vol_10_no_8

Friedan's Friendlier Feminism

by Tony Ghecea Betty Friedan was in town on Monday, December 9, 1991, to try to rekindle the fire of Ann Arbor's feminist past.

Bearing a new set of goals for the women's movement and a message for American mail'S, Friedan set the stage for her speech by depicting women today as "facing a profound male backlash." " Women,," Friedan said, "have grown up to believe they are equal." But Friedan claimed that the "righlo;" secured by the feminist movement are "endangered," in part because women "have taken them for granted."Friedan additionally pointed to the Reagan/Bush era as one of the main culprits behind this supposed erosion of women's rights.

"During a dozen years of Reagan and Bush, code words like' quota,' ' liberal,' 'affirmative action,' and 'feminism' have become dirty words .. .The implication has been that women should go back home," she said.

Although Friedan blamed the White House for not enforcing laws designed to maintain the rights of women, however, she did not explicitly address what these laws were and how the R'eagan and Bush administrations had failed to enforce them Friedan fingered a "pornographic wave" ushered in by "blue jean ads" which "reduce women to passive sex objects" as another contributor to the contemporary backlash against women.

Her estimate of popular culture's sexism contrasted sharply with what she then had to say about pornography, however.

When asked abouther opinion of the anti-pornography laws designed by UM law Professor Catharine MacKinnon, she answered "1 disagree with them. I think censorship is dangerous in any way, shape, or form." Friedan went on to say that most forms of pornography (save for "the kind that shows violence against women and children") have a "praiseworthy, erotic value."

Friedan's stance on pornography appeared to reveal an underlying contradiction in her logiC. She completely opposed the sexism which so deeply pervades the advertising world. But by embracing the sanctity of pornography, a medium which possesses a greater abil-

ity to warp male attitudes about women than the simple innuendos in a Jordache commercial, she seemed willing to defend a type of printed media which clearly perpetuates the "objectification of women."

Friedan next turned her attention to the aftermath of the Clarence Thomas confirmation hearings. PraiSing Anita Hill as "an eminently serious, qualified black woman [who] ha~ !he guts to say .; "

UI humbly repent and beg your forgiveness." what had never been said before," Friedan followed the accepted feminist line of portraying Thomas first as guilty until proven innocent, and then as guilty even after being acquitted .

To do this, she had to deny the fact that almost no evidence existed to prove Thomas' guilt. Instead of using this opportunity to address the serious problems involved in creating a fair trial for both the accuser and the accused in cases of rape and sexual harassment, Friedan contented herself by attacking the supposed "male blind spot" shown by Thomas and an insensitive male Congressional tribunal that "just didn' t get it."

Friedan highlighted the fact that the Thomas hearings accentuated the need to recognize and remedy sexual harassment. She then went on to discount the fact that by a two to one ratio both men and women nationwide felt that Clarence Thomas was most likely innocent of Hill's

accusation. "I've never seen women as angry as when Hill made her sexual harassment charge," said Friedan. Perhaps Betty had best have a talk with the people at Gallup.

Friedan next launched into a tirade about the "wimp Democrats" that had stood by " silently" while "Bush's RepUblicln hatchet-men ...attempted to discredit HilL" This portrayal of the Democrats' weakness contrasted sharply with Friedan's depiction of former Democratic presidential candidate Michael Dukakis trying to be "as macho as the Republicans" and thereby losing the 1988 election.

Even after one sifts through Friedan's stereotypical male catchphrases, one has to wonder how any Democrat (or any man, for that matter) could ever live up to her expectations. To summarize her criticism, she is saying, in effect, "Don't try to be strong, like Dukakis, but don't be too weak, like Joe Biden." Oh joy, the musings of a feminist/Democratic caucus.

Friedan, of course, threw in a couple of obligatory comments on abortion: "[A]s basic as any right," "a basic constitutional right," and an "all-important right," to name a few. While abortion is far too large of an issue to deal with here, suffice it to say that Friedan, like many other feminists, paints it out to be much more crucial to the feminist cause than it is. As Susan Gibbs of Feminists for Life wrote in the Detroit News, "A true feminist approach would [include] ... [f]ighting for financial and economic rights of women ... Accepting abortion .. .is not the answer."

Friedan eventually got around to discussing the goals of feminism. Extending her "male blind spot" metaphor to the realm of public policy, she made it clear that feminism needs to redefine its goals: "Sexual issues divert attention away from the goal of economic empowennenLWe need to tell this country's politicians that things like parental leave bills, childcare bills, and health-care bills should be at the top of their list of priorities."

Friedan went on to establish the importance of placing both America and American women on solid financial

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ground. When she finally steered d ear of issues which evoke deep political, sexual, and moral conflicts, and concentrated on finding a common ground on which many people could agree, her message proved to be quite appealing.

Friedan ended her speech by emphasizing the need for "everyone" to work together to tackle domestic issues.

"What used to be 'women's issu es' or ' domestic issues' are everyone's issues now ... If we don' t start addressing these issues soon, we won't have much of a system left to reform." In light of the many concerns which will surely highIigbt-the1992 presidential race, this was timely comment indeed.

While Friedan often seemed to get caught up with preaching her own views on controversial issues, the answers to which are far more complicated than one might be led to believe by the content of her speech alone, the cumulative effect of her speech was positive. In closing, Friedan reiterated, "1 don't think it's women against men." If that is indeed the case, then it's time to get down to business.

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Tony Ghecea is a junior in English and a staff writer for the Review.

-INSIDE Columbus 1992

4

Greed: Pro/Con

6

Interview: David Horowitz

8

1991's Top 20

14

Crusty's Corner

16

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THE MICHIGAN REVIEW

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January 8, 1992

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Serpent's Tooth The ironically-named Jane Poynter of Biosphere II may have lost the tip of her finger only days after entering her agrowonderland, but worse things have since happened to her clan of l"Co-freaks. Carbon dioxide levels have steadily risen since September 26, when the group's $100 million funhouse was sealed, and are now at seven or eight times the current levels in the earth's atmosphere. In early December, the green crusaders pumped 600,000 cubic feet of air into the complex. Project officials, however, claim that this does not violate the experimenf s pledge to forbid outside interference.

Sticks and stones may break Catherine MacKinnon's bones, but MANy words really, really MANage to piss her off.

The Politically Correct Big Ten has announced its name changes and opening day schedules for the next football season: the Illinois Native Americans will visit the Wisconsin Burrowing Carnivorous Mammals, the Northwestern Undomesticated Felines will play the Ohio State Trees or Shrubs of the Genus Aesculus, and the Indiana Natives of Indiana will travel to the home of the Iowa Alan Aldas. The most important match-ups will probably be the Mionesota Ground Squirrels Touched by Midas versus the Michigan State Winners of the Peloponnesitm War and the Purdue Heavy Metal 'Hem Craftspersons against the Michigan Carcajou. The Penn State Large Cats from a Valley in Peonsylvania will be idle.

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We've all heard about Stanford's marching band being suspended for insensitivity to the spotted owl during the halftime show of a football game at the University of Oregon, but similar pressures appear to be affecting bands across this nation, according to the Wall Street Journal. The University of Virginia band was booed by fans at Tennessee for an Elvis parody; Yale' s band was dubbed "morally repugnant and indecent" by an army official who would not let the band take the field at West Point and perform a show devoted to what it called "subversives," such as Redbook magazine, the Cincinnati Reds, the Red Cross, and Red Skelton.

Our favorite performance, however, goes to Columbia's band, which created a bridge on the field at Harvard Stadium this season and drove a car off of it in a spoof on the honorable Senator Ted Kennedy. V'{~reby invite all band's visiting Michigan Stadium next seast'ln to critique Sen'J,tor Don Riegle's impeccable handling of the banking crisis.

MICHIGAN REVIEW "We are the Establishment"

Julie Steiner, the former iron lady of SAP AC, offered this epitaph to her lessthan-glorious reign: "It's time for me to do some other things and relax, and see what other mischief I can create." So that's how she regards SAP AC? Lovely.

The Campus Affairs Journal of the University of Michigan Editor-in-Chief.. ............... Adam DeVore

According to the 1988 edition of Webster's Collegiate Thesaurus, some proper synonyms for the word "reactionist" are "white" and "ultraconservative." We've heard that racists wrote the dictionary, but we did not realize their influence pervaded all levels of lexicography .

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To the tune of "Rudolph, the Red-Nosed Reindeer": "You know Kerry and Tsongas and Bush and Clinton/ Wilder and Brown and Buchanan and Harkin/ But do you recall, the most famous candidate of all?/ David, the white hood Nazi..."

!fyou listen carefully to Michael Jackson's new song "Black or White," and try to decipher what he says between asthma attacks, you'll notice this line: "You can be my baby if you can tell if I am black or white." As.."imilationism, anyone?

MIster Boffo by Joe Martin vnD ~'r 8E:. . GeAPOAllNb I'Hl'? YEAR . . i-1E Cot.X..ONT GEl 'THE Co:JI2.'SES !-IE:.

Publisher ........ ............. Karen S. Brinkman Executive Editor..... ..................... Jeff Muir Contributing Editor...............,lay McNeill Contributing Editor ........ David J. Powell Contributing Editor .......... .5tacey Walker Assistant Editor.. .. ............. Ryan Boeskool Assistant Editor ..... ....... Peter Daugavietis Assistant Editor...................... .. Corey Hill Assistant Editor....... ....Kishore Jayabalan

While sharpening our Latin skills, we noticed that one of the dictionary definitions of diuersitas is "contradiction." Okay, maybe not all levels...

Music Editor,..........................Chris Peters literary Editor....... ,........Adam Garagiola Production Manager............. .. .... Andrew Bockelman Production Manager...... .Tracy Robinson Business Manager...................Chet Zarko

Q: Why is the Boston Harbor so polluted?

A: Because of the chemicals floating around the state.

Q: Why do the citizens of Massachusetts elect boneheads like Ted "In the Drink" Kennedy and Michael " Where am I Now?" Dukakis?

A: Same reason.

MTS Meister........................ Brian Schefke MTS Meister.........................Doug Thiese Personnel Manager................Beth Martin Staff Eddie Amer, Chris Bair, Mike Beidler, David Boettger, Mister Boffo, Kevin M. Bowen, Michele Brogley, Chris Ooutier, Joe Coletti, Brian Cook, P. J. Danhoff, Tim Darr, Keith Edwards, Athena Foley, Tony Ghecea, john Gnod,tke, jonathan R. Goodman, Mike Hewitt. Nicholas Hoffman, Nate Jamison, Ken Johnston, Mary the Cat, Kirsten McCarrel, Peter Miskech, Bud Muncher, Crusty Muncher, Mitch Rohde, Michael Skinner, Dan Spillane, Jay Sprout, Kenneth W. Staley, Perry Tho mpson, jim Waldecker, Tony Woodlief.

Do you think that the existence of homeless folks is largely due to the Governor Engler's cold-hearted cutting of the public dole and Michigan's lack of statesubsidized low-income housing, and not the laziness of the homeless? Well then, consider his remark about the "Englerville" that has sprung up on the Capitol's lawn, as recently reported in the Detroit News: "You got one guy over there in the tent who has a job waiting for him at $4.50 (per hour), but he says 'I'm worth more than that. I'm worth $10. He's not homeless. He's on strike."

There's a concept called 'working your way up in the world,' buddy. Learn it.

Bardzo Editor.................... Brian Jendryka Editor-at-large .................... John J. Miller Publisher Emeritus ............ Mark O. Stern Editor Emeritus ...................Marc Selinger

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The Michigan Review is an independent, nonprofi t, student-run journal at the University of Michigan. We are not affiliated with any political party, Unsigned editorials represent the opinion of the editorial board . Signed articles represent the opinions of the author and not necessarily those of the Review. We welcome letters and articles and encourage comments about the journal and issues discussed in it. Our address is: 911 North University Avenue Suite One Ann Arbor, MI 48109-1265 Tel. (3D) 662-1909 FAX (313) 936-2505 Copyright 1992

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THE MICHIGAN REVIEW

January 8, 1992

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Roving Photographer If you were a textbook, what kind of textbook would you be?

by Mitch Rohde

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Jun Pangilinar, LSA Sophomore (spent $250 on books this term): I'd be fu II of wonderfully politically correct s tatements.

Ken Carter, Graduate student in psychology (spent $29.9§·on books this term so far): I would be tremendously expensive.

Cam Schwarz, Engineering Sophomore (spent between $150-$200 on books this term so far): I'd have a lot of pictures in

Steve Lawrence, Graduate student in astronomy (spent $39.95 on books this term so far): I think 1'd have one of these " used" stickers on me.

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Missy Goveia, LSA Senior (who claims to borrow books): I'd be easy reading.

Jamie Moser, Nursing Senior (spent $300 on books this term so far): I' d be highlighted .

MREV:Forum has lnoved!

We are happy to announce that the Michigall Review's MTS computer conference is now accessible to the entire university community on MTS-UM. All Student Request Account and other CCID's have been moved from UB to UM. To join the thriving debate, signon to UM at the Which Host? prompt and type $so MREV:Forum at the:; prompt.

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The Michigan Review With your tax-deductible donation of $20 or more, you'll receive a one-year subscription to the campus affairs journal of the University of Michigan.

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From Suite One: Editorials

Cultural Conflicts Concerning Cotl:i mbus The culture wars over the quincentennial anniversary of Columbus' first famous voyage have been in progress for some time now. Should Columbus be remembered as a brave explorer or as a proto-imperialist? The latest battle in this debate occurred last week during the Rose Bowl parade, which featured a lineal descendent of Christopher Columbus as marshall. Complaints prompted the appointment of Rep. Ben Nighthorse Campbell (D-Colorado), the only American Indian in Congress, as a co-marshall of the parade. Events related to the anniversary are scheduled throughout the year, and include the Summer Olympics in Barcelona, a world's fair in Seville, and a multi-million dollar effort by the Spanish government to promote Spain and Hispanic culture in Europe, Latin America, and the United States. The controversy over Columbus and his legacy will only intensify as we approach Columbus Day 1992 on October 12.

First let's get some facts straight: in 1492 Columbus sailed the ocean blue and discovered the Americas. The verb "discovered" is chosen with care here, for the very nature of what happened half a millennium ago is now being questioned by historical revisionists. No one intends to deny that indigenous peoples already populated our continent or that individuals like Leif Ericson beat Columbus to the task. Instead, it affirms that what happened in 1492 was in fact a discovery for the Italian sailing under a Spanish flag and that his discovery marks an undeniably important turning pOint in world history.

The revisionists would create a false picture of life in the Americas circa 1491.

They would have us believe that quasisocialist groups lived in tranquil pagan harmony with each other and, of course, the environment. The excesses of this academic movement are perhaps best captured in the title of Kirkpatrick Sale's tendentious tome, The Conquest of Paradise. Only when Columbus led his hordes of evil white men upon this utopia did things go astray. Whatever Columbus' personal views - or maybe betause of some of them - he has become a scapegoat for everything bad about the last sOO years. Forgotten are the ideals of democracy, human rights, and civil liberties, which are the product of Western civilization - the thing that the revisionists would have Columbus symbolize. Columbus himself did not embody these virtuesindeed, nobody living in 1492 could have, for they have been constantly developing - but the revisionists are determined to ostracize and condemn any historical figure who does not pass their modem day political litmus test.

The contemporary smear campaign actually parallels one that occurred much closer to Columbus' age. The Black Legend, or La Leyemta Negra, has it that the Spanish conquistadors and missionaries were bloodthirsty warmongers who tortured and then killed almost every living creature they encountered . Although these folks were hardly flower children, they became victims of propaganda manufactured by Spain's enemies, like the English, French, and Dutch. What made these criticisms even possible was the remarkable candor that Spanish monarchs demanded in their colonial representatives' reports. Atrocities were related in some detail, not because the Spaniards were early fans of the slasher genre, but rather because they wanted an accurate portrayal of life across the ocean. Much of this information entered the public domain, and the Spanish empire was vilified to an inaccurate and unreasonable degree. For years Spain has tried to contend with a soiled national image. In 1898, for example, an American edition of Bartolome de Las Casas' infamous A Brief Account of the Destruction of the Indies was published to increase public support for the Spanish-American War. Ironically, had the Spaniards suppressed these report", today's critics would have significantly less ammunition to use against I

All unsigned editorials represent the opinion of the Michigan Review editorial board.

them. Moreover, the critics attack the Spanish for being insufficiently modem ~ their world view, yet do not hesitate to use the results of a somewhat modern' ch~~denstic of the Spaniards as weapons suited to their own ends. In short, the revisionists use against Spain what might be considered a virtue.

Some historians argue that Columbus was simply a bad person and that he does not deserve the enormous praise that has been heaped upon him. These claims are somewhat correct in what they imply: that the actual Columbus was different from the Columbus who we celebrate in commemorative parades. A conventional portrait of Columbus is of a Renaissance Man who, through scientific investigation,determined that the world was round. Persistence and bravery proved him correct, despite ma&<;eS of unbelievers. This view makes for a good yam, but it is largely false. Mosteducated people in Columbus' day knew that the world was round; Columbus faced stiff opposition to his westward voyage proposals because critics thought he had severly und erestimated the earth' 5 circumference.

(In fact; he had. This explains why he thought he had reached Asia when he had really traveled only about one-:.thitd of the necessary distance.) Columbus was actually more of a Christian mystic than an enlightened empiricist. He had worked out complicated arithmatics for determing the day on which the world would end, and hoped that the commercial profits would fund a military expedition to liber.. -ate' Jerusalem from the Arabs. Like Copernicus, Columbus stumbled upon something important despite religious blinders. Still, some contemporary historians would chastise him for insensitivity shown toward the peoples he encountered.

True enough, but at worst he is then guilty of not rising above the standards of his age, for not being a 15th century Ubermensch. Years from now, the same might be said of these historians.

Much of the Columbus debate surrounds matters of cultural relativism. What right did the evil white male imperialists have to invade the Americas and ruthlessly slaughter its native populations? Well, none. What is often implicit in such posturing, however, is that the peoples of Europe had nothing at all positive to offer. Moreover, the relativists ask, how can anybody possibly judge one culture against another? Such an assertion. however, makes any sort of judgement impossible. By their standard, one cannot coherently argue that a culture of evil white male imperialism is any worse than life on a free-loving commune of bearded hippies or, more relevantly, amongst those heart-wrenching Aztecs. Our age can easily and righteously point to the moral shortcomings of Europe in the 15th and 16th centuries, but the ghost of Columbus would probably gaze in moral horror at 20th century American secular values. Yet without an explicit denial of relativism, and an acceptance that aspects of one culture can be considered better or more valuable than those of another, such assessments become impOSSible.

Perhaps the greatest tragedy of the Columbus debate is that so few can participate in it. A 1989 survey sponsored by the National Endowment for the Humanities and conducted by the Gallup Organization, determined that a full 25 percent of American college seniors could not identify the time period in which Columbus first landed in the Western hemisphere, given a choice of four possibilities. So, while our academic intelligentsia bickers and worries about whether Columbus was nice to a few members of a radically different culture, a surprising number of young people do not even know who the man was, let alone understand the more complicated issues arising from historical era or cultural relativism.

We obviously cannot change the objective historical reality of the last 500 years.

Much of it we might not even want to change. Let us not be distracted, however, by the pleadings of special interest groups which would have us believe that American society is an essentially immoral venture. Theirs is a contemporary agenda, although it depends upon the skillful manipulation of the past. . ii

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January 8, 1992

THE MICHIGAN REVIEW

The Life of Ryan

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Sucks to be Me

by Ryan Boeskool But wait, where's Muir? While Jeff is one more option. I walked over to the working hard on his bid to become an basement of Angell where they post all of Ann Arbor city council member, I have the open and closed classes on the walls. the dubious honor of filling in once in a I got there and started scoping out my while. As you read this, you are probably classes. To my utter surprise, there were waiting to meet your new prof or maybe classes galore! Political science, history, skipping that first discussion section communication, nuclear....chemo-radon some T As actually bother conducting. theory - everything I ever wanted!

Enjoy your precious little schedule My vision of a golden schedule while I undergo round-the....dock acamelted before my eyes when I read the demic counseling in a desperate attempt date of the printout; I discovered that it to put my shattered schedule into some was more than a week old. The numbers semblance of decency. You truly had to might as well have been Egyptian hierohave been a freshman with the last posglyphiCS for all the good they would do sible CRISP date to understand my me. I can't honestly say that the U-M trauma. doesn't help students make their schedWhen people heard my schedule ules, because everyone else I know used date, they kept giving the same response: the system to get the classes they wanted.

"Sucks to be you." I didn't understand.

I can say, however,ftat I was shafted How bad could it pOSSibly be? Sure, I worse than Gorbadlev. knew I wouldn't get the Sacred SchedNonetheless, it was time to face the ule, Tuesday through Thursday only, facts. David Duke has'a better chance at with no morning classes, but little did I winning a primary than I do at getting any classes I want. The U-M had left me know how slim the pickings would be after 35,000 people had already finished. with no other recourse. I immediately Talk about being picked last for the footcalled one of those late night 1-900-PSYball team at recess.

CHIC numbers. It's five bucks per minute, Between classes I strolled over to but hey, it's worth it. These people, after AngeU Hall to make an appointment with all, can see into the future. my trustworthy counselor. The al- ~ I gave her my zodiac sign, my ways-chipper receptionist ~ roommate's Visa number, said that the earlie.i I could and infonned her of my pre.M ... see my counselor was dicament. After she told W Friday at 9:00 am. This me about the arrangewas awful because 1) . ment of the planets, I Friday was the one I .!if> asked her what it all day I got to sleep in, meant. She replied, and 2) I had to CRISP "Sucks to be you."

All I could do is wait. Coming up with a solid schedule for the 1992 winter term was as a counselor anyway, if you pointless as coming up with know what classes you· want. a solid Democratic presidential The ever-accommodating University candidate. So Friday morning I popped of Michigan administration has provided some Vivarin, grabbed my time schedule students with CRlSP-INFO, a computer book, and put a bomb in my backpack in program that allows students to find out case I had to hold the place hostage to get the present status of all classes. It tells my mandatory English class out ofthe you what times slots are still available way before my junior year. (Just kidding and how many spots are left Being comabout the Vivarin.) puter illiterate, I had an engineering I showed up at Angell Hall around friend accompany me to the ResComp 8:15. To my dismay, I found people strewn center. Upon entering, the head comeverywhere. They were crying allover puter honcho was announcing that their mangled time schedule books.

CRISP-INFO had crashed. I asked my Amidst all of this, some poor schier was friend what that meant, and she replied, looking at the postings, gleefully filling "Sucks to be you." For the amount of out his fonn. I pointed to the date and the money we dish out in tuition, one would kid went shrieking out the door while ripping his form to shreds. It was comhypothesize that t~ school doesn't buy two-bit programs from the K-Mart techforting to know I wouldn't be the only nology department that "crash." one in therapy after this was over.

With thi~ minor setback, I still had To say the least, I was a bit disturbed

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when I saw the I.D. monitor handing out pencils and additional fonns. After making a couple hundred versions of schedules that would make Mr. Rubic proud, I sat next to my schedule computer consultant. One after another, she plugged in my classes, and all that came out were the words "NOT ACCEPTED." I kept praying "You're on Candid Camera!!!" would appear on the screen, Dom Deluise would squeeze through the door and slap me on the back, and we would all have a good laugh about it. Unfortunately, it looked as if I would have to major in women's studies and fulfill my race and ethnicity requirement this se-

mester. In addition to the fact that I now have four 8:00 a.m. classes and one 9:00 a.m. class, I just committed schedule suicide.

Call me irrational, but I think that for $2,000 I should be able to choose the classes I want, when I want. I still have no idea what CRlSP really stands for, but after this catastrophe, for me it means Classes Ryan Is Stuck Paying for.

Ryan Boeskool is a freshman in LSA and an assistant editor for the Review.

He has won the cow chip throwing state championships, high school division, for the last three years in a row.

J

Letters to the Editor Imagine a Campus Without the Review

Review Misrepresents Psychotics I would like to draw your readers' attention to a terribly cruel stereotype displayed, I hope in ignorance, by Jeff Muir in his December 4 "But Wait, There's Muir" column. He is discussing a request by a feminist group at Bringham Young University to institute a curfew for men to protect women from rapists. In refuting this suggestion Muir says, "Let's take a journey into the mind of a psychotic rapist (that's psychotiC, not psychological) .. ." Vnless Jeff Muir has experienced a psychotic episode himself, he wouldn't have the slightest notion of what goes on in the mind of someone in psychosis. The equation of psychosis with violence is the cruelest of stereotypes. Most people with a psychotic illness are not violent.

Their thought processes are so confused by the illness that they aren't able to carry on the reasoning fantasized by Muir for his "psychotic rapist."

Psychosis robs its victims of personality and fills him or her with fear and t~rrifying hallucinations. Most people with a psychotic illness are unable to function independently, much less plan a violent crime. The stigma of mental illness makes it-even harder for them to make their way and have a decent life.

I hope Mr. Muir never experiences psychosis, which usually appears in early adulthood in people who had been perfectly normal. This illness is devastating to the victim and to those who Iiverum or her. Please do not continue to reinforce his idea that psychosis equals violence.

Donna Estabrook

. ,,'N'onnally, when I open the Michigan Revie-UJ and read "Serpent's Tooth," I am fairly amused. Although I do not agree with most of the political ideas there, I do see the comic value. However, in reading the November 20 "Serpent's Tooth," I was angered and not even slightly amused . In one of your "blurbs," the author suggested making balloons statin& "Imagine: A World Without Psychological Rape," and then one implementing "Imagine: A Campus Without SAP AC" After reading that, I wondered if the author and the Review understood what it was they were suggesting. It makes one think that you think the campus would be better off without a Sexual Assault Prevention and Awareness Center.

As a woman and a possible rape victim (my chance is one out of three), I sarcastically thank you for you suggestion. It makes me feel good to know that you see no positive value in SAPAC Al so, I wonder if it's that you see no positive value in SAPAC, or you have differences in opinion with the people who run SAP AC If the Review has problems with those people, as in Julie Steiner, whom you feel free to critique at all times, critique them and try to realize that the organization goes beyond them.

Rape takes away a person's dignity and self-worth. SAP AC tries to help them get those things they've lost back. I can see how the campus would be better off without survivors finding their dignity and self-worth. I'm simply asking you to

Letters Continued em Page 13

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THE MICHIGAN REVIEW

6

Forum: Is Greed Evil?

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hy Gordon Gekko Was Wrong

by Joe Coletti

everyone to prosper, or at least avoid motivated by greed acts solely to imstarvation. prove his standing at the present time.

He does not work to create a bigger pie Self-interest, not greed, helps companies retain employees and create from which all can partake, rather he seeks to enlarge his share now. The sole wealth. Greed encourages management to take large pay raises even when the motivating factor for a greedy man is company suffers a loss and employees summed up in the phrase, "Whoever dies with the most toys wins." There is must be laid off. Such greedy behavior may have no immediate effect, but over no sense of charity, no reason to help time the message such pay raises convey others unless they are willing to pay. to employees discourages productivity.

It is not greed that motivates people The bosses get raises no matter what, yet to join the Peace Corps. Greed is not the those who actually produce the goods reason that Teach for America, a prosold are laid off if profits fall greatly. If gram that sends college graduates to inner cities and remote areas to teach you find this unjust, then you are opposed to greed. Self-interested bosses grade school and high school, has been would realize that their vitality is tied to if!undated with applications. It is not that of their firm; they would forgo a pay greed that feeds the hungry in soup raise in the short run in order to anow for kitchens, clothes poor children in wina stable enterprisej.nthe long run. Truly ter, or provides the homeless with beds , / greedy managin shelters. A desire to help those in ers, however, trouble or less fortunate than ourselves would hastily and to prOVide for the future is what encourages these activities. snatch up evAll of these programs, moreover,/ .. ery available penny, even if are initiated and guided to fruition by it hurt the finn. the seemingly generous person's selfinterest. The person performing these A Webster's Dicdeeds may do so because he was taught genuine act of tionary . that it is proper to act charitably, in which self-interest in When lean economic case he is fulfilling an obligation; he may Adam Smith do so because he feels that he could sometimes would wrote of the inday be on the receiving side; or he may be a voluntary visible hand do so because he simply wants to help. In pay cut. If leading humembers of any event, by helping others in his comman interacthe managemunity, this person has subsequently pro"This wine would cost my servants tions in the ment abide by moted his own well-being. a year in pay!" market place Compare the aforementioned activithis simple toward the good, it was self-interest, not rule, then blue-collar laborers will not ties with the various entitlements based greed, that was the hand's guiding force. feel resentment and the company will in greed. The strict job classifications of This important distinction may seem probably survive. When profitability inunions are born of greed and they make merely to split hairs, but it makes the creases, salaries can again rise. The emit impossible for people on assembly lines difference between an efficient system ployees would have acted in their own to work as a unit. The resultant lowering and a dysfunctional one. Adam Smith's self-interest in a way that simple greed of quality and sales eventually leads to view of self-interest· was that when a cannot allow. unemployment for those whom the job person helps himself, he helps the comFollowing classifications munity to which he belongs. In this way, this logic, it bewere intended self-interest promotes trust while greed comes clear that to help. All this promotes duplicity. The problem of the self-interest is happens while commons iUustrates this point quite well. g row t h- or i the union repThe problem of the commons would ented and that resen tat ives affect a group of herders who share a greed, although gain power and common grazing land for their cattle. it does not actumoney to satiWould a rancher acting in complete selfally promote ate their greed. interest, for example, increase the numstagnation, does The enber of cows he puts on the common land little to prevent tire ideology of up to a point where there are so many it. The self-in"victim concows that the pasture is destroyed? No, terested person sciousness" esbecause this would overuse the land. works to impoused by the This example mistakes greed for selfprove society, left-Wing is interest. If each rancher truly acted in his for by so doing based in greed own self-interest he would work with UOkay, Louie, tell that penny-pinching he improves and self-absothe other herdsmen to ensure the maintedebtor that I am raising the interest rate things for himlution without nance of the pasture, thereby allowing 15%. If he objects, break his knees." self. The man penance. The

Greed sucks. Greed siphons funds out of companies and into the pockets of board members. Greed encourages Congressmen to approve pay raises for themselves when taxpayers are not looking.

Greed divides and destroys. Greed weakens businesses and men. Greed, in all its manifestations, has corrupted society and wrought havoc. And greed, if it is allowed to run rampant, will tear asunder that magnificent endeavor that began over two centuries ago: the United States of America.

Such is the true nature of greed: corruption, dissolution, and pillage. Those who suggest otherwise are either confused in their choice of terms or confused in their state of mind. To suggest that greed is good is to reject everything upon which society is based. Greed, properly understood, is "excessive desire, espeCially for money" according to

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"bubble economy" of money obtained through manipulating currencies and futures options - rights bought for the possibility of owning a stock, bond, etc., at a later date - hailed by the right is also based in greed.

"Victim concsiousness" is analyzed in Takeo Doi's Anatomy of Dependence and in Tom Wolfe's Bonfire of the Vanities .

Wolfe's book also takes on the "bubble economy." Both authors recognized that rights come with responsibilities. Greed has nothing to say on that score, except "Me, everything. Responsibility, zero."

Ideas have consequences, and the consequences of greed are such that a society cannot survive long with greed as its guiding prinCiple.

Joe Coletti is a junior in Asian studies and a staff writer for the Review. He did not receive any sort of financial compensation for this article. ......::.;,..;;...'~-'- - - - - - - - - - - -

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Review Forum

THE MICHIGAN REVIEW.

7

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Rampant Greed: the Unknown Ideal Carey Brian Meador.

should lie. Sam Walton could feel guilty Let me make that perfectly clear.

Excrement. The pro~r reasoning is Greed is what motivates each and every that Sam has a great deal of money and for his success. John Waits should feel villan I have enumerated. Why would

by God he oughtta share it. guilty for his middle-echelon position at anyone care to promote his interests as Consider my friend John Waits. John McDonald's. You should feel guilty for finished high school, but just barely. He attending this excellent school. best he can? He has desires. Material desires, deSires for more nerosto has worked at McDonald's for four years If you have lived for yourself - if survive, even. His excelfences he regards now. I spoke with him just last week. you have ascribed value to your vitality and acted as if your continued healthy "You want fries with that?" as his virtue, the earthly manifestation of which is, for producers, material accuexistence were an end in itselft - then "John! How are you doing?" hang your head in shame! When Dr. mulation. Therein lies the evil. Greed is "Oh, hi." wanting too much - one should earn Hornback announces the results of his I smiled. He was the same old John. but a subsistence wage, and be thankful anti-greed essay contest on January 8, His hair was greasy; acne graced his face. tremble! You are sinners in the hands of for that.

His mouth hung open, as though to catch Acting selfishly - with a coldflies. "So, John, has anything changed?" an angry professor! hearted eye to your own interests alone Think how much nicer the world He explained his volunteer work for the Homeless Action Committee, his would be if greedy men were stopped . - there's the evil. Other people - even people you don't know - hold an absoIsaac Newton's fame-seeking would donations to the Crippled Children's lute and irrevocable claim over your life, have been properly stopped by antiFund, and his adoptions of unwanted liberty, and indeed your existence - in greed counselling. Robert Fulton would pets. have been a volunteer fireman instead of short, your productivity. You are all Now, you may think that John Waits Friends, those are holy words. Most slaves to each other. Nothing you create inventing the steamboat. Getty's oil empeople think of greed as thievery. They is a selfless person. S~,Q..I1,·this is not the is yours - it is everyone's. And if you pir'e wou~d have been cut short by punicase. John recently applied for, and reimagine people who rape, pillage, and think that you own your own life, and if tive taxes and a jail term. Detroit could plunder and devour all the wealth they ceived, the position of Assistant Manyou run it, as you say, in your self-interhave been the City ofTrees if it were not can. ager. With the pOSition came a $.30 per est, th,e.a-you have acted upon the motive for Henry Ford.

But greed is more than that. Dr. hour wage increase which John spent of'greed. Without greed there can be no Greed has transformed America into Hornback is not concerned with the theft entirely on himself. self-interest an industrial giant, replete with computof property. No, he is concerned with Why should he get the extra money?

Repent! Abhor yourself! Give up your ers, 30 minute pizzas, fax machines, regreed, with selfishness.

Just because a person is more experihopes, your dreams, your ambitions. Cast mote control televisions, automobiles, His reasoning is complex. It is far too enced does not mean.that he should be away your self-worth. Squelch the fire of and bug zappers.

Nature has been bullcomplex for your pitiful mind to compreable to take bread from his brother's individualism within you, and you will dozed to oblivion to build fainily houses, hend. To accornodate our feeble brains, mouth, The stakes are different but the have killed your greed. grocery stores, and schools.

I'll begin today's serprinciple is the Thank you, Dr. Hornback, for your Greed is the source of these modem mon with some exsame. John has exenlightened ways.

I will emulate by selfevils. People say they are merely acting amples. tra money and by as should you, friend. immolation in their own interest, as if that were an Sam Walton is God, he oughtta excuse. But have they not gone too far? oneofthericheslmen share it.

Do they not want too much? We cannot in the United States.

So, are you Carey Brian Meadors is a former publeave it to them to decide: we, as a collecSince he first founded guilty of the sin of lisher of the Review. He now works at a tive people, must exercise our claim over Wal-Mart, he has greed? You are if shelter for homeless orphans when is them by forcing them to keep their worked tirelessly. you chose the presnot coman deering a fleet of nuclear subdesires ... reasonable.

Look at yourselves: His stock assets now tige of the Univermarines in Lake Erie. your clothes are better than mine, and exceed one billion sity of Michigan you all live in larger, fancier homes; you dollars. But Sam's over Michigan State. exemplify such excess. success is not You are if you have everyone's success. ever purchased a His workers are untaco for yourself derpaid. They have while the homeless no health care plans, loiter on East Unino day care. To avoid versity. paying benefits, each You are guilty if worker is only alyou have a nice coat, lowed to work 39 or a warm aparthours and 59 minutes ment, or food in This new book by ex-leftists Peter Collier and David Horowitz, per week. Only the . your kitchen. You authors of Destructive Generation, is a collection of essays addressstore managers work are guilty if you ing AIDS, affirmative action, Angela Davis, Afghanistan, America full-time - and they • .. . went the extra mile after Reagan, and many ot~r topiCS. must work overtime.

It s th~ 1~vls1ble hru: d, my ~oy: I to earn your A" In The ignorant and maXImize my p~oflts, socIety fact, if you have ever unenlightened will benefits. helped yourself inThe book is listed at $14.95 by the publisher, but the Michigan say that Sam has worked hard for his stead of others you have sinned in the Review is making it limited number of copies available for the lowr eyes of Bert Hornback. empire. They will say that he is providlow price of $5.00. Please call (313) 662-1909 fnr more information. ing a better product at a lower price.

But then, isn't everyone greedy, you We will be happy to mail copies for a $2.00 postage fee.

Everyone who works at Wal- Mart does ask. Perhaps - but that is not Dr. " ..

Hornback's point. The key is where.gu.ilt . so by choicefthey willsay. t t (' / • f " .

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"'yea, verily, the corporate beast bellowed, 'Johnson! Come here!' Johnson came, trembling at the evil that was the beast - its red eyes, its horns, its raw ambition, its pure greed. 1"he beast laughed slowly, mocking God. 'Johnson!

I make $78 million per year, but you, cretin, are too expensive to retain. Your salary of $20,000 must be discontinued.'

I'But, sir .. : Johnson whined. The beast smote him with its inordinate wage. 6'But, sir,' Johnson bleat~d, 'the baby is sick and the rent is duet' The beast smote him again. Johnson was slain."

-excerpt from the Bert Hornback Bible, Book of "Executives," chapter 2, verses 3-7.

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Dcc()nstrllcting

tI,e Left

From Vietnam to the Persian Gulf

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THE MICHIGAN REVIEW

8

Interview

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David Horowitz Deconstructs the Left On Janua.ry 5, Adam DeVore and JohnJ. Miller of the Review interviewed David Horowitz. Horowitz was raised as a communist and participated in the founding of the New Left. In the 1960s, he was editor of Ramparts magazine, but later grew disenchanted with leftism. He is the co-author of several books, including Destructive Generation: Second Thoughts About the '60s and

Deconstructing the Left: From Vietnam to the Persian Gulf He participated in the University of Michigan'S conference on political correctness last November.

REVIEW: What.were your impressions of the U-M's conference on political correctness?

HOROWITZ: I was surprised, having gone to school in the 1950s, before the revolution as it were, to come into what looked to me like a political rally deSigned to cover IIp the traces of political correctness on the campus. They probably wanted to do this because it had gotten bad press. As somebody who had been to the university before its transformation, I was surprised and dismayed to see profl'SSOrs abusing their authority by getting into the trenches with students instead of preserving their professorial distance. That is, they were engaging in ideological co[nbat rather than maintaining an appropriate teacher-student relationship. I thought this was an abuse of their power. Professor Catharine MacKinnon in particular was a bully at one of the sessions.

REVIEW: Were you surprised by the vitality of political correctness?

HOROWfIZ: I would hate to be a white male on today's campuses. Professor MacKinnon claims to speak on behalf of the bottoms of the hierarchies which she sees everywhere in society. Yet it's clear that if there should be one hierarchical place it's the university and if there's anyone at the bottom of the hierarchy, it's the student, with the professor being at the top. If there is any group of students who must endure a sort of "open season," it's white male students. I didn't see Professor MacKinnon defend any of the white male students who were actually abused that evening. I take this to be an index of the hypocrisy of the politically correct on campus.

REVIEW: How would you compare the

hypocrisy you witnessed at the U-M conference with radical activities of the . past?

HOROWITZ: You have here tenured professors earning $100,000 per year at Michigan as their base salaries, not to mention their speaking engagements, crying out that they are somehow oppressed or powerless. Here in America they enjoy the greatest freedom and t o I e ra nc e than they could experience in any society, and yet they are s el f - de elared eOr ; emies of society and wan t to transform it into Godknowtrwhat. This is the rankest sort of hypocrisy.

REVIEW: A number of commentators have suggested that universities are experiencing a "New McCarthyism."

HOROWITZ: I think that's pretty accurate. When you have areas in which there can be reasonable disagreement, and one set of opinions is labelled as sexist, racist, and homophobiC - opirtions of the devil - then it becomes at the very least difficult to hold such opinions. They are immediately morally suspect. This is irtimical to an atmosphere of learning and violates basic principles of academic freedom. I went to school in the McCarthy 1950s, I was a Marxist, and I wets never intimidated because I was a Marxist. I was never graded politically. I've been on campuses across the country and students have come up to me and complained about being graded for their political opinions by leftist professors.

It's ironic that the people who in the 1960s were out of power in the university call for free speech now in the 1990s . :vhile th~ ~drninistrators and senior pro-

HOROWITZ: The cause the left claims to champion is that of the powerless and the oppressed, yet those are the people who have suffered most under leftism.

Africa, for example, has had all sorts of REVIEW: Some people now claim that socialist regimes and rejected capitalism it is politically correct to be politically thanks to leftist professors in France, incorrect, and that the leftists are in fact the individuals losing their freedoms.

England, and the United States. It is the one area of the world where food production actually declined over the last 30 HOROWITZ: They are whiners, and they - - are very years. The Russian masses suffered most quick to try under the Bolshevik/Marxist governments. The Vietnamese, too, suffered the to turn the most as a result of the leftist anti-Viettables. Plunam-war movement in this country beralism in the 1950s, for excause it prolonged the war. The Vietample, used namese communists knew that eventuto be the ally America's will to resist would crack. battle cry of The withdrawal of the United States, con ser v awhich was caused by domestic radicals tiVES and stathat split the country, resulted in more tus quo liberdeaths in the first three years of the comals. Radicals, munist peace than during all 13 years of who are now the anti-communist war. Following the ten u re ~.~" communist victory there was a genocide hated phlfalin Cambodia, there were millions of istic theory. people put in re-education camps, hunNow in the dreds of thousands summarily executed, name of diand a million and a half fled the country, versity they half a million of them perishing in tranhave imsit. This is a direct consequence of leftposed an inwing idealism champiOning the Vietnamese people. As I said at the U-M confercredible unifor mi t Y ence, black college students. They drop where everyout at a rate of 70 percent because they body either have been recruited into competitive arehas the right nas where they are unequipped to comopinion or pete whereas if they had gone to schools b ec 0 m e s more suited to their talents, they perhaps morally suswould have successful careers. Furtherpect. The idea that they are the targets of more, affirmative action policies create a some politically correct tyranny is ludiracial consciousness that lead to racial crous given the fact that they hold the tensions. The main areas of racial tension power within their departments at the today are the liberal college campuses. university.

It's a direct consequence of the progressive policies put in by the tenured left.

REVIEW: What sort of considerations REVIEW: You've written that leftism led you to become disenchanted with contains a self-annihilating impulse. the left?

fessors are not only trying to limit people's free speech but all other manner of freedoms as well.

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HOROWITZ: The humanistic ideals of Marxism attracted me to the left. The totalitarian realities of Marxism repelled me. I think that's baSically it: the ideas sound good on paper, but the whole 20th century is littered with the corpses of people who have been subjected to socialist and leftist ideologies and regimes.

REVIEW: How do those reasons relate to what you've called the Umalevolent idealism" of the left, which ultimately subverts its own ends?

HOROWITZ: It springs from a kind of self-hatred . At the U-M conference, for example, one white graduate student stood up and said that he was ashamed of being a white person. That's kind of pathetic. The left begins with a hatred of its own country. It dwells on negativity.

If you listened to leftists, you would conclude that all black people are failures and that they need the government to bail them out of oppression and suffering. This slanders black people.

REVIEW: What kind of message should

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black people be getting from their leaders, and is there anybody giving that message?

HOROWITZ: I don't presume to speak for black people, but I think that black conservatives like Clarence Thomas are espousing a message that makes a lot of sense. He says that it's never easy in a market economy or an open society, but there is opportunity for all. Those people who look to themselves and don't find excuses everywhere in the alleged inequities of the system, but who study hard, achieve personal discipline, and put their energy into what they do, are very likely to succeed. There is a very large black middle class now, larger than the black underclass, and that took place during the great Reagan expansion. The message of the left - that the system is rigged, so what's the use of trying? - is a prescription for failure and bitterness.

REVIEW: You've claimed that the left has a selective political memory.

HOROWITZ: It's the only way the left can exist. Its program has been tried and it proved itself disastrous. Perhaps 100 million people were killed in the 20th century by radicals trying to create socialist economies. If you include the fascists and Nazis, who were also socialists, the figure climbs even higher. The societies that progressives have produced in the 20th century have created and spread poverty. Few societies are as economyless as the Soviet Union. After 70 years of industrialization, mucp of the population has no running waffr. It's an unmitigated disaster. The left is wrong about the Cold War, which was initiated by the Soviet Union's expansion into Eastern Europe and elsewhere. It ended the minute the Soviets withdrew from Eastern Europe. If the left were to remember its past, it would cease to be the left.

REVIEW: Angela Davis is lWmeone you frequently criticize...

HOROWITZ: Did you hear that she was expelled from the Communist Party?

REVIEW: No! Cool! Fill us in ...

HOROWITZ: She's been trying to unseat Gus Hall, but I guess he got the better of her ...

REVIEW: There's an Angela Davis lounge in one of the dormitories here.

HOROWITZ: I know. Nothing could be as symbolic of the degeneration of the university in our time as the Angela Davis lounge. Here's a woman who spends her life supporting tyranny all over the world,

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who betrayed her country and her people, and who supported murderers like George Jackson and supplied him with weapons. She's just a walking disgrace.

To name a lounge after her shows that the University of Michigan is spreading ignorance among its students instead of enlightenment.

REVIEW: Is the term JJprogressive" really an accurate label for Angela Davis and the left?

HOROWITZ: So-called "Progressives" are socialists and socialism embodies a tribal mentality. It doesn't understand that competition is the form cooperation takes in the modern world. It seeks to impose the loyalties and ethos of the tribe

the former is a product of the programs. Could you elaborate?

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HOROWITZ: The old racism was a sort of visceral, gut, cracker racism. It consisted in the belief that one group was naturally inferior to another. In the general society, however, it's unacceptable to have these kinds of views. The new racism is borne out of the 1%Os and the Marxist crucible that sees a society of oppressors and oppressed, dominators and dominated. There is an incitement to hatred of the group that has power. Since the left now is based on gender and race far more than class, that means there is a hated race and a hated gender. White males thus become an acceptable target of other people's racism.

Nothing could be as symbplic of the degeneration of the university in our time as the UM's Ange.1.yDavis lounge.

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on nation-states, which is why its schemes end up in totalitarian systems.

The left is a revolt against modernism and the modem world. The fact is that the so-called progressives are reactionaries. They like to call themselves progressives and even now call themselves liberals - a term that we as radicals in the 1960s would have abhorred also as a kind of a cover. They like to pretend that they are something other than what they are. If they put their agendas up front, nobody would listen to them.

REVIEW: You've argued that the left tries to destroy the middle ground.

HOROWITZ: If a majority of people support the system, then the left is doomed to political failure. It knows that. So the left's strategy is to say that the system is all a sham: it looks democratic, but it's not; it looks equal, but it's not. They want to strip the veil from this democratic society and drive its appearance as far right as they can. They want to identify it with David Duke. That way, given an alternative between a neo-Nazi right and a communist left, they are hoping that the communist left will win. These are the only terms in which they can win because their positions are so ludicrous and unpopular. They hide behind labels like "liberal" and "progressive," and depend upon labelling others as "fascist," "hierarchical," and "oppressive."

REVIEW: In Deconstructing the Left, you distinguish between the new racism and the old racism, and state that

This has lead to a double standard where black racists are tolerated and allowed to hold tenured positions in our universities and preach on our campuses. On the other hand, a very strict code is imposed on whites wherein a stupid, semi-innocuous remark, such as one Jimmy the Greek made a few years ago, is enough to destroy a career. Jimmy the Greek might as well be dead for making an off-thecuff remark which he instantly regretted.

Louis Farrakhan, Leonard Jeffries, and Spike Lee, meanwhile, can spout racist sentiments weekly and suffer no consequences as a result of the heightened race-consciousness that professors are constantly inculcating into student bodies. We now have a society in which racetalk is normal talk. That's what I call the new racism: the division of American society by race, the creation of race-specific laws, the granting of privileges based on race. The universities are at the center of this: race-based scholarships, racebased admissions criteria, race-based housing, maybe even race-based grading. These are all innovations of the progressive left.

REVIEW: How do these comments relate to David Duke, or maybe explain him?

HOROWITZ: David Duke is a product of this. If you are going to have a society which is not based on a universal standard, and have special privileges for socalled oppressed groups, how will you explain to some poor white Southerner, whose own ancestors were probably economically disadvantaged by the slave-

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owning class, why middle-class blacks can get special privileges whereas poor whites cannot? It's perfectly natural for them to demand for the National Association for the Advancement of White People, which is the way Duke launched his most recent incarnation. Without affirmative action, I don't believe there would be a David Duke.

REVIEW: How does'today's left compare with the left of yore?

HOROWITZ: The difference between the New Left of the 196Os, the Old Left which preceded it, and the crypto-communist left which occupies the campuses today, is that the New Left was pretty much open about its agenda. It didn't claim to be liberal or progressive; jot said it was revolutionary - it was an "in-your-face" sort of leftism. I think that's to its credit.

It also was very independent for a few years in the 1960s. It did not support the Soviet Union and claimed to be making an indigenous revolution in this country.

Today's left, like the aid communist left, will support any dictator anywhere so long as the dictator is a socialist or attacks th.~ UMted States. It has always struck me "as peculiar that these progressives, who claim to be concerned about the status of women, should support the Palestinians and the Arabs, who are incredible oppressors of women, merely because the Palestinians are against the Jews and the United States. The left, when you get down to it, is about resentment and hatred. The only thing that unifies the left today is hatred of America and its institutions.

REVIEW: What differences exist between today's college-age protestor and his 1960s counterpart?

HOROWITZ: The difference was that we went up against the professors and now the professors and administrations aren't fighting the radical students. We didn't have any friends on the faculty or in the administration. Now protestors are coddled by the administration and it can't wait to give in to their demands.

REVIEW: What book would recommend that every college student read?

HOROWITZ: I will name a book and an author that anyone who considers himself educated should !<now well. The book is Civil Rights: Rhetoric or Reality? by Thomas Sowell. The author is Friedrich Hayek, whose book The Constitution of Liberty might be a good starting point for understanding the foundations of liberty and social order in our time.

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Book Rev/ew

_____________________ January 8, 1992

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The Contradi.ctions of Leftism Deconsfructlng the Lett Peter Collier and David Horowitz Softback. $14.95 203 pga.

by Adam DeVore If to deconstruct a text, oversimply put, is to seek out the internal contradictions within it and show that they render the text incoherent, then former leftists Peter Collier and David Horowitz's recently published collection of polemical essays and speeches, Dec01Istructing the L.eft, achieves what its title promises by taking the history and rhetoric of the Left as text and then carefuUy dismantling it.

In a recent interview, Horowitz explained that" deconstruction is an analytic process" which "aims to undermine values and meanings." Although the utopian Marxist ideal originally attracted Horowitz to the Left, his illusions were shattered when Israel's spying organization, the Mossad, delivered to the New York Times a secret speech given by Kruschev which acknowledged as true many of the atrocities allegedly committed by Stalin. In reaction to these revelations, Horowitz helped found the New Left, an overtly revolutionary movement which sought a renaissance of purified leftism which would eschew Stalin-esque ruthlessness. First the institutions of the status quo must be destroyed, they held, then replaced and rebuilt.

After Vietnam, however, it became evident to ti\em that the left primarily represents" a destructive nihilism, a tearing down of institutions, values, and beliefs." As the authors explain, "Our leftism ended with the end of the Vietnam War, which revealed to us the real coriSequences 0{ America's defeat for the people of Indochina and the rest of the world.

We saw how the Left which claimed to care about the fate of the Cambodians and the Vietnam'ese while the war was . raging, really didn't care at all once the United States had lost and their oppressors were Communists."

Every dictator who arose like a phoenix from the ashes of the earth he had scorched in the name of compassion, equality, and liberation - such as Cuba's Fidel Castro, whom Horowitz discusses in "Semper Fidel" - had his sanguinary, totalitarian goals in mind before the revolution and realized them in its aftermath.

The Left, says Horowitz, is a "purely destructive force. It really has no viable program for replacing what exists with anything better." The authors warn readers that Dec01Istructing the Left is a collection of polemics which must be read with the understanding that they were often

written in the heat of ideological combat; would-be readers, however, should also understand that the text is partly an attempt to inject the left with a dose of its own medicine. Says Horowitz, "Dec01Istructing the Left is an attempt to take apart the left, if you will, and to strip away the veil of its idealism and expose its underlying malevolent intent."

In the first section of the book, Collier and Horowitz explain their reasons for leaving the Left, and in so doing, debunk several modem myths about the 1%Os. In "Goodbye to All That," the authors note that the only lessons the Left learned

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from Vietnamwere"those that emphasized the danger of American power abroad and the need to diminish it." Its selective memory permitted the Left to overlook "Hanoi's ruthless conquest of the South, the establishment of a police state in Saigon and the political oblivion of the National Liberation Front." While radicals augered the arrival of a new era of social justic~, the actual result was the slaughter of two million Cambodians.

Modem apologists of the Left have propagated several misconceptions in an effort to absolve American radicals' guilt for their complicity in such evil. In retrospect, those who marched in the streets decrying u.s. intervention and weakened American resolve are painted as excessively innocent and idealistic youths who were driven to extreme actions by extreme circumstances. They seek to restore to the l%Os "its own narcissistic self-image as a time of saints" among brutish sinners. It was not a result of "breakaway experiences" - moments of inspiration - that the Left came to think that it could change the world. Rather, as Colliers puts it, "That was our premise."

Similarly, apologists now depict 1960s' radicals as earnestly concerned with promoting blacks' dignity. While many surely felt this way, many others saw an alliance with racial minority groups as "a tactical mearis to a strategic

end," to wit, revolution. Thus arose the vention in Afghanistan and take pains to anti-assimilationist posture of debunk the notion that a coherent analseparationists such as Malcolm X: asogy with Vietnam exists: there was no similation would sap a vital source of free Soviet media to bring the graphiC revolutionary fervor; the S<K'alled "black nature of the war into every citizen's power" movement would invigorate it. living room. The rhetoric of the postIn a similar vein, apologiSts suggest that Vietnam era, in addition, infected the the political activism of the 1960s can U.s.'s foreign policy analysis with reaccurately be called an "anti-war" movegard to Latin America. For the reader ment; Collier, who had been among the interested in what really took place in radicals, sees through this caricature as Afghanistan but who never kept up-toweU, noting, "It was, in fact, a movement date with the few news reports that were that wanted the Communists to win. And smuggled out, these essays prOVide an America to lose." (In a later essay, "The excellent introduction. Of particular inSixties and the Eighties," Collier comterest is an anecdote about a volunteer pares the "melodramatic photos of the physician who had to sneak in.to Afghanicandle-lit faces of peaceniks" touted by stan in order to prOVide medical care to leftists as accurately characterizing the injured civilians and soldiers. His medi1%05 with the reality of which he was a cal expertise allowed him to verify the part: violent, anger-frenZied mobs who sort of tactics employed by the Soviets, would vandalize for the sake of symbolwhich included gases and boobytrapped ism and shout down speakers who held toy trucks targeting toddlers. "unfashionable" views.) Horowitz simiThe recurring theme throughout the authors' reflections is that the Left emlarly confesses in "My Vietnam Lessons" ploys double standards in virtually evthat ''Those of us, who inspired and then led the anti-war movement did not want,*.~ery aspect of its thought. Horowitz frames just to stop the killing as so many ~r:' the dilemma broadly when he writes, "Like today's young radicals, we Sixties ans of those domestic battles now claim.

We wanted the Communists to activists had a double standard when it win ... 'Bring the troops home' was our came to making moral and political judgslogan, the fall of Saigon was the result.") ments. We judged other countries and One of the numerous underlying ironies, political movements - specifically soof course, is that the Marxist dialectic supcialist countries and revolutionary moveposedly derives from historical study. ments - by the futures we imagined Horowitz pens a similar essay rethey could have if only the United States garding leftist accounts of history. In and its allies would get of out their way.

"Carl Bernstein's Communist Problem We judged America, however, by its acand Mine," he recounts how communist tual performance, which we held up to a organizations within the U. S. acted not standard of high and even impossible merely to promote their own domestic ideals." More concretely, when dealing agendas, but also to promote that of their with racial issues, the Left has chosen to true model, Stalinist Russia. He relates advance affirmative action, which "inone anecdote in which a female member sists that equality of opportunity be loyal to the Communist party in America superceded by an enforced equality of discovered that she has unwittingly "beoutcome," according to Collier. The Left come a small but decisive link in the assails white males and purges them from chain by which Joseph Stalin reached out the canon, not because something better from Moscow to Cayocoan, Mexico, to has squeezed them out, but because they put an ice pick in Leon Trotsky'S head." are supposedly part of an oppressive The authors discuss other cases of tradition. "The university does all this the Left's "historical airbrushing" as well, and then professes to be surprised and such as the need to forget that the attialarmed by the fact that there is racial tension on campus. Could there be a tudes of groups like the Black Panthers and the Weathermen were typical; these system more calculated to make blacks groups were not the "lunatic fringe" their and other groups, benefitting from the apologists would have us believe. One of double standard, feel embattled and the more interesting lines of argument whites and Asians, victimized by it, feel the authors employ traces the contemporipped off?" he asks. rary interpretation - or revision of interSuch are the contradictions Collier and Horowitz find in the text that is the pretation - of 60s slogans to reveal the way the Left used the rhetoric of justice Left. With cogent, sustained argumentation and compelling insider's insight, they and humanism to conceal an ultimately violent agenda. have gathered a collection of essays that In another group of essays, Collier reveals the Left as the nihilistic, destrucand Horowitz qdqress the ~oyi,et i,nt~r- . , bve for.ce it is. 路 . , I .. ,

January 8, 1<JC:!~. ".

THE MICHIGAN REVIEW

Book Review

11

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Immiscible Ingredients in the Melting Pot The Disuniting of America Arthur M. Schlesinger, Jr. Whittle Books Hardcover, $11.95 91 pgs.

by Adam Garagiola Subtitled "Reflections on a multicultural society," Arthur Schlesinger Jr:s latest book provides a brief examination of the demise of the concept of America as the "melting pot" of the world. Beginning with a historical overview that traces the earliest patterns of immigration and assimilation, he analyzes the current breakdown of the process of cultural assimilation and its consequences.

Schlesinger's background does much to lend credibility to his analysis. An associate professor of history at Harvard University from 1946 to 1954, he served as a special advisor to president Kennedy from 1961 to 1964, and for a time was a member of the executive council of the Journal of Negro History. Schlesinger is notable as one of the fjn:.i big name liberals to present his case against the growing multi-<:ulturalist movement.

As Schlesinger explain.'> it, the American ideal in its original form was the formation of entirely new race, recreated from the various groups of people who came to America seeking freedom and prosperity. Ambition replaced ancestry; the 1/ American Creed" recognized no inherent limita'tions on one's potentiaL In practice, as different ethnic groups poured into America, many of them found assimilation difficult. As Schlesinger relates, ''The Anglos often disliked the newcomers, disdained their uncouth presence, feared their alien religions and folkways." The German, Irish, and Scandinavian immigrants discovered that "the smelting pot [as it was originally calledJthus had, unmistakably and inescapably, an Anglocentric flavor."

Still, these immigrants, along with the Italians, Poles, and Russians who followed them, eventually found their way into mainstream American society.

As time progressed, women and minorities gained the rights they deserved. At almost the same time, however, began the rise of what Schlesinger calls "the cult of ethnicity," which today "threatens to become a counter-revolution against the original theory of America as one people,' a common culture, a single nation."

After presenting this historical background, the author focuses his analysis on the way history is taught, and more specifically on the current Afrocentric I

fad in education. Claiming objectivity as the supreme goal in the study of history, Schlesinger examines the historical claims of the Afrocentrists, and finds them wanting. Relying on pseudo-science and an irrational, almost mystic belief in an "emotional, cultural, psychological connection" to native Africa, the Afrocentrists fail to make a convincing case for themselves.

The reader is prOVided with abundant examples of the sheer nonsense that proponents of the Afrocentric doctrine try to push as fact. Schlesinger quotes Professor Leonard Jeffries, now infamous for his characterization of whites as cold, individualistic, materialistic "ice people," ;.

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Indeed, by reintroducing segregated education in a modem, covert form, the Afrocentrists deny young blacks the opportunities available to those who have acquired a practical and relevant education, or to put it more sharply, "If some Kleagle of the Ku Klux Klan wanted to devise an educational curriculum for the specific purpose of handicapping and disabling black Americans, he would not be likely to come up with anything more diabolically effective than Afrocentrism."

In the following chapter, Schlesinger examines the effect that the cult of ethnicity has had on social interaction between various groups, especially on college campuses. Not surprisingly, he finds that those campuses where the various ethnic communities are most separated and distinct (he cites University of Michigan among them), are those that have the highest levels of racial tensions.

As he sees it, the shift from Martin Luther King's goal of assimilation to MalcolJll."",, X's philosophy of separatism has reSUlted

in increased interracial conflict and shortcircuited attempts to promote a sense of community on campus. Schlesinger provides a cautionary reminder of the fragility of the American experiment: "History is littered with the wrecks of states that tried to combine 'diverse ethnic or linguistic or religious groups within a single sovereignty."

Schlesinger's prescription for the future beseeches us to remain true to the past, and perpetuate, for all of our citizens, the American Creed. "Our task is to combine due appreciation of the splendid diversity of the nation with due emphasis on the great unifying Western ideas of individual freedom, political democracy, and human rights," he writes.

As diverse as America may be, the ideal of a society which provides equal rights for all, and disdains preferential treatment for any group, is a goal for which we as Americans can all strive.

Adam Garagiola is the literary editor of the Review.

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and blacks as warm, loving "sun people," all on the basis of the melanin content of their skin. Other black educators, such as Clare Jacobs, assert that "the black mind" works in a "genetically distinctive way."

Schlesinger notes, not without irony, that arguments about the genetic differences among races echo those used to support segregation in the pre-civil rights days.

After critiquing the claims of Afrocentrism, Schlesinger examines the effectiveness of such a program. Understandably, he finds no value in a system of education that distorts evidence and manufactures facts to advance ideology.

Schlesinger'S most serious concern is that the movement toward Afrocentric education, espeCially by urban public schools, will ultimately hinder the success of black children when they enter society as adults. He rhetorically asks "What good will it do to young black Americans to take African names, wear African costumes, and replicate African rituals ... to reject standard English, to hear that because they work differently a firstclass education isn't for them? Will such training help them understand democracy better? Help them fit better into

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January 8, 1992

THE MICHIGAN REVIE",-

12

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Book Review

Former GM "Shoprat" Tells Inside Story Rlvefhead

Ben Hamper WamerBooks Hardc:over, $19.95 234 pgs.

by Kei1h Edwards n

Adam Garaglola In Rivethead, Ben Hamper chronicles his experiences as a "shoprat," working the assembly line in a Flint, Michigan, General Motors factory . This work has earned praise from sources including the Wall Street Journal, which compared his writing style favorably to that of Mike Royko. Unfortunately, Hamper's writing style is more reminiscent of an 0bnoxious high school student than that of Royko, Hunter S. Thompson, or others with whom he has been compared.

Hamper writes in what the book jacket euphemistically calls a "hardedged vernacular prose style." More accurately, one couJd say it is a puerile, slang-laden argot of crude expressions and inarticulate ravings. A reader must wonder what to make of sentences such as "It was like some nightly cross betw~ the start of the Indy 500 and chutesurfin' out of the fuselage of a burning jet," or "I was one blazin' tomahawk of a m-fuggin' eel snot." The sentences are choppy, rarely exceeding three lines length. While this in itself is not a fault, reading ~o hundred pages of seven word sentences quickly becomes tiresome. There is also Hamper's annoying use of entire paragraphs of capital letters; SURELY, THERE ARE BEITER WAYS OF EMPHASIZING ONE'S POINT. The content of the book is at times as disturbing as the writing style. Cynicism and anger pervade the work, but it rem~s unclear what the author is angry about. While Hamper often directs his diatribes against the assembly line process, General Motors management, or even the slow passage of time itself while "on the job," there is also much incoherent rambling: "Where have you gone Joe Dimaggio, our lonely ratpack wants to KICK YOU SAGGIN', COFFEE BREWIN' ASS!" The reader's response to such stuff Ooe Dimaggio certainly has nothing to do with the entire book) can only be a confused "'Huh?" Hamper derides his fellow shoprats for being ignorant, yet he declares himself a chronic underachiever, and plainly shows his disgust for the "egghead engineers" and others who supervise the production process that prOvide Hamper's brethren with their well-paying jobs.

Hamper's recurring themes are the tedium of the assembly line and the stu-

pidity of almost everyone working at the factory, shopratsand managers alike.

Much of the work deals with Hamper and his fellow workers' efforts to make their jobs more intere.ting, or at the very least, make time pass a little faster.

Hamper's stratagems for passing the time take various forms, from "doubling up" on jobs with a line mate, to Micky's Malt Liquor 40 ounce lunch breaks.

Hamper tells of the plentiful consumption of beer, whiskey, and various drugs on job, as well as such charming diversions as rivet hockey and dumpster ball. In spite of all this, Hamper insists that he and his beer buddies "ran nothing bu.t 100 percent defect-free quality)' Even more unsettling is the plant

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management's response, or lack thereof; "GM was very big on bottom lines and thel?ottom line as it pertained to Dale and me was that we were exemplary shop rats." It makes one wonder how the unexemplary shoprats performed.

Despite Rivethead's many faults, its interesting and humorous stories are its redemption. Hamper's book is full of colorful characters, like his friend Roy, who, while tripping on acid durirg his shift, incinerated his pet mouse w hen he thought it was mocking him.

At times, Hamper shows a surprising degree of insight into GM's wrongheaded management policies. One example is his story about "Howie Makem," a company mascot in the form of an anthropomorphic cat that made periodic visits to the assembly line to exhort the workers to meet quality standards. This ploy illustrates GM's generally naive approach to worker / management relations.

The book also provides an interesting look at life outside the shop, as Hamper recalls his after-work activities, which basically revolve around massive alc.ChhoI consuiriptionand extremery· loud ·

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interesting stories, as well as an insight into the men who make America's automobiles. Unfortunately, the author's preoccupation with his monotonous existence as a shoprat becomes itself monotonous. While the stories are at times amusing, the repetitious retelling of on-thejob hijinks and the author's frequent drinking binges begins to wear thin after about hundred pages.

It is only fair to keep in mind that Hamper is only an average guy telling his story; he makes no pretensions at being a literary giant. Compared with the plethora of average books on the market, it is at least (somewhat) readable and entertaining. Thus, it has the potential to be a worthwhile read for those interested in the auto industry or the sad fate of the dying city of Flint.

music. During the author's frequent periods of unemployment, he turns his attention to life in the city of Flint, where again one sees the boredom and monotony of blue-collar life in a decaying industrial town.

Hamper also recounts his developing working relationship with Michael Moore, who got him started on his "literary career" by employing him to write articles, reviews, and columns for the Hint (later Michigan) Voice. Although the Voice is a radical leftist publication, Hamper makes no claim to be a political activist, seemingly proud of his ignorance of the issues that concerned much of the Vaiee's staff. '1 couldn't chime in on their heated discussions about EI Salvador, I didn't even know where the damn place was," he writes. He seems plainly disdainful of the causes the VDice embraced, "Usually I got buried toward the back in between some dyke manifesto and an ad .for a new health food eatery."

While Rivethead is poorly written and stylistically inept, it does contain some

.,,,. ,_.

Keith Edwards is a junior in math and creative writing and a staff writer for the Review. Adam Garagiola. is the literary editor of the Review.

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January 8, 1992

THE MICHIGAN REVIEW

13

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think, if someone you knew or loved was raped, would you rather the campus be without SAPAC? ~:

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Jlmrufer Chmielewski LSA Junior

Review Should Ignore Blacks?

I was amazed to see a whole page dedicated to the Reverend AI Sharpton, but the wrilL'r of the article revealt'd his own ignorance of African-American people as well as his own intemalized racist views. First of all, I am tin'd of people who are not of African descent trying to tell us who o ur leaders should and can be. It is not their place to deCIde. Secondly, I was appalled by the statement that supporters of AI Sharpton were na rowdy chorus of black students," a "black student peanut gallery," and a "sycophantic crowd with a lack of decorum." These statements perpetuated stereotypes that African-Americans follow in blind faith anyone who speaks his/ her opinion of the situation of African-Americans today and that we don't have the intelligence to decipher the difference between a "loud-mouthed demagogue" and someone who wants the amelioration of the black community. Also, in a heated debate such as this, what is the proper decorum, who is he to say what the proper decorum is, and why are the supporters of Reverend AJ the only deviants? I didn't appreciate this insinuation that African:-Americans were in a sense "uncivilized,' in theit.actions.

Furthermore, the accusation that Malcolm X has two identities has truly offended me. First, I am tired of people comparing Martin Luther King with Malcolm X as though Martin Luther King was the epitome of black leaders. Martin Luther King was just one of a long list of leaders who contributed to AfricanAmerican history. Malcolm X and Martin Luther King were both for the amelioration of black community were aware of the struggles it entailed, yet they had two separate philosophies, one of separatism and one of integration. So to see Malcolm and Martin is not highly unlikely because they are Nubian brothers and one in the same struggle, but they have two different solutions which led them in two different directions. Secondly, no one of African descent can be a racist because racism is an economic and systematic oppression of another group by pl>ople in power as to retain their sense of superiority, therefore, African-Americans can never be racist because we don't have that type of power.

Also I didn't understand how this writer could compare racial i~<;idertts to

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incidents of pure violence against another individual. I also don't understand your rationale for thinking that a man who wants amelioration of his community should include the interests of white people. You don't have to be anti-white to be pro-black and I am tried of the attitude that any black person who values the life, community, and interests of his people over another race, who has oppressed his people for over 400 years, is bei ng a racist. It doesn't make sense. It would seem to me that to be African-

American as well as any other person of color, you would value the interest of another, not to oppress another or feel superior over another, but Simply wanting what your people rightly deserve for over 400 years. In that sense, "yes" race is an issue in every aspect of life because racism affects every aspect of life and until this Eurocentric racist society changes then life for no person of color will be equivalent to that of whites.

Lastly, if you are going to quote someone, please quote them correctly and at-

tribute it to the right person. Judd Nelson said, "It's not a black thing, it's not a white thing. it's a death thing." This quote was not about crime but about drugs therefore it had no relevance to your point. So in the future I would appreciate it if you don't write shit else about black people, black leaders, or black life because you don't know what the hell you are talking about.

Latinisha Boston LSA Junior

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That's right! I am nmnjng for city council in Ann Arbor's fifth ward. Actually, this isn't as crazy as it might first appear. My family ./ moved to Ann Arbor In 1976, so I grew up in . the fifth ward. You may also be unaware of the f¢ that I've worked as a patient care assistant at The Center for Mental Health and Chemical Dependency at the Catherine McAuley Health Center since 1989. I've worked on the shortterm adult chemical dependency unit, the older adult psychiatric unit, and the short and longterm adolescent chemical dependency units.

As you may have guessed by now, I'm not running on my record as a conservative student activisl The fifth ward is the city's most competitive districllt is the swing ward, so elections there are decided on the issues and the candidates, not safe-seat party bosses. I was selected by the Republican Party to run in this ward because they truly believe that I can win there. I am not a Republican "sacrificiallamb," and I am certainly not a symbolic candidate. I have the credentials to qualify as a viable candidate, I have the Republican Party's support, and I have the determination and tenacity to win this election. Students haven't had a representative on council in years, and as the recent tear-gassing incident on South University demonstrates, this representation is sorely missed.

My opponent is one-term incumbent Democrat Thais Peterson. She is highly vulnerable on a host of issues. For instance: She voted to give herself a 10% pay raise. She

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voted to radically re--draw the fifth ward's boundaries, in hopes of ensuring her own re-election.

She led the fight to eliminate the fifth ward's two recycling stations. She allowed several low-income housing units to be built on top of contaminated soil in the fifth ward. Perhaps her worst hour occurred when she voted to "huY-Qut" Ann Arbor's city attorney, Bruce Laidlaw. Peterson thought he wasuteopOlitical." She and her Democratic cohorts~ fearful of a lawsuit, gave him a lavish early retirement package which later had to be extended to nearly 50 other city employees.

This bonehead move will cost the city at least 5300,000 in unbudgeted blood-money from this year's general fund. What makes all of these votes even worse is that Peterson was elected on a fiscally conservative, pro-environment, constituent-service platform.

What can you do to help? Well, if you live in the fifth ward, you can register to vote before March 7th and cast your vote for me on April 6.

Registering takes just minutes at the City Clerk's office, which is located on the second floor of City Hall, at Fifth Ave. and Huron. Below is a listing of streets in the fifth ward which are occupied primarily by students. If you don't know which ward you're in, call one of the numbers below to find out. If you're not in the fifth ward, you can still help by identifying students who are in the fifth ward, by volunteering some of your time, or by making a campaign contribution to "The Committee to Elect Jeff Muir," at the below address. I intend to win this election. With your help, I will.

Some Fifth Ward Streets E. Madison' S. Fourth Ave. • S. Fifth Ave. • Hamilton' Huron' E. William'S. Ashley' S. First· Second' Third Fourth St. • Fifth 51. • Sixth St • Seventh' W. Hoover' Nob Hill • Koch' Mosely· Edgewood' Davis' Princeton W. J·efferson • Keppler Ct.• Krause' Murray· W. Washington' MuUholland

For More Information If you have questions or coments about my campaign, please call one of the following numbers: Campaign HOO - 741-0870' Republican HOO - 971-4622' City Clerk - 994-2725 Contributions may be sent to: The Committee to Elect Jeff Muir' 2236 Dexter Ave. 11204 • Ann Arbor. MI48103 PAID AU\TRlISE:\IENT PAID :\l)n· RI lSI \11-, I :' "

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THE MICHIGAN REVIEW

14

Music Review

January 8, 1992

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The 20 Best Albums of 1991

by Crusty Muncher The underground scene died in 1991.

Thanks to MTV, major labels, and the Lolapalooza Festival, the music that was once enjoyed only by urban scruffs and college students has now become part of the mainstream popular culture. Fifthgrade kids buy N.w.A. tapes along with Nintendo games, frat guys love "that song by Nirvana," and it's virtually impossible to walk through a dorm hall without hearing the Chili Peppers' latest single. And who doesn't like Jane's Addiction?

A few years ago most people wouldn't have thought twice about these bands because "underground" music, which receiw..'S little or no attention from radio disc jockeys and the print media, was for freaks, hoodlums, and as the Dead Milkmen might say, "art fags." It's cool to see that people are a little more open-minded these days.

Here are 20 of the best releases from last year, many of which would have been too noisy, annoying, or just plain weird for mainstream ears when 1991 began. This is the stuff that should be selling in the millions. And lots of it just may, should this trend of musical openmindedness continue.

1. Temple of the Dog/Temple of the Dog: The material on this album is more gospel than any other genre, with Soundgarden's Chris Corneti at the helm, and kicks put more soul than a thousand church choirs. Have no fear, there are also lots of those good 01' Seattle guitars as well. Temple is made up of members of Pearl Jam and Soundgarden, who recorded a bunch of tunes as a tribute to their late friend and vocalist of Mother love Bone, Andrew Wood, who overdosed on heroin in 1990. This is Cornell's finest vocal performance to date, and the

Cheese rocker "Frankie" of KingoftheHill album as a whole contains some of the best songwriting in recent years. If you still think that rock n' roll has lost its essential elements - soul and groove pick up this release.

2. Ten/pearl Jam: After the death of

Andrew Wood, Stone Gossard and Jeff . Ament found an incredible singer by the name of Eddie Vedder and founded Pearl Jam. There is plenty of musical genius within this band. Vedder's melodies are anthemic and original. Very few bands can milk a few chords for so much emo-

nothing but noise!" "Why can't that guy sing?" Well, the fact of the matter is that MTV played their video 50 times per day, top 40 radio got a clue, you got a due, and now you love them. These guys have changed the mainstream's perception of punk music. Buy their old Sub-Pop stuff,

sing-a-Iong choruses set these guys apart from the rest of the dying scene of wannabes.

7. The Low End Theory/A Tribe Called Quest: The Tribe utilized thick, jazzy upright-bass samples and atypical drum sounds on the low End album to create a sound all their own. Q-Tip and Phife are two of rap's most creative M.C.s.

Quest is one of the few acts putting a fresh and original spin on the hip-hop snowball that's been rolling for a decade.

8. B admotorfinger/Soundgarden: The biggest band in the underground circles for the past few years has a new release ready to propel them into the mainstream. By far the band's most consistent effort, Badmotorfinger chugs and chums with a raw bite that will be imitated by many in the late 1990s.

9. Mama Said/Lenny Kravitz: Lenny digs into the sounds of the 1960s and 1970s and comes up with a slew of welIwritten gems. Pick up this one and catch him live on tour with the Cult.

10. The Sky is Crying/Stevie Ray Vaughan: This collection of previously unreleased tracks from the SRV vaults includes some of the late musician's best material, such as covers of tunes by . Howlin' Wolf, Hendrix, and Lonnie Mack. The final track, "life by the Drop," is probably the most beautiful tune that Vaughan recorded during his six-album Members of Soundgarden and Pearl Jam combined to create career.

Temple of the Dog and the 1991's best album.

11. Raise/Swervedriver: This English tion as Pearl Jam. too. band has a distinctly American sound, 3. Road Apples/The Tragically Hip: 6. Galactic Cowboys/Galactic Cowwith fuzzy guitars a fa Seattle. Tunes like This band is doing very weti up in Canada. boys: With the exception of the most ''Rave Down" and "Son of Mustang Ford" They're very rootsy, but also tight and recent Metallica album, this is the only belong on everyone's year-end hit lists. crisp, something like a Black Crowesthrash record from last year worth a 12. Seal/Seal: lenny Kravitz meets meet-Midnight Oil. If you dig the old damn. Thick Beatlesesque harmonies and Depeche Mode. A very danceable comJohn Cougar or Fleetwood Mac, then look into the Tragically Hip. 4. If This is Rock and Roil, I Want My Old Job Back/The Saw Doctors: The Saw Doctors are the most popular band in their native Ireland right now, and their music is rock with an Irish folk twist. lots of beautiful traditional vocal melodies and mandolin. Mike Scott of the Waterboys is a huge fan and he produced one of the album's 16 tracks. The record is not available in the United States, so you'll have to write to: Bumper and Crunchy Associates, 13 st. Mary's TCE, Galway, Ireland.

5. Nevennind/Nirvana: Emotion and simplicity. This is the kind of stuff you probably bitched about a few months ago. I've been hearing it for years about this kind of music. Metallica went through the same thing a few years back. "It's 1be ~~mily Stand: V: ,e.f~~Y Smith, SaI\d~a S~ y~ct?r, ~nd Peter Lo~d: . ' .

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THE MICHIGAN REVIEW

15

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bination with acoustic folk and techno elements.

13. Son of Bazerk/Son of Bazerk: This is the Sonic Youth of hip-hop. Experimenting with genres, samples, and rapping styles, he has created 1991's only

The reigning queen of rap: Yo-Yo. breakthrough rap record.

14. and 15. Brand New Heavies/ Brand New Heavies and Moon in Scorpio/Family Stand: These records are all that contemporary pop should be. These bands combine jazz, rhythm and blues, rock, and funk into each and every track, and without much computer assistance.

Thus the songs sound much more real

and sincere than the staple crap that has inhabited top 40 radio for the past 20 miserable years. .

16. Cakewalk/House of Freaks: Another stunning offering from this Richmond duo. Rootsy guitars and percussion comprised on anything that makes a noise when you hit it, the Freaks' third full-length album proves that they are one of the country's most vital acts. Good lyrics, too.

17. Travelers & Thieves/Blues Traveler: The Traveler continues to progress as a group of musicians and songwriters on their second release. The New Yorkbased band is now playing its brand of blues-based rock with a tad more aggression and precision than ever before.

Traveler will probably earn their respect in much the same way as did other huge, ex-<oUege favorites like R.E.M. and U2.

Let the college kids spread the word and by the fourth or fifth record the little sibs get into the stuff. I wouldn't be surpri~d if these guys have a number one hit before the end of the millennium.

cities and college towns are imitating.

This stuff is more earthy and acoustic than the early material. Buy this if you haven't already.

19. King of the Hill/King of the Hill: This is the only good cheese metal record

to come out in the short history of the genre. These guys have mastered the art of writing good commercial, corporate rock songs, and the grooves are bigger and the beats are funkier than the other Velveeta bands (i.e. Firehouse, Poison, Warrant). There are about five or six potential hits on this album. If the people at SBK Records - home of crap like VanilIa Ice and Jesus Jones - can get radio and MTV to overkill yet another one of their acts, in a few months you'll puke when you hear one of these songs for the zillionth time.

20. Make Way for the Motherlode/ Yo-Yo: She's only 19 years old and she's the only woman to have recorded a worthwhile rap album in 1991. No soft commercial stuff on this album, just hard beats and intelligent lyrics. Sir Jinx and Ice Cube handled the production.

Crusty Muncher's music reviews have been cited by Boris Yeltsin and other reliable sources as being primarily responsible for the dissolution of the Soviet Union.

18)H6cid, Sugar, Sex, MagikfTJ.le Red Hot Chili Peppers: The album is a bit too long, but t~ L.A. funksters are making the music that all the bands in the big

N'Dea Davenport of the Brand New Heavies.

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THE MICHIGAN REVIEW.

16

January 8, 1992

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Crusty's Uptown Throwdown Showdown Corner

Music Review

by P.J. Danhoff

by Crusty Muncher

The first major rap tour of 1992, the Uptown Throwdown, rolled into the Palace of Auburn Hills on January 4th.

The seven-act bill included such heavyweights as A Tribe Called Quest, the Geto Boys, and Public Enemy.

The event kicked off with short three song sets from newcomers Son of Bazerk and Leaders Of The New School. For the crowd just filing into the arena, the shows were too intense and the material too unfamiliar to generate much excitement in the audience. Unfortunately the acts seemed more concerned with jumping and prancing around the stage than with rapping clearly.

The biggest disappointment of the night was the short set from A Tribe Called Quest. On the road supporting one of the strongest albums of the year, the Tribe were allotted only a stifling 15 minutes to show off their talents.

Oaktown 357, the only live band on the tour, were given a half hour set, but their choreography and showmanship took

precedence over their mediocre R&B-ish music.

Jazzy Jeff and the Fresh Prince were next, and they lived up to their reputation. When the Fresh Prince announced his New Years resolution to "tear down the mother fuckin' house" the crowd erupted. Jazzy Jeff followed with the night's best display of cutting, scratching, and mixing. The combination of old school jams and new pop hits created an excellent blend, which made their set flow smoothly.

Naughty By Nature followed a lame set from Queen Latifah and were th~ biggest surprise of the evening. Not only. did they steal the show from headliners Public Enemy, but they proved to doubters that h~dCore rap will never die..The monster hit "O.P.P." was unarguably the climax of the~vent.

Kid N Play seemed caught in between their squeaky clean cartoon character images, and trying to fit in with the other stronger, more streetwise acts. Their

performance was silly and over-rehearsed .

The Geto Boys, probably the most hardcore act on the bill, put together another short set including their underground hits "Let A Ho Be A Ho", and "Mr. Scarface." They finished up with their biggest hit to date, "My Mind's Playin' Tricks On Me." By the time headliners Public Enemy hit the stage, the crowd seemed drained.

Their 45 minute set featured the more preachy material from the P.E. catalog, all of the underground hits included.

Fortunately the Uptown Throwdown was missing the violence and tragedy which has plagued many rap shows of late. The prevailing sentiment of this show was summed up by the Fresh Prince who said "Y'all came here in peace, let's leave that way."

P.J. Danhoff is a freshman in LSA and.a-" staff writer for the Review. o" .,

A Campus Tradition Michigan Daily Ann Arbor News Eastern EcJ10 Ann Arbor Metro Times.

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hop duo Eerk and Jerk and it sucks bad. Real bad. They look as fruity as fruity can be, too. Local radio has been playing their first single, a pathetic dance/rap tune called, appro"Eerk and Jerk"

The Odds' Neopolitan features a tasty-looking cover, a few really dull songs, and about five pretty groovy tunes. "Big White Wall" and "Eternal Ecstasy" will hopefully earn them some radio play. The band is currently on tour with Warren Zevon, and passed through Detroit last week.

Run-D.M.C. have released a collection of old school rap gems called

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1991. This is the stuff that you used to breakdance to in your pair of everso-fashionable parachute pants almost a decade ago. These guys singlehandedly brought rap music from the ghetto into the mainstream with classics like "Hard Times," the guitarladen "King of Rock," and the megahit duet with Aerosmith in "Walk This Way." If you want to hear some cool new school rap stuff, check out the debut from Compton's 2nd II None. D.J. Quik produced the record and he makes an appearance in the "Yo! MIV Raps" hit "Be True to Yourself."

Swervedriver, an English version of Dinosaur, Jr., wilt be playing at St. Andrew's on Jan. 31. These guys landed an album in Crusty's Top 20 of 1991 (see pg. 14) and should put on a good show ... Guns N' Roses will pass through the Palace with Seattle studs Soundgarden on Jan. 17.

John Cougar Menstrualcramp will be doing the Palace on Jan. 24 and 25 ...

The 15th Ann Arbor Folk Festival will feature Lyle Lovett, the Four Bitchin' Babes, John Gorka, and others. It will be held at Hill Auditorium on Jan, 25.