual underpinnings of socieh’rnmust be “thick,” not “clear”—theyrnmust acknowledge blood ties, the powerrnof the numinous, a dark mystery at therncore of human life, and so on. I’m notrnsure whom Dr. Francis would count asrnmembers of the managerial elite, but Irndare say that the’ look with scorn on anythingrnthick. Those who arc “rahonalist”rnand “secularist” woidd probably like torndo without religion altogether, but if theyrnmust have it, let it be clear, rational, evenrnscientific — something modern peoplerncan believe in. But such an effort isrndoomed to fail. Aristotle’s Ethics, beingrnclear, did not work like leaven to transformrna whole civilization; the Gospel, beingrnthick, did.rn— Geoffrey RommelrnBerw^’n, ILrnDr. Francis Replies:rnIt is always bracing to be criheized for notrnsaying that which you have actually said,rnbut which the critic has contrived to missrnentirely. In the first place, Mr. Rommelrnmight care to consult more than the onernor tvo columns of mine that he appearsrnto have seen. If he does, he will find thatrndie discussion of “managerial societ)'” inrn”The Proletarian Weapon” was not merc-rn1′ the second time I have brought up thernsubject. As readers oiChronicles and otherrnpublications for which I have writtenrnknow, I have been discussing the implicationsrnof James Burnham’s theon,’ of thernmanagerial revolution for some 20 yearsrnnow, and it is clear that Mr. Rommelrnwould profit from more exposure to thernlarger body of my work.rnMoreover, one of the more recent occasionsrnon which I discussed the subjectrnwas in my Principalities & Powers columnrnin the November 2000 issue, entitledrn”Are We Decadent?” There, I notedrnthat “managerial civilization” exhibitsrnthe ver)’ flaws that Mr. Rommel accusesrnme of ignoring and that it is problematicrnwhether it can ever overcome these flaws.rn”A civilization that can think of no betterrnjustification of itself than dishwashersrnand higher living standards can hardly berncalled a civilization at all,” I wrote, inrncommenting on the ver)’ lack of “thickness”rnthat Mr. Rommel is so brcafliless torntell us about.rnOn Deep EcologyrnJust what does Chilton Williamson, Jr.,rnyour “environmental” thinker, believe?rnIn “Now Hear This!!!” {The HundredthrnMeridian, May), he claims that the federalrngovernment wants to “remove the existingrnrural population from the land.” Thatrnis an ouflandish remark. Mr. Williamsonrnsays that “nearly all environmentalists arerneffectively Deep Ecologists now . . . “rnWrong again. Most of them are so shallowrnthat thev do little more than hunt andrnfish, drive ATVs and snowmobiles, whilerncalling themselves “environmentalists.”rnContrar)’ to Mr, Williamson’s arguments,rnthe real war on tiie West is being sponsoredrnby die recreational-vehicle industr)’,rnfive-dollar-per-aerc land-grab miningrncompanies, a timber industry that harvestsrntimber below cost, and immigrants—rnillegal and legal —who have not thernslightest notion of how a healthy nationrncan hold itself together.rnMr. Williamson supports Gale Nortonrnbecause she is a clone of James Watt andrncomplains flrat his gas bill is too high becausernthe environmentalists were “talkingrnwitii rocks, trees, grizzly bears, and cloudsrn. . . ” Wliat is this supposed to mean?rnSo that there will be elk in the forestsrnfor Mr. Williamson to gun down witii hisrnrifle and for Indian tribes to attack with arnfleet of ATVs and snowmobiles, many ofrnus in the environmental wars have spentrn4/CHRONICfESrnrnrn