Volume 1, Issue No 2

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Ann Arbor, HI

FREE

I, No.2

The Poor:

South African 'Divestment:

Victims of the Welfare State

WALTER E. WILLIAMS The first thing to set at rest in the development of our discussion is the concept of exchange. In doing so, 1 will try to paraphrase faithfully Ludwig von Mises in his development of the concept. Ludwig von Mises was not the first scientist to characterize the essentials of exchange, for it has much earlier roots which pre-date Adam Smith .. But Ludwig von Mises' .twntrlbution, in路 his. -treatise Ruman Action, was that of filllng a void caused by the rush of the energies of intellectuals to build and justify the welfare state as a method of coping with the problems of the Great Depression and afterwards.

The essential characteristic of exchange is that it consists of acts by individuals (or collections of individuals) whereby the property rights or use rights to goods and services are transferred from one individual to another. Voluntary exchange is characterized by a proposition such as: "1 will do something good for you if you will do something good for me."

People will not enter into voluntary exchanges unless they, in their own estimation, are or expect to be better otf as a result of the exchange. Therefore, in voluntary exchange there can be no exploitation.

By contrast there is another kind of exchange whereby the following proposition is offered: "If you do not do something good for me, 1 will do something bad to you." Examples of this kind of exchange are holdups and rapes. These exchanges are ones that people will not enter into unless they are coerced into violence or the threat

See POOR, page 16 Dr. Williams delivered this presentation at Hillsdale College in the summer of 1980.

Divest of Logic JAMES FREGO On December 31, 1982, Governor William Milliken signed into law approximately 100 bills. Hidden among these was Public Act 512, which orders public schools, colleges, and universities to divest themselves of all stock and other investments in companies which do business in South Africa and the Soviet Union.

Whe.n dj,scu~ini !19w ,tl;tis billfiffects the University and the state 'of Michigan, two vital questions must be asked - first, does the state Legislature have the authority to meddle in the internal affairs of a public university? And, secondly, what if anything, would divestment accomplish?

The first question concerns the interesting problem of autonomy in the public sector. The petJple of the state of Michigan have elected a board of Regents to oversee the operation of

the University. This is the case at M.S.U. and Wayne State University, as well. But if the Regents were in fact elected by the same democratic process that installed the legislators, why is the state government trying to supersede the authority of the Regents? If the state officials can order the University to sell its investments, then where does the authority end? I would guess that if this decision is uph~ld, we may one day see more legislativellleddliIlg in University affairs, . Once legal precedent is set, further interference can be justified.

Answers to the problem of autonomy are still unknown and will, in all probability, only be determined after a long cowt battle. It may be years before the issue is resolved.

The second major issue in this case involves more global ramifications.

What will this divestment accomplish, particularly in the case of South Africa? Proponents of the measure ar-

Liberty and Deprogramming - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - ,

Rights of the "Cultists1/ .

See DIVESTMENT, page 23

INSIDE

DONALD BAKER We conservatives hold nothing more precious than liberty - our freedom to choose and to choose again if we were wrong. The Declaration of Independence early called it an "inalienable right." 'We the People" put our pen to the Constitution to "secure the Blessings of Liberty to ourselves anq our Posterity." To us, liberty demands that neither the government, the majority, nor the minority, but each individual governs his course in life, and we despise "State paternalism," the governmenfs ever-present willingness to tell us, "Father knows best: We prefer to say, "Mother, I'd rather do it myself."

gue that because American MultiNational Corporations (MNC's) do business in South Africa, we as Americans indirectly support the discriminatory system of apartheid that exists there. (For those unfamiliar with the issue, apatheid involves racial segregation; a policy of political and economic discrimination against nonEuropean groups in the country. Such policies are actually written into the laws of South Africa.)

The proponents of P.A. 512 point to the United Nations' condemnation of the Republic of South Africa and the imposition of economic sanctions by the U.N. They also argue that there are other possible ways to invest our money. Their logic goes as follows: if enough investors withdraw their funds from companies involved in South Africa, these companies will decide to leave that country. If enough companies leave, the argument goes, the white South Africans will realize their mistake and allow more equality between the races.

The logic in this argument is erro-

Conservatives, of course, have always believed in economic libertyfreedom in the marketplace. While there are market imperfections and sometimes troubling government restrictions, we still believe, as did路 Adam Sinith in 1776, that consumer sovereignty - freedom of choice - is best. The individual should decide where he'll buy his favorite fastfood without the aid of government compulsion. And when we choose a Big Mac ove!" a Whopper, we would just as soon be allowed to do so, whether

See DEPROGRAMMING, page 22

THE SOVIET PEACE OFFENSIVE Analysis of the peace movement in the United States.

Gregory J. Pamel page 3 SPECIAL PRIVILEGES FOR THE UNSUPPORTED: A look at PIRGIM-UM. Editorial page 8 LOVE CANAL-Who's at fault? page 6 Eliminate the corporate tax. page 7

JCro\IVaing Out' by Spending The pressure is on for still another Federal tax hike as a supposed method of reviving the economy .

Since most economic thinking tells us you sho'..lldn't raise taxes in the middle of a recession, the logic of this position is hard to fathom. The main idea, apparently, is that enormous Federal budget deficits must be reduced. Such deficits scare the business community, "crowd out" private investors who want to borrow money, and keep interest rates high.

As everyone knows, the deficit problem is areal one, and so is the problem of "crowding out." But none of this adds up to a convincing case for added taxes. On past experience , such an increase is likely to make our economic troubles worse , instead of better.

"Crowding out" means private borrowers who want credit to expand the nation's economic activity can't get the money. There is only a certain amount of lendable funds in the economy, so dollars borrowed by the Federal government are dollars that can't be borrowed by someone else .

With Federal deficits growing by leaps and bounds, this is indeed a problem.

But will another tax hike solve it?

Such a hike would take money from businesses and private citizens just as surely as Federal borrowing-even more so. Not all of us have to borrow money. But all of us, one way or another, do have to pay for increased taxes. Money gobbled up by taxes "crowds out" the private sector at least as much as Federal borrowing.

The obvious point is that the total burden of government spending must be paid for. If taxes are raised to finance the spending, the paying is done directly. If there is a deficit , the paying is done indirectly . Either way , the government outlay transfers resources from private hands to public.

That is the real source of "crowding out."

While the politicos are quarreling about the right way to finance the burden of government spending, that burden continues to get bigger. It is this growth, not lack of revenue , that accounts for our tremendous defici.ts.

Despite all the talk about gigantic tax cuts, the Federal government last year pulled in $20 billion more in revenues than it did in 1981 . This occurred because increased receipts

Where-the edia'Elite Stand nation's shift from an industrial to Ienannintheinformation society, a new elite has risthe land. Its members work in the news media. They're the media's heavyweights, courted by politicians, studied by scholars. pampered by peers. Some of their bylines and TV images are familiar to millions_ They make up a new leadership group that " competes for influence aJongside more traditional elites representing business, labor, government, and other sectors of society," asserts a major study performed under the auspices of Columbia University's Research Institute on International Change.

The research was directed by S. Robert Lichter of George Washington University and Stanley Rothman of Smith College.

They have reported on their project in Public Opinion magazine, which says the find,ings raise "questions about journalism 's qualifications as an 'objective' profession."

T he study involved interviews with 240 journalists and broadcasters working for the most influential media outlets.-These include the New York Times, Washington Post, Wall Street Journal, Time, Newsweek, U.S. News & World Report, CBS, NBC, ABC .

Where stand the media elite ideologically?

Some 54070 o f leading journalists count themselves as liberals. OnJy 19070 describe themselves as right o f center. Even greater differences show up when they rate their cohorts. Fifty-six percent say the people they work with are mostly on the left and only 8070 on the right. Overwhellningly, the media elite vote for Democratic candidates in presidential elections. • T he big guns of the media come down on the liberal side of a wide range of social and political issues. They show special fondness

for welfare capitalism . Some 68070 believe the government should substantially reduce the income gap between rich and poor. Close to half feel the government should guarantee a job to anyone wanting one. Yet few are outright socialists. In fact, they stoutly spurn the notion that major corporations should be publicly owned. And they support a fundamental capitalist tenet that people with

greater ability should earn more than those with less ability.

Despite acceptance of the economic order, many top journalists express general discontent with the social order. A substantial minority - 28070 - favor overhauling the entire system through "a complete restructuring of its basic institutions." The same proportion take the view that all political systems are repressive because they concentrate power and authority in a few hands.

On international issues, a majority of the media elite believe U.S. economic exploitation has contributed to poverty in the Third World and that America 's heavy use of natural resources is "immoral. " By a three-toone margin, they reject the view that Third World nations would be even worse off with out the assistance they've received from the West.

In an information society, the upper-crust media practitioners are a telling force. "Cosmopolitan in their origins, liberal in their outlooks, they are aware and protective of their collective influence," Lichter and Rothman write. The group profiled by the study is "out o f step with the public," Public Opinion opines.

At least now there's scholarly confirmation of the ideological and political tilt of many of the folks who declaim daily, in print and on the tube. on the shape of the world.

UNITED TECHNOLOGIES

from Social Security tax hikes and inflationary bracket creep more than cancelled out the 10 per cent tax rate reduction .

Unfortunately, spending for fiscal '82 was $72 billion higher than for '81 ($729 billion vs. $657 billion) . Thus Federal outlays last year grew more than three times as fast as revenues.

(See table .) It was that discrepancy , rather than the "tax cut," which pushed the deficit to a record SIlO billion .

(Interestingly, the total increase in Federal spending, at a time of allegedly stringent budget-cutting, was roughly the same as under Jimmy Carter.)

According to current estimates, deficits for fiscal '83 and beyond are supposed to be even bigge r. It was for this reason that .Congress last summer adopted a five-year , $228 billio n tax increase , the largest in Ameri can history . This was supposed to redu ce the deficit , but has scarcely made a dent in it. The rapidly expanding budget has simply swallowed up the added money , and the deficits keep risin g Now we are told that still more tax hikes are needed to ge t the job done .

The bottom line on all this should be apparent: Our probl e ms are on the spending side of the ledger , not the taxing side. They will not be solved by still another tax hik e . Th e twin problems of deficits and "crowding out" are going to continue until Congress summons up th e ne rve to bring the machin ery of Federal spe nding under control.

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-Isms Socialism: You have two cows, and you give one to your neighbor.

Communism: You have two cows; the government takes both of them and gives you milk .

Fascism: You have two cows; the government takes both of them and sells you the milk.

Nazism: You have two cows; the government takes both of them and shoots you .

Bureauctacy: You have two cows; the govern ment shoots one of the m, milks the other and pours the milk down the drain .

Capitalism: You have tw o cows; you sell one of them and buy a bull.

The Bri tish Financial Times

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MARCH , 1983

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SPECIAL FEATURE The Mle....... Bevle.., he.

••••••••••••••••••••••••••••• There is nothing more difficult to carry out, nor more dangerous to handle, than to initiate a new order of things.

How the Soviet Union helped finance and create the peace movement "... I have asked Vice President Bush, in the city where East GREGORY J. P AMEL

PUBLISHER Thomas R. Fous EDITOR-In-CHIEF Ronald J. Stefanski MANAGING EDITOR Douglas A. Mathieson EXECUTIVE EDITOR T. H. Barnett ASSOCIATE EDITOR Peter Bauer

CONTRIBUTORS:

Emil Arca, Don Baker, Ted Barnett, Peter Bauer, Cynthia Fetty, James Frego, Douglas A. Mathieson, Eric McDonald, Gregory J. Pamel ' STAFF:

Annie Chalgian, Becky Lovell, Paula Ponsetto, Hemant Pradhan, Kevin Riley, Mary Villeneuve PUBLIC RELA11ONS: Dawn Otten; Jean Lesha, Assistant HONORARY AOVISORY eoARD: Paul W. Me~ ~ J, ';'of,,!'!!;" 'OOitium,'ptt., Fr&t<ihet

TOIUIOf. C. William ,'" '.

SUPPORTERS: Gerald R. Ford, R: Emmett Tyrrell, Russell Kirk, Irving Kristof ~

lltANKS: Lacy Advertising, Ann Arbor; Jeanne McClaren, Promotional Perspectives, Ann Arbor; Don OuBols, H&Z Typesetting, Ann Arbor

Happy Birthday Kim

THE MICHIGAN REVIEW welcomes and appreCiates letters from readers. Letters for publicatiOn . must include the writer's name, address and telephone number.

Those interested in submitting articles for pos· sible publication should send them to: The Michigan Review Suite One 911 North University Ann Arbor, MI 48109 Letters may be sent to the same.address In care of the editor, All letters and articles must be doubled·spaced.

We regret that we are unable to acknowledge or to return any unpublished material.

All articles submitted for publication will be reviewed by the editorial staff, Each article will be reviewed for both structure (style, grammer and .' flow) and for content.

The editorial staff will not change the author's opinion or the spirit of the artlcie - the Integrity of an article will be preserved.

Changes, however,.wlll be made for reasons of clarity. The writing style of the author will be maintained when posslbie. Those articles based on Incorrect facts or premises are unacceptable for print.

Articles that express opinions differing from those of any editorial staff member will not be rejected for that reason. Such articles, as any other, may be rejected for reasons of structural or factual basis. Articles printed will be selected on the basis of content value. The decisions of the Edltor-In-Chlef will be final.

Copyright 1982j by the Michigan Review, Inc.

It will be two years this February 23 that the late Leonid Brezhnev, addressing the 26th Communist Party Congress called for a world wide nuclear freeze - a moratorium on the development of all nuclear weapons systems. There is "currently no more important task on the international plane for our party, our people and all the peoples of the world than the defense of peace," declared Brezhnev.

And since that time, millions of individuals across Western Europe and the United States have been drawn into the peace movement. Most of these have been well-meaning and sincere people whose fear of nuclear war has given them cause to protest for "peace." Yet very few of these sensible people have ever questioned the origins of the movement or the "peace" groups involved. Few have realized that the Soviet Unionthrough Soviet front organizations - , from the V!!rybeginning,·' has'been, .involved in a massive propaganda campaign all in the name of "peace": facts have been distorted, truths omitted, information falsified and demonstrations unilaterally directed.

The final outcome of these efforts has been a "peace" movement aimed against the United States and its NATO allies, while very little has been said about Soviet foreign policy.

International Soviet front organizations have been in existence since 1921, when Lenin developed the idea of using various trade unions, youth groups and other social and cooperative organizations to spread communism. These "popular fronts" were designed to attract non-communists as well as communists in support of Soviet goals all under the guise of "peace." Mikhail Suslov, who headed the ideological warfare and propaganda campaign until his death in 1982, ref'erred to these fronts in the third meeting of the Cominform in 1949:

Particular attention should be devoted to drawing into the peace movement trade unions, women's, youth, cooperative, sport, cultural, educational, religious and other organizations ancialso scientists, writers, journalists, cultural workers, parliamentary and other political and public leaders.

The World Peace Council is the MARCH,1983

meets West, to propose to Soviet General Secretary Andropov that he and I meet wherever and whenever he VXlnts in order to sign an agreement banning u.s. and Soviet intennediate range land-based nuclear missile weapons from the face of the earth. n The words of President Ronald Reagan, read by Vice President George Bush in West Berlin on January 31, 1982

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largest and most influential of all the Soviet front organizations. Headed by Indian Communist Romesh Chandra, the World Peace Council slavishly parrots every Soviet foreign policy initiative dictated by the Kremlin. To ensure that Moscow's mandates are carried out, other KGB and poliburo representatives hold positions on the World Peace Council Secretariat in Helsinki. During its 33 years of existence, public record shows that the World Peace Council has not once deviated from the official foreign policy views of the Soviet UrUon. Soviet dissident Vladimir Bukovsky spent twelve years in Soviet prisons, work camps, and psychiatric (torture) hospitals before being released to the Westin 1976. In the May 1982 issue of Commentary magazine his article, "The Peace Movement and the Soviet Union," appeared. I have quoted from his article several times in revealing some of the facts about the "peace" movement few people know about or admit to.

On September 23, 1980, 2260 people from 137 countries gathered in Sophia, Bulgaria, for a conference of the World Peace Council, which is directly financed and controlled by the Soviet Union. The program unanimously adopted at the meeting (as stated in the World Peace Council's booklet Program for Action, 1981) condoned and encouraged the support of every major foreign policy initiative of the Soviet Union. In the Soviet newspapers Pravda (September 23, 1980-September 29, 1980, and November 5, 1980) and Izvetsia (September 23, 24, 27 and 28, 1980) one learns that in Septemb~r 1979, World Peace Council preparations for the Bulgarian conference had commenced. The main objective of the conference was the instigation of a peace 'offensive in the West which Bulgarian state and party leader Todor Zhivkov emphasized in his conference address: We must consider the efforts of ., social organizarlons and the II1a~Ses.. . .. To state this objectively, there is no other social movement capable of joining together dozens and hundreds of millions,

capable of orgamzlllg their efforts .... For the sake of this glorious goal (peace). we m\tst together find the paths leading toward coordination of the joint initiatives of all peaceloving organizations, movements and forces on a national as well as international scale,

Of the 700,000 people who marched in New York on June 12, 1982 in support of "Peace," few besides the organizers knew that it was part of a plan conceived in Moscow in 1979 and officially adopted in Sophia in 1980.

While the United States had killed or retarded most major programs to enhance its defense capabilities, the Soviets continued their military buildup at unprecedented rates. In the decade of the '70s, America did not deploy a single new Intercontinental Ballistic Missile (ICBM) nor a single new submarine-launched ballistic missile (SLBM) (and in fact withdrew 1000 nuclear warheads from Europe).

The Soviet Union, meanwhile, deployed its fourth generation of ICBMS-the 55-17, SS-18, and 55-19 as well as 300 SS-20 ICBMs each with three nuclear warheads, the latter, aimed at Western Europe, at the rate of one per week. In the spirit of detente, the Soviets were able to win major concessions from the West.

American and Western technology directly enhanced their military build-up and aided their foreign adventures. A Massachusetts firm, for instance, was providing ballbearings to the Soviets which were used to improve the accuracy of their ICBM while the Kama River truck factory built by Americans during this period produced the trucks that were used during the invasion of Afghanistan. What reasons did the Soviets have in September of 1979 to begin planning a peace offensive?

See "PEACE'; page 11 Gregory J. Pamel is a student at the University of Michigan Medical School.

His article on the Soviet use of chemical warfare in Southeast Asia and Afghanistan appeared in the first issue of The Michigan Review. page 3

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Washington's Middle East Policy

Executive Survey

Advice from the Top

路Tunnelvision

ERIC McDONALD Now that the present Israeli-Palestinian conflict has once again gained some global importance, many believe that peace is near. By cornering and pressuring the P.L.O., Israel has drawn world attention to the age-old Zionist-Palestinian dispute. For many of these observers, once accomodation between the Palestinians ana the Zionist is achieved, peace in the Middle East is assured. .

However, Israel and a Palestinian . fighting force are not the only elements in the Middle East. Though they have received most of the world attention, the bulk of the Middle East is owned and controlled by numerous Arab nations. These are nations which are not household names, nor are they immediately recognized on a map, but they could easily destroy any prospects for peace. Thus,. the Beirut bloodshed is not an ironic-prelude to Middle East stability. Rather, by slowly focusing all diplomatic attention on itself, the conflict has created a more serious threat to that area's stability.

The practice of regarding any Arab conflict as irrelevant to Middle East peace, and simultaneously viewing the Zionist-Palestinian quarrel as the sole obstacle to peace is nothing new in Washington. Recently, however, the practice has been what many observers refer to as the "imminent Soviet presence" scare. By building a Middle East policy based on the assumption that the Soviets were the main threat to that region's stability, Washington began strengthening the might of Israel at the cost of ignoring the numerous petty conflicts of the Arab world. These conflicts.- could grow into larger battles than the present Israel-Arab quarrel. Doomed is any foreign policy that emphasizes its creatorI', wishes and ignores regional concerns.

--Though such a policy was used by Washington as a pretext for re-armlng the Arab world, the only true benefactor of this policy has been Israel.

Israel has used Washington's "Soviet Threat to the Middle East" fear as justification for expansion of its West Bank settlements. Any protest from Washington has been met with the excuse that, as the only complete democracy in the Middle East, Israel is defending itself from the despotic' elements that surround her. As a page 4

postscript to this excus~ is the idea that such acts kept,Sovi~t agitators in line. Israel claims to be doing Washington a favor. Since Soviet containment is the theme of the new Middle East policy, more attention has been given to Israel and less has been given to the situation of Arabs living in Israel and its occupied areas. Com~ pounded with the problem of ignoring the dangerous growth of Arab quarrels is now the problem that such U.S.-excused Israeli behavior encourages the Arab nations to join the Soviet camp. The few moderate Arabic countries have begun to see America as Israel's puppet: though harsh words were used in the United Nations to condemn Israel, strong military pacts were signed in Washington. In short, the Arab world sees itself as an American pawn.

One can now clearly see that the Beirut crisis, with the world's attention, is exacerbating the present Arab problem: the long and bloody Persian gulf war. Hence, if we continue to pursue this "Soviet Scare" policy, we may weaken; not strengthen, our presence in the Middle East.

What is now being questioned by the Arab states is not Israel's existence, but its behavior. What threatens the Arab world most is not Russia's subtle imperialism but Iran's Shi-ite zealots. In short, internal strife, not Soviet take-over, is the Arabs' biggest concern. For Washington this should also be the case. Yet, we have seen that Washington's reaction to the Shi-ite instability element is similar to the diplomatic passivity in this country before World War Two. Though the U.S. has stated that it supports the Iraq government in its battle against the Shi-ite revolutionaries, very little has been done to prove it. If the U.S. goverJ1Illent does not commit itself to aiding the Arab nation in the war, a deterioration in American-Arab relations may soon follow. .

If Washington stays passive until its interests are in danger, then the Arab world will see that Washington cares very little for the Arabian nations.

They will come to believe that Washington views the rich Middle East as disposable at America's convenience.

They will come to believe that they are indeed a pawn of an Israeli ~ puppet.

Eric McDonald is a junior at the University of Michigan. He is' studying Russian and majoring in Business.

For those among us for whom success is measured in dollars, the road to the top is often difficult and confusing. If you are a member of this silent and much-maligned majority, the following information may be of interest. What follows are a few of the questions contained in an extensive survey of top business executives conducted by the Division of Research of the University of MiChigan's Graduate School of Business Administration.

For the student. -.. what would you recommend for a ... major . .. as the best preparation for a management career?

Undergraduate Major

Recommending

Graduate Study

Recommending

Engineering

33.5

Bus. Admin.

87.4

Bus. Admin.

30.6

Law

9.3

Hum. & Liberal Arts

19.9

Engineering

1.1

Social Science

10.5

Social Science

1.4

Other

0.8

%

Science and Math

4.5

Other

1.0

%

100% 100% Assuming the study of business administration best prepares a young person for a career in general management, how important are the following courses as a part of that preparation?

Course Business Communication Finance Accounting Marketing Computer/Info. Systems Personal/Ind. Relations International Business Statistics Advertising/Sales Promo.

Very Important Mean 1 2 1.351 71.4 22.7 1.406 64.7 30.9 1.544 57.9 32.5 1.848 38.1 43.1 1.883 31.7 50.9 路2.258 18.9 45.3 2.509 10.5 41.5 2.. 627 10.3 37.6 2.703 8.6 34.6

3 5.3 ~.5

7.5 15.2 15.0 27.7 36.4 34.4 38.7

Very Unimportant 4 5 0.5 0.1 0.7 0.1 1.7 0.5 3.2 0.5 2.3 0.1 7.2 0.8 9.6 1.9 14.2 3.4 14.2 3.9

Please indicate your judgement on the following aspects of business leadership:

Proposition

Percentage of Newly Promoted Executives In General In General Agreement Neutral Disagreement

"Regardless of the diversity among business firms there is a common core of requirements for successful business leadership."

96.6

1.2

2.2

"A common characteristic of outstanding' business leaders is their desire and drive for achievement."

98.2

1.2

'0.6

"Achieving a position of business leadership is largely the result of fortuitous circumstances rather than the individual's education and abilities."

29.7

8.4

61.9

"A truly liberal education requires an understanding of the role of business in our society."

81.4

13.0

5.6

"Symbolic" Effort A Waste ANN ARBOR'S PROPOSED MARIJUANA LAW

CYNTHIA FETTY Since the 1960s, when marijuana became a social and political issue, A mericans have become steadily more aware of the hazards associated with the drug. According to some studies, the effects of regular use include impairment of, memory, thinking, problem solving abilities, reading comprehension, and other types of learning. Besides affecting the brain, marijuana has been connected with fungus infections of the lungs, interference with the body's immune system and altered functioning of the enqocrine glands. Most peopie have heard of at least some of the problems, and are very concerned that others-especially young people - know the dangers of the drug and stay away from it. However, with all the best intentions, some people seem to lose SIght of their goal in the struggle to fulfill it.

For the past nine years, Ann Arbor has been a major liberal experiment in lenient drug laws. The five dollar fine for use of marijuana left Ann Arborites far greater freedom to use the

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drug. In the course of the past month, however, the experiment has come under increasing pressure. Mayor Louis Belcher and a group of citizens won a small victory in their long campaign to stiffen the city's drug law.

Their proposal to increase the penalty for marijuana use was passed by the city council with the necessary threefifths majority to place it on a citywide ballot.

Considering all the arguments of the mayor and-his supporters, one would assume that the "liveral" experiment had failed. Yet, in some opinions, that is not the case. Why the continued fight? According to Mayor Belcher, "1 don't want young people to perceive Ann Arbor as a loose community where they can enjoy marijauna with only a five dollar fine."

This proposed law would apparently then be a statement about the atmosphere of the community. But is the abuse of marijuana becoming more widespread? No one knows for sure.

Historically, no clear correlation exists between pot use and laws prohibiting it. In the Tate 1960s, when marijuana use was at its highest, pot

laws were at their stiffest. Offenders could be sentenced to 10 years in prison for use of the substance. Since then, laws have steadily eased, and the levels of use have gone both up and down.

Research by University of Michigan Social Psychologist Lloyd Johnston reveals a sharp decrease in use of marijuana since 1978. Daily use among high school seniors has declined from 11 percent in 1978 to seven percent in 1981. Johnston credits the decline to growing awareness of the health hazards related to marijuana use. According to a National Academy of Sciences report, "current prohibition on both use and sale (of marijuana) falls short of its goalprevention of use - and use d.oes not soar when it is decriminalized." If anything, strict laws increase the aura surrounding the drug and make it more appealing to young people.

Besides being ineffective, strict pot laws are expensive to enforce. Federal, state and local governments spend countless millions of dollars each year attempting to enforce laws. Theproposed new pot law for Ann Arbor,

however, wouldn't cost taxpayers much because, according to Ann Arbor Police Chief William Corbett, no increased enforcement is planned should the proposed law be accepted by voters. Mayor Belcher also admits that the proposed law would largely be symbolic of the community's stance on the issue.

Why the debate over a 路symbolic路 law? The mayor and his supporters apparently have not examined the issue closely enough. Their time, money and effort would serve more effectively in educating young people to the dangers of marijuana use. Or, perhaps, even more effective results could be obtained through educating parents.

In place of futile attempts to decrease drug use through stronger penalties, greater public awareness of associated dangers of abuse remains !'! the foremost need.

Cynthia Fetty is a sophomore studying psychology at the University of Michigan. ".<~:-

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Brickbats When the alcoholic beverage industry was offered a gift of almost total deregulation by the Reagan administration, the nation's distillers, brewers, and vintners turne,fi the color of Ripple. These captains of the grain and grape spoke right up and said they", d~ not wish to be freed.

Instead they'd like the federal government to set basic standards and preempt the 50 states' passing their own laws. Deregulation would save the government about $12 million a year, but the brewers say they want the government to tell them what they can put in their bottles and on their labels. Richard B. Thornburg, spokesman for the National Beer Wholesalers Association, said, "The industry has grown up with regulation and feels very confident with it." It's almost enough to make one a teetotaler.

Tarzan, everyone's favorite king of the jungle, got tangled in the vines of Yugoslavian censorship. Why? Old movies of the counterrevolutionary in loincloth have so corrupted the minds of socialist youth that they're

MARCH, 1983

jumping out of trees and aping the blood-chilling cry of Johnny Weismuller. Belgrade newspaper Politika quoted a leading orthopedist as saying the number of broken limbs and other injuries was up 15 percent during the month the movies were shown on television. Kojak may be next on the censor's hit list: the state lollipop collective couldn't handle it.

Canadian bureaucrats are no slouches when it comes to proposing idiotic regulations. The Canadian Transport Commission thinks that airlines should be obliged to provide a special seat at no extra charge to accommodate an obese passenger and a free seat to an escort of a handicapped passenger. There's been no word yet on exactly how the airlines are supposed to determine how fat a person must be to qualify for the benefit, but they're working on it - probably over lunch.

Being a federal government deadbeat hasn't stopped one young bureaucrat in the Department of Education from securing other forms of

credit. Senate investigators say the unidentified wastrel has steadfastly refused to pay a dime on a $40,000 graduate school loan he received from the government. This creative financier is one of 36,000 federal employees who've been able to avoid paying their debts because up until now, a federal law protected their paychecks from garnishment. A new law has been passed, but it remains to be seen how many employees will now pay up. Oh, our friend in the Education Department: He had no problem getting an $18,000 commer路 cialloan to buy a Porsche. Now when he takes Uncle Sam for a ride, he'll be able to do it in style.

Diplomatic immunity means never having to say you're sorry.

Nam Chol Oh, third secretary at the North Korean mission to the United Nations, is free as a bird, and there's nothing the cops can do. He is accused of sexually abusing a Bronx, N.Y., woman at a park while several members of the mission staff were picnicking nearby. The woman was grabbed from behind, thrown to the ground, and beaten as the diplomat attempted to rape her. She made a positive identification, but the State

Department stopped police from arresting the vermin. We certainly wouldn't want to offend the North Koreans, with whom we haven't had formal relations since the 1950s.

Why can't you find a cop on a New York subway? Because they're too busy handing out summonses to owners of clean, safe, and efficient vans that compete with the Metropolitan Transportation Authority. The MTA is afraid it will lose $50 million this year from riders who prefer the vans to the city's subways and buses.

City bus drivers who fear losing over路 time as business sags have on occasion forced vans off the road. Plainclothes cops from the city's crack anticrime squad' have taken more than an hour to write up summonsesusually at rush hour. Most of the tickets have been thrown out of court, but the cops are under orders from Mayor Koch to keep writing them up. Now that's protection for the subways.

*** Reprinted, with penmSSlOn, from the January 1983 issue of REASON, copyright (tJ 1981 by the Reason Foundation, Box 40105, Santa Barbara, CA 93103.

page 5

/V.

Laissez Faire!

i.

Ii

T. H. BARNETI

The, Truth about Love Canal l

"The irony is that the target of this smear, Hooker Chemicals, may very well have botched others of its many chemical. dumps, but not Love Canal."

Eric Zuesse

It isn't often that I'm able to catch the American media off guard. Accusations about the media's leftist-liberal bias abound, but they're very rarely substantiated. The bias is something one has to "feel" to understand.

But this time, I've got the goods. The case in point concerns the tragedy at Love Canal. The question is, what really happened there?

The popular tale reads something like this: in the spring of 1978, government officials discovered a significant level of chemical contamination in the Love Canal area. These chemicals were buried in the abandoned canal. The culprit in the case, Hooker Chemical and Plastics Corporation, had owned the property until 1953. The company had, with no regard for public safety, been burying highly toxic substances in the ditch for years. As time went by, rain waters allowed the chemicals to percolate up to the surface, thereby contaminating the neighborhood. The conclusion drawn by much of the media was predictable - the Love Canal tragedy was solely the responsibility of Hooker Chemical.

However, thi~ is not the case. Thorough investigation by REASON magazine reporter Eric Zuesse revealed an incredible web of government involvement in the disaster. In order to better understand the extent of the media's misperception, it's worth looking at some of Zuesse's findings.

The story began in 1953. In that year, Hooker Chemical, under threat of eminent domain seizure, sold the contaminated property to the Niagara Falls Board of Education. The Board, because of financial pressures, needed an inexpensive location for a public school in the Love Canal area.' They took a fancy for Hooker's property, which had been the site of chemical waste deposits since 1942, Rather than buy the land, which was financially impossible at the time, the Board considered opening condemnation proceedings on Hooker's canal property' and the property adjoining it. The threat worked, and Hooker Chemical instead opted for the sale of a $1.00 deed to the, land.

And here is the interesting part: Hooker Chemical was fully aware of the nature of the substances buried under their~ property - and yet they insisted on selling the contaminated site - for $1.00! Why? Perhaps because they had some concern not only for their own liability, but for future inhabitants of the area as well. This assumption is borne out by two facts. First, the dt;ed itself contained a clear warning stating that: " , .. the (Niagara Falls Board of Education) herein has been advised ... that the (Love Canal) premises have been filled, in whole or in part, to the present grade level thereof with

page 6

waste products resulting f~om the manufacturing of chemicals by (Hooker Chemical) .. " and the grantee assumes all risk and liability incident to the use thereof."

In order to guarantee that the members of the School Board knew what they were buying, Hooker then showed them the property. In the presence of School Board officials, 8 test borings were made into the canal area. Two of these borings revealed chemical wastes four feet below the surface. It is clear, therefore, that the members of the Niagara Falls Board of Education were aware of the property's contamination.

And yet, the deed was purchased. By May of 1953, construction of the 99th Street School had begun. Throughout the 3-year development of the property, peculiar decisions were made. As Zuesse reports, "On June 25, 1956, the architect wrote to the contractor for the school's playground, changing the location of the kindergarten play area 'so as not to interfere with the apparent chemical deposit. "' Problems with the buried wastes haunted the the construction effort from beginning to end. But never did the School Board suggest that the project be stoppeci.

Further evidence of Hooker Chemical's concern was displayed in 1957. When the Board began negotiations to sell some of its Love Canal property to developers, Hooker sent attorney Arthur Chambers to Niagara Falls. Anticipating the disaster that would later occur, Chambers told the Board members that. buried chemical wastes "made the land unsuitable for construction in which basements, water lines, sewers and such underground facilities would be necessary."

The accusation that Hooker Chemical showed no interest in the matter is completely unfounded. A brief glance at the local newspapers of the period' and School Board meeting transcripts clearly reveal this.

How, then, did the chemicals escape from their "tomb"? There are a number of possibilities.

First among these is the possibility that the wastes were improperly buried by Hooker Chemical. Evidence to support this assumption is sorely lacking. In fact, a private engineering firm hired by the city in 1979 came to the opposite conclusion. They reported that the site had been designed well within the standards of the Resource Conservation and Recovery Act of 1980. RCRA task force member Frank Rovers and EPA official William Sanjour agreed with this evaluation.

Whether or not Hooker had buried the chemicals properly, later intrusions into the canal walls assured escape of the wastes.

During initial excavation of the school building

site, the contractors unearthed "a pit filled with chemicals" and immediately stopped work in the area. The building site was subsequently moved 30 feet east when the architect decided that these chemicals "might be a detriment to the concrete foundations: In November of 1957, city workmen began laying a sewer line beneath Wheatfield Avenue, which lay across' the canal itself.

According to Zuesse this sewer pipe was laid 10 feet below the surface, on a gravel bed, and covered with gravel, providing a highly permeable violation of both canal walls. Any loose and liquid chemicals buried in this part of the Canal could now escape flowing, ,'. throughout the neighborhood.

If the chemicals had not already escaped, they certainly would now.

There is even evidence to suggest that the federal government was involved in the fiasco.

The June 7, 1980 issue of Science News contains a report concerning the Department of Defense's possible culpability. This report relates evidence that "the federal government engaged in extensive wartime and post-war manufacturing of munitions, nuclear materials and items of <::hemical warfare in the Love Canal region; that, , . toxic chemicals were disposed of improperly ... and that the government transferred parcels of dangerously contaminated property to private companies," What is truly amazing about this environmental disaster is not just the government's apparent involvement. What I find incredible is the distortion which passed for "reporting" at the time. Here is a shocking example of school board officials performing their "public duties" without regard for the safet~ of the local citizen. And yet the standard media coverage of the Love Canal case read like a left-wing scandal sheet. "Greedy Capitalists poison Love Canal" would be a fair summary of the typical story.

It takes a rare and determined reporter to uncover the truth in such matters. Eric Zuesse was willing to question the popular myths of "Capitalist Exploitation". For that reason, he and he alone was able to uncover the facts.

This incident provides a sad and frightening commentary on the U.S. media. If you are interested in more information on the tragedy, I suggest you read Zuesse's report in the February 1981 issue of REASON magazine.

The moral of the story is: Reader Beware!

What you read in your "Daily News" and what really happened may be two different things.

Ted Barnett is a junior in Computer Engineering andExecutiveEditor of the MICHIGAN REVIEW.

MARCH,1983

THE CORPORATE INCOME TAX President Reagan recently said that he would most 'likely kick himself for suggesting the abolition of the corporate income tax. Unfortunately, the next day he said that he had kicked himself. Reagan quickly allayed the fears of Washington taxaholics by assuring them that his administration is in no way considering such a proposal.

Should we repeal the corporate income tax?'I can only answer with a resounding "yes". I say this for several reasons. The tax is both unfair to the taxpayers and the poor, and it is a dangerous hindrance to the economy.

The corporate income tax in actuality is no more than a hidden tax on individual income. Businesses are taxed at rates that range up to 46% .

One often forgets , how'eve\, that corporations are owned by stockholders, who upon receipt of their dividends are taxed again. Ah, but you argue, most taxpayers are "rich" anyway.

What's wrong with taxing the .rich?

Taxing the / wealthy at a higher rate simply because they are rich is unjustifiable. Granted, that is how our present income tax system is struc-

ABOLISH IT DOUGLAS A. MATHIESON tured, but that does not make it right.

The call for "soaking the rich" is more a product of envy than justice.

The corporate income tax is not only unjust, it is impractical. In order for a business to thrive, it must realize profits. Profits provide the means for future expansion and long-term security. When those profits are taken from the company, the man. agers are left with only: one alternative: they must pass the loss on to the consumer. Higher prices result, and higher prices affect everyone, rich or poor. In this way, the corporate tax becomes another personal tax. Unfortunately, this hidden cost is rarely mentioned, and legislators are not . inclined to bring it up. The corporate income tax is a wonderful political tool. After all, who's willing to defend the profit-seekers? Too few of us, I'm afraid.

The tax also makes little economic sense. Taking money from produc-

tivemeans and transferring it to nonproductive means. is hardLy a service to the public interest (if there is such a thing). Can you tell me what the government produces besides waste, paper, and restrictions? Currently, the tax brings in ab9ut $60 billion a year to the federal government.

Removing this much money from the private sector means that the economy can never realize its full potential. It would be difficult to imagine how many new jobs, products, and factories have been destroyed as a result of thi\> system.

Another adverse effect of the tax is the distortions it imposes on the marketplace. It has fostered an incredible array of obscure credits and deductions that only an expert can understand. The legislators, in an attempt to help various "pet industries" (either for the people back home or simply for financial support at election time) have created this unintelligible web

of loopholes and bonuses. What this kind of meddling does is artificially make some businesses relatively more profitable than they would be in a free economy. So, in a sense, the economy is "fooled". As is normal, investment money will flow into those industries that offer the highest return. If things are not as they seem, however, the limited supply of investment capital is misdirected. One need only look at the Soviet Union to see what happens when the economy is not guided by the market.

The corporate incoml: tax is not only unfair, but a burden to the economy as well. The only logical thing to do would be to seek its repeal. Let us hope that the v9ice of logic 'rsstronger than a kick in persuading the President that he was right in the first place when he. said "there isn't really a justification for it." ~

Douglas A. Mathieson, Managing Editor of THE MICHIGAN REVIEW, is a junior in Political Science at the University of Michigan.

SCRAP/PIRG'I ., PETER BAUER

Ten years after its founding, students have now organized against the Public Interest Research Group In Michig~ (pIRGIM) on the University of Michigan campus. A small group calling itself t~e Student Committee for Reform and Progress (SCRAP) has launched a drive to halt PIRGIM's use of the University for fundraising.

Because they feel that too many students are unfairly hassled while waiting to register for classes, SCRAP organizers have circulated petitions to stop ..PIRGIM's use of Student Verification Forms (SVFs) to solicate donations. SCRAP organizer Dan Baker claims PIRGIM volunteers "hassle and chastise" students who decline to sign the donation slip attached to their SFV. Baker notes despite this fact, only 22 percent of the student body actually does contribute.

SCRAP was founded by Baker and fellow engineering junior Ray Despres last fall over "a couple of beers." The group now includes some two dozen members, including libertarians, moderates and conservatives.

A petition drive aimed at stopping preferential treatment for the consumer protection groap was organ-

. ized overnight. In less than o~e week, thousands of signatures were collected from students at various locations around the Ann Arbor campu~ . Baker calls the student response "tremendous," and notes that many of the students who signed the petitions do regularly contribute to PIRGIM, but feel the .special treatment is unfair.

Baker and Despres say their group differs from PIRGIM in many ways, the most notable being the "grassroots" nature of SCRAP. They note that PIRGIM, while student-controlled, supports a professional lobbying staff

in the 路 state capital. According to Baker, PIRGIM goes far beyond any other student organization. He says a decision by Judge Arlin Adams against the New Jersey PIRG noted the group was "a political entity devoted to the attainment of certain fixed ideological objectives." Baker says the same holds true of the Michigan organization.

Baker said, "We are not 5,0 much opposed to PIRGIM as we are to the group's fundraising techniques. They do some good, and some things that we disagree with, but the main issue is one of privilege. The present sys- '

tern is unfair to the vast majority of students who don't support the organ; ization. A public university's facilities should not be used for political purposes, espedally over the wishes of the majority of tl}e student body. The university should not be used as a money changer by a political group."

SCRAP will deliver their petitions to the University of Michigan's Board of Regents prior to the Regent's decision on a new fundraising plan for PIRGIM. PIRGIM has requested an opportunity to automatically bill students $2 .00 as a donation that would be refunded if the student so requests.

According to Baker, despite the fact that many students are opposed PIRGIM'S fund raising in the past, no organized opposition to the group has ever been presented to the Regents.

He notes that, should the Regents not act upon the SCRAP .petitions, other avenues will be considered. ~

Peter Bauer, the Associate Editor of THE MICHIGAN REVIEW, is a former radio news director and is currently studying journalism at the University of Michigan . ,i'

MARCH,1983

page 7

gIe

The

PIRGI

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nomlcs:

Immoral at any Price Consumer advocacy groups are a v ital part of a functioning free market. Free trade relies not only on an unregulated exchange of material goods, but also on a two-way flow of information. Without an open exchange of ideas and opinions between buyers and sellers, educated transactions cannot occur. Consumer advocacy groups facilitate this exchange, and we therefore applaud any such effort.

Unfortunately, organizations claiming to represent the elusive "public good" are less subject to scrutiny than those seeking only profit. The label "consumer advocate" is often sufficient to silence any inqlJiry regarding motives or tactics. After all, we are told, how can one criticize an organization whose sole purpose is the protection of society's interests?

It is our belief that the Public Interest Research Group In Michigan (pIRGIM) deserves careful examination. The organization was founded in 1972, in response to student petitions. At present, PIRGIM-UM maintains 10 projects. They range from a toxic waste task force to a woman's safety group. All of the organization's various projects . deserve some comment, but the current issue is funding. For many years , PIRGIM has benefited from a special privilege-a special place, not in our hearts, but on our Student Verification Forms (SVFs). Students have been asked, wh~le waiting to register, to detach and sign a piece of their SFV which authorizes the university to add $2.00 to the individual's tuition bill: two dollars to help fund PIRGIM. PIRGIM was deemed important enough to receive that spot on the SVF many years ago. It has received that privilege while other groups have not. Groups as worthy as the American Red Cross, the Lung Association, CARE, and Muscular Dystrophy, to name a few, have not had this privilege.

Now, however, PIRGIM apparently feels that's not good enough. PIRGIM wants an even bigger privilege . The group wants that $2.00 "donation" automatically added to each student's tuition bill. The money would be refunded, but only if the individual student makes a special effort to fill out and return a card that would be enclosed with the tuition bill. The burden then falls even more heavily on the student. Currently, the student must simply sign the one section of the SVF to contribute. Or, if the student chooses not to contribute, not sign the section - and fend off the PIRGIM representatives ,haunting the CRISP lines, Under the proposed "refusable-refundable" system, students not wishing to contribute to this organization must make the effort to return the enclosed card ... make an effort to decline to make a "voluntary" contribution. (By the way, who bears the cost of the cards-and

page 8

of processing the information on them?)

For various reasons the leaders of PIRGIM have decided that the current system of solicitation, despite the special privilege it involves, is not good enough. Is this because not enough students are choosing to fund the group? Do the decision-makers at PIRGIM expect to increase their income through student oversights?

The refusable-refundable system raises, in our minds, questions about the principles guiding PIRGIM. It is oUI belief that the group, supposedly organized to protect - among others-the very students it will be "billing," is actually betraying them. The group apparently believes it is now an institution, deserving of greater special privileges to protect its financial position. Is PIRGIM not receiving the funding it desires? If not , is it because students are choosing not to support the group? Could PIRGIM gather the same number of petitions signatures today as it did in 1972? Does it have the support it did then? If not, does PIRGIM deserve special privileges at all?

In order to better understand the group's position on the matter of funding, we examined a flyer entitled "Questions and Answers about PIRGIM ," a flyer put out by the group, and therefore apparently representing official positions. In the flyer, we are told that, "It is clear from our own experience as well as the experience of other PIRGs that the pass-the-hat fundraising techniques of the car wash, bake sale or donation (italics added) variety can no more support a PIRGIM than they can a student newspaper or a university." Apparently, the leaders of PIRG1M ' consider the current system of solicitation a "donation." But what do they consider the newly-proposed system of funding if not a donation? Does the word "bill" seem more accurate? Or, perhaps, the word "tax"?

The flyer also states "PIRGIM, by virtue of having ... a voluntary system, is forced to employ Madison Avenue techniques of 'selling' projects to gain support." "Madison Avenue

techniques" is a phrase that con notes slick , and possibly misleading, advertising . Are not PlRGIM's proj ects good enough to stand on their own before the students? Would not a simple information program suffice to show the worth of PIRG 1M's proj ects? Would not such a program of information be wo rth w hi le anyway? How many students kn ow about the various PIRGIM projects now - even am ong those who currently help fund th e group?

The PIRGIM flyer assures us that the proposed system of funding is fair to all students even "the minority of students who do not wish to support PIRGIM's work because they never have to part with any money if they don't w a nt to ." This definifion of "fair" leads us to co nclude that the leaders of PlRGIM have a warped sense of justi ce. No matter how small the effort one must mak e to recover one's own mon ey, we don't see requiring such an effort as "fai r."

- Again , what makes PIRGIM more spec ial than any other group? The group marches behind the flag of "protection for the littl e guy" while attempting to force the "little guy" into a position of having to protect himself from an unwanted intrusion into his wallet.

For a supposed "consumer advoca cy" group .

PIRGIM exhibits a curious lack of respect for its constituency. In its struggle to protect the consumer, the organization has become the very kind of institution it reputedly opposes .

This fact brings into question the motive s of the PIRGIM directors. Are they out to protec t citizens or are they only out to get Big Business? (We await an answer.)

PIRGIM not only doesn't deserve the right to make us work to keep our own money, it doesn't deserve a spot on the SFV. Though we are not asking PIRGIM's leaders to wash our cars or bake us cookies, we do feel that the group can solicit funding using the same technique as other non-profit groups- such as informing the public about their projects, with the hope that the public will find the projects worthy of support.

PIRGIM's stand in the refusable-refundable debate leads us to an uneasy conclusion: that Michigan students are no more than pawns in the group's game. We are little more than a means to a political end. And if we're not co ntributing enough to PIRGIM , they'll tak e it from us. ~

The opinions expressed in this editorial represent the opinion of the editors. Opinions expressed in other articles in this journal may, but do not necessarily, reflect the sentiments of the editors.

The individual authors assume full responsibility for the accuracy and intent of their work.

MARCH,1983

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--()~ ~evievv:---~-·---------·--·---··---------------letters I find (The Michigan Review) to be an interesting commentary and appropriate in view of Ann Arbors "liberal establishment", Do I agree with its contents, much but not all. Oh well, that's what you intend isn't it?

Roger W. Kallock Cleveland, OH Wishing you great success in this endeavor. It is gratifying to have an opposite view presented, Tim Zerucha Southfield

I

church serve as a moral governor that limits extreme displays of human depravity, she also expal1ds the lofty heights of moral achievements!

Today's secular humanists, and the universities' intellectual elite will find, after garnering all their weapons to attack the chuch, that not even a chip will be broken from this impregnable rock.

Pastor Stan Carter Liberty Christian Chapel Ypsilimti, MI

The first issue of the Michigan Review was precisely what I hoped it wouldn't be-a smug, radical journal which seriously misrepresents liberal Can't express how delighted I am thought in pursuit of its arguments. I with your new venture, Finally we may have a voice - stay in there we am disappointed.

When I am asked to label myself need you. politically, I say that I am a liberalMrs. Arthur Getz but not a bleeding heart. That is to Grosse Pointe say that I am a person seriously commited to certain principles which are considered to be left-wing-and not a .., simpering reactionary full of vaguely . idealistic rhetoric. I am also not a Congratulations on your maiden communist. I, too fear the Orwellian issue of The Michigan Review. In safe· picture'of the totalitarian state which guarding the tradition of liberty in pokes its fingers into every aspect of our great Republic, thetprinted word our private lives. I believe that indiis more powerful than an arsenal of vidual liberty and the power of the powerful weapons. people expressed in Jhe democratic Your' unclassified ads section was humorous but I do take exception to process should be protected with the "Learn Hypnotism" ad, every ounce of courage we can musThe influE!nce and work of evangelter. It is not this reason that I am a ical churches as well as the influence fibera!. and work of most ecclesiastical or· There are indeed those on the left, ganizations have been misrepresenwho are statist and even totalitarian ted and sadly misunderstood in rein their outl60k (I've spoken to revocent years. If the truly amazing phe· lutionaries who don't believe there is nomenona of the earth were listed I .any such thing as individual liberty. am certain the church or religious or· According to this school of thought, ganization would place high on the people are essentially members of an economic class and "freedom" can list!

Far more important than governonly be achieved through the promoment or the law enforcement agention of "class interests" - at whatever cost) but the;y represent a very small, cies or even (at the risk of being extreme group. For the m0st part, licalled a heretic) our educational instiberalism seeks to further democratize tutions is the church or religious organizations! our society; to create a system in which opportunity is based on merit A review of the history of humanity rather than financial resources and throughout all ages and political systems, clearly demonstrates, the overthe wealthy do not have a monopoly riding influence of religious ideoloof power over the economy. Liberals gies! A ruler or government ignores support such things as labor unions, this fact at their peril! profit-sharing and anti-trust laws beChurch offerings is individual char- , cause they tend to ward off the inevitable consequence of a "free and open" ity at its zenith! Not the government but individual.wage earners determine economy - the consolidation of power and wealth into fewer and fewer for themselves the use and purpose of their charity by those singled out for hands - and thus, protect the integrity their gifts. Nothing could be more of our democracy. It .is the liberal democratic! view that the wealthy are not the national masters of 'society and, The services rendered to the comtherefore, it is the right of the people munity by church organizations are to resist the antidemocratic aspects of incalculable. Not only does the

MARCH,1983

unbrideled capitalism.

Your newspaper seems to assume that all liberals are either scheming Stalinists out to destroy democracy or half-witted Jane Fonda groupies with no real understanding of politics whatsoever. N.either of these impressions gives credit to the great liberal tradition which gave birth to the New. Deal and the labor movement. Satire has its place, but one does not make a good point of making fun of one's opponent. Nor is the ca~se of truth promoted by presenting false impressions.

James D. Melton Holly, MI

To the Cold-Hearted Capitalists in Reagan Youth Clothing A.K.S. The Michigan Review Staff Welt well, if ever we needed another joke book, the so-called Michigan Review certainly takes the cake.

U. of M. is sure to lose some more rating points in the academic world now that this dimwitted delicatessen of sophomoric antecdotes has hit the stands. , Just what are you people making a mockery of anyway? Who cares if we're /Winning the War on Wall Street?" What does a long-term unemployed individual care if a $100 buys $100 worth of goods if he or she . doesn't have a job to get the $lOO? Can Mr. Stefanski answer that? Mr. Stefanski knows that there are more people unemployed than are reaping in the benefits of Wall Street. And what type of people receive these benefits? Less than 7% of the U.S. population makes more than 50 grand a year. It does not take a scholar to see that a lot more than the 10% unemployed nationwide are suf~er­ ing. But the high-income slobs would have the rest of us believe that all of us will benefit.

Who does winning the War on Wall Street help? Not the average Joe Blue from Kalamazoo, but a powermongering David Rockerfeller and the other conservative finks in blue pin-striped suits,who cover up their selfish interests in the name of free enterprise. .

You are right on one point, though, dear money messiahs. There is no one known solution to our current economic doldrums that will simultaneously solve the problems of inflation and unemployment. But it is the same minds like yours that preach the same hard-assed views like "Let's return the death penalty!" If you people truly want to solve prbblems,

why not attack the roots rather than the products. Surprisingly, your engi· neering publisher must not be listening to what's being taught in the classroom about construction systems with quality and care. He sounds like a good example of the once personally believed myth of the calculatorbelted, pencils in the soiled tee-shirt pockets type, who solves equations without checking to see if they're outdated or outmoded.

Looking at your list of supporters and staff, one wonders if they all had to fill out a questionnaire like this one: 1. How do you solve famine in an underdeveloped country? a. Stuff cake in their faces b. Nuke 'em c. Make them a commonwealth of the U.S. and establish a minimum wage like $ .101 hour d. All of the above 2. How do you improve relations between the U.S. and the Soviet Union? b. Nuke 'em b. Stuff cake in their faces c. Make them a commonwealth of the U.S. and e$tablish a minimum wage like $.10/ hour d. All of the above 3. How do you negotiate with striking workers? a. Stuff cake in their faces b. Tell them we're winning the W ar ~n Wall Street c. Nuke em d. Establish a new minimum wage like $ .1O/hour e. All of the above 4. How do you tell a liberal from a conservative? a. They are not wearing a preppy shirt. b, They are not wearing a WJ.N. button. c. They have cake on their face. d. They own an autographed can of Billy beer. e. All of the above Like the questionnaire? Well, why don't you people make cakes instead of journalistic crap. And you, dear editor, and you too, Mr. Publisher, may take the first bites and choke on them.

Gary Jensen Ann ArboT, MI Thank you for your eloquent remarks, Mr. (or do you prefer "comrade"?)

Jensen. Your analysis of the current economic situation cannot be rebutted, not in a journal of this length.

page 9

--------- c u EMIL AReA You hear it everywhere. Young people are acting and dressing more conservatively today.

A feature article in Time last year began: Crusading campus journalists: the phase seems an echo from the dawn of the 1970s, when liberal young men and women in weathered jeans and lumberjack flannels would rail impassionedly at college deans and Uncle Sam for supposed indifference to the will of the people. In the years since,campuses all but fell silent. Now students are crusading again, attacking the same targets but from a diametrically opposite direction: the right.

And they are presumably not doing so in weathered jeans anp lumberjack flannels. Looking around the University of Michigan, the publisher of this review noted in the first issue that, "Polos and Izods are more prevalent on campus than fatigues and flannels on any given day." In fact, the changes in style that have taken place are even more widespread than this comparison suggests. Observations that such changes have taken place are now common, but the roots and meaning of these changes have been overlooked. A few problems in discussing the significance of contemporary fashion should be dealt with first.

Problems with Fashion Clothing is part of our public architecture. The panorama of a street scene offers a cultural statement that hundreds of individual decisions have created. However, when they are separated from meaning, changes in fashion can also embody some of our culture's worst characteristics. In the early seventies Christopher Booker came up with the term neophiliathe love of novelty that seems to dominate modern culture. A few years later, in an intellectual history of the post-1945 period, Roland Stromberg could cite only one example of resistance to this phenomenon: the failure of the maxi-skirt. The Kinks' Ray Davies mocked a "Dedicated Follower of Fashion" in the swinging London of the 1960s, noting he was in polka dots one week, in stripes the next. Little has changed a decade and a half later when styles among certain young people in London seem to change seasonally (punk, neo-mod, two-tone, pirate look, New Romantic.)

Meaningless changeleaves conservatives with a bad taste. In an essay

page 10

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From Radical Chic to Conservative Styles:

An Essay on Fashion on conservatism, the political philosopher Michael Oakeshott observed, "I can think of only one activity of this kind which seems to call for a disposition other than conservative: the love of fashion, that is, wanton delight in change for its own sake no matter what it generates."

Others resist attaching significance to changes in fashion because of the putative superficiality of fashion. Indeed, fashion may be superficial when separated from meaning. No better example can be found than most of the regular guests on television talk shows who turn up each time wearing the latest fashion. In contrast, their behavior, acts, and idiotic chatter have not changed much since the last time they were on. The gap between the two jars the viewer and makes him aware of their superficiality. Since these celebrities have no sense of proportion or relation to their clothing, they violate Polonius's advice to the departing Laertes: "Costly thy habit as thy purse can buy,! But not expr.ess'd in fancy; rich, not gaudy:/For the apparel oft proclaims the man." Such people look especially ridiculous and ill-fitted in newly fashionable conservative, elegant, and subtle styles, for their conversation sounds anti-conservative, nothing about them is elegant, and they work in a business that largely punishes the subtle and rewards the loud and the vulgar.

Nor is style always what it should be-a manifestation of individuality.

In his 1982 single "Uniforms," Pete Townshend captured the paradox of conformity and individua-lity in fashion: "I am frightened, you are frightened! Should we get our trousers tightened?/ Where in Brighton is the norm! Who wears the enlightened uniform?" Thus, although "People think we' dress alike to segregate identities," a few lines further on, "They feel so warm when they conform." And yet the uniform is still a source of identity at the end of the song: "But the State and their computers make me run for comfort in! My uniform'! In uniform I feel like a king./I The line between those who wear a certain style with a conscious intent

and those who only pick up the spirit of the times is not always easy to draw. Take something as formal and ubiquitous as the rugby shirt. There are at least two levels of awareness among wearers of such shirts. Most often, the wearer buys the shirt because it is neat, modest, colorful, and popular. This person is committing a cons~rvative act only in so far as he desires to be in harmony with his society, rather than displaying allegiance to a counterculture that rejects societal norms of taste and neatnesS. A second level of awareness is evident in the person who likes the shirt and knows of its identification with the English prep school Rugby and the game named after it. This person is emulating a style coming from his society's upper class, which, these days, he would probably like to join.

One can contrast this orientation of that of students a decade ago who deliberately expressed disdain for their own backgrounds by trying to dress as they thought members of a mythical proletariat did. That the rugby shirt's origins are in athletics does not matter, for among contemporary fashions with such an orientation, none are more successful than those associated with the leisure activities of the well-to-do: polo, tennis, yachting.

The rugby shirt also evokes images of chivalry and medieval knights. In his fascinating study of the medieval revival in 19th century England, The Return to Camelot: Chivalry and the English Gentleman, Mark Girouard re-

counts how widespread the chivalric ideal was. As part of this revival, the style of football jerseys at Rugby was inspired by Walter Scott's descriptions of the tournament in Ivanhoe and by S. R. Meyrick's illustrated Critical Inquiry into Ancient Armour. The heraldic stripes on the knight pictured on page 238 of Girouard's book resemble those one might see on any college campus today.

ion; the other is classic and represents a quieter style. Both of these styles will be discussed in turn.

The best known of the historical styles is that of the English gentry of a few decades ago, transmitted to us by the hugely successful PBS series Brideshead Revisited and the Oscar路 winning film Chariots of Fire. To be sure, films often start fashion trends: in 1963, Bonnie and Clyde put Fay Dunaway on the cover of Life as Bonnie, "Fashion's New Darling" and in 1965, William Manchester recounts, Dr. Zhivago "inspired fashion fads for huge' fur hats, thigh-high boots, and coat hems that swept the ground." These fashions were excuses for the fad-happy 1960s to indulge in constant change and excess, the chief characteristics of that decade. In con路 trast, Brideshead Revisited and Chariots of Fire are linked to the spirit of our times in a more direct way: they have struck a nerve, a vague feeling of nostalgia for a more ordered and elegant world.

Brideshead's sympathetic reception would have been unthinkable only a few years ago. Evelyn Waugh, whose novel the series faithfully followed, had faded from the popular imagination and among critics was apprecia路 ted mostly as a skilled satirist. Tom Wolfe, an admirer of Waugh, wrote that "during the last decade of his life his stock sank very low ... In his writing he immersed himself so deep路 ly in the fashions of his times that many critics regarded him as a snob first and an artist second." And yet. there is Brideshead on PBS, with all its references to homosexuality, turning out to be a Catholic novel; commentary by William F. Buckley, Jr.; photos fro'm the series illustrating numerous magazines as evidence of the wave of nostalgia; landing Evelyn Waugh, arch-reactionary, in People magazine Pl as one of the most interesting people in 1982, notwithstanding the fact that he died years ago.

The success of Chariots of Fire is equally remarkable. Its two protagonists draw strength from their religions (one is Jewish, the other Protestant).

The unsung hero of the film is a young aristocrat who has already won an Olympic medal and in the best of chivalrous tradition recounted

See STYLES, page 12 Conservative Styles Conservative styles today can be divided into two heavily overlapping categories: one is historical and belongs to the tradition of stylized fash-

Emil Arca is a former editor of the MICHIGAN JOURNAL OF POLITICAL SCIENCE and is currently a student at the University of Michigan Law School.

MARCH,1983

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"PEACE"

science of human kind." (Notice the similarity in rhetoric to young leftists From page 3 on U.S. college campuses). On the Several events developing at that·· same score, peace lovers may sell arms to "progressive" regimes and to time provide an answer. To begin "liberation movements" but sales of with, the Soviet Union was planning arms. to nonprogressive regimes is the invasion of Afghanistan (which deemed "abhorrent." took place in December, 1979). This For Afghanistan, the program calls event, along with prior Soviet backed for a "week of solidarity with special interventions in Somalia, Angola, emphasis on support for a political Vietnam and Kampuchea would cersettlement as proposed by the Afghan tainly bring an end to detente. A peace movement in the West could . -government." "Solidarity" support is also proposed for the totalitarian govdivert attention from both Afghaniernments of Ethiopia and Kampustan and the numerous arrests the chea. On the Issue of Israel and the Soviets had begun in their own counMiddle East, the World Peace Country, thereby hindering any action cil conference urged "Support for the Western governments might take in peace forces in Israel in their struggle response to the invasion. In particufor the complete withdrawal of Israel lar, a decision by NATO allies on the development and deployment of new from the occupied territories and for the realization of the inalienable theatre nuclear weapons in Europe in rights of the Palestinian people." Furresponse to the growing number of thermore, it proposed a "campaign of the Soviet's SS-20s was imminent. solidarity with the Arab peoples in The invasion of Afghanistan all but their struggle to liquidate the political guaranteed the decision and it was and military consequences of the finalized in December, 1979.

Camp David and Washington accords; Among the 330 political parties, solidarity actions with Libya against 100 international and over 3000 national governmental organizations threats of aggression by the Egyptian present in Sophia were such devoted regime and U.S. imperialism ... n On the human rights issue, the conlovers of peace as Yasir Arafat of the ference conveniently ignored. Soviet Soviet-funded Palestine Liberation bloc .violations of the Helsinki ac. Organization and an official of the cords, but not surprisipgly did pass a Soviet puppet regime iIi Afghanistan. .This. ""as not "surprising since at the resolution utging.a campaign for the World Peace CouIicil's 1975 New ~relea5e' of· politicalprisOuers in the United States of America." The only Stockholm Campaign (which procountries that the 2260 delegates moted Western disarmament). the World Peace Council presidential from 137 countries recognized human committee aw~rded its Joliot-Curie right violations in were EI salvador, Chile, Bolivia, Guatemala, Haiti, Gold medal for "peace" to Yasir Ar~fat Israel, Paraguay, Uraguay, Indonesia, and to Brahm Fisher, the latter a South Korea, Northern Ireland and white Afrikaner member of the South the United States.

African Communist party who led Finally, the program denounced the terrorist arm of the African "the vast machine and arms buildup National Congress in the early 1960s of the most aggressive forces of and was serving life imprisonment imperialism which seek to take the for his terrorist crimes. It was no surworld toward a nuclear abyss; to the prise either that the Sophia conferfalsehoods and lies 9f the propaganda ence did not demand the immediate in favor of the arms build up, which withdrawal of Soviet troops from are disseminated through imperialistAfghanistan. The program, which the controlled mass media." In reference attenders of the conference unanito the U.S. and its allies, ("the most mously adopted, called for the "eliaggressive forces of imperialism"), mination of all artificial barriers to this mandate was continually stressed: world trade" - in other words it allowed the Soviets access to all "further intensification of actions against the deployment of the new Western goods and technology U.S. weapons of mass annihilation in (directed at the grain embargo imWestern Europe." Accordingly, no posed by President Carter at the time).

The program provides ~ clear inter- . mention was made of the Soviet S5-4, S5-5 and SS-20s targeted at Europe. pretation of "just" and "unjust" wars: The majority of the program passed "The policy of destabilization of in Sophia has been implemented in progressive regimes in developing Europe and America including desigcountries actually constitutes an agnated weeks for the collection of siggression waged by psychological, econatures on petitions and for a series nomic, political and other means, of mass demonstrations in Europe including armed intervention." Similar which the conference declared should actions taken against "racist and fasbe held during United Nations Discist regimes should be favorably conarmament Week tOctober 24-31, strued since the existence of these 1981) and did occur. The conferences regimes "is abhorrent to the con-

which in fact occurred during that period include (a World Peace Council-sponsored) Continental Meeting of North American Youth for Peace, Detente and Disarmament (Oct. 23-25, 1981) in Montreal, Canada, Mobilization for Survival Nuclear Weapons Facilities Task Force Conference (Oct. 23-25, 1982) which included some 46 national and local disarmament organizers in Nyak, New York, as well as a meeting to launch the Campaign for the Second Special Session on Disarmament (Oct. 30, 1981) which included 200 representatives from 72 groups. Was it merely a coincidence that these conferences and mass demons'trations took place on dates designated by the 198.0 Sophia conference of the World Peace Council? Bukovsky first pointed out this coincidence in an article published in the London Times on December 4, 1981, although his 'claims were dismissed by the Soviet Union in Literatumaya Gazetta (December 23, 1981) and by the British peace group, Campaign for Nuclear Disarmament (CND). In his Commentary article, Bukovsky puts his critics' charges to to rest with a few undisputable facts: The Soviets in Literaturnaya Gazetta lDec. 23, 1981) and the eND leaders in. the London Times lDe2elIlber 29, 198t)m:ade much of the fact that UN Disarmament week had originally been designated as an annual observance by the UN General Assembly as early as June 1978. One must ask however why nothing happened during that all important week in 1978 or 1979 - even the Sophia meeting was scheduled in September, not October of 1980 - until details for its observance were specified by the Soviet inspired program? Moreover if one looks through the Final Document of the Assembly Session on Disarmament (May 23-July 1, 1978) issued by the UN, one can find hundreds of designated weeks, months, years and decades all totally ignored by our peace lovers whereas the suggestion singled out.,by the Soviets was the one, the only one to gather thousands in the street.

In November, 1980 less than one month after the Sophia conference, West German Communist Josef Weber, with his support group the German Peace Union, launched a petition campaign in Cologne called the Krefeld Forum. Working with representatives of the Green Party (Germany's left-leaning ecology party), small trade unions groups, German Evangelical church groups, sincere pacifists and other noncommunists, Weber had gathered 1.5 million.~i$natures by the time former Soviet President Leonid Brezhnev visited B9nn in November 1981. The

Forum, directed specifically against NATO, called upon the government to reverse its "erroneous and fatal decision" authorizing the stationing of new American theatre nuclear weapons on German soil. The German Peace Union was later exposed as a Soviet front organization (more on this later). .

Another major group involved in the 'peace' movement that has echoed the directives of the World Peace Council has be.en the British Cam- ' paign for Nuclear Disarmament (CND), the largest group of its kind in England. If one looks through the CND booklet, Why We Need Action Not Words by Betty England, the following passage appears reflecting the kind of 'peace' this group promotes: "The intervention in Afghanistan may well have been caused partly by the Soviet Union's fear of its growing encirclement. The fear cannot be called unreasonable ... " (p. 12). Ms. England neglected to point out that Poland, Romania, Mongolia and Finland also pose a threat of "encirclement" to the Soviet Union giving it reason to invade them as well. That 2.7 million Afghans killed since the invasion seems to merit no criticism from the CND is remarkably consistent with the attitude adopted by the World Peace Council. The eND group even had the audacity to praise themselves for not ·overreacting" to martial law in Poland. Nor is there any mention in Ms. England's booklet of the hundreds of S5-20s already aimed at Europe. When President Reagan, in November, 1981, proposed cancelling American plans to deploy Pershing II and cruise missiles in Europe if the Soviet Union would dismantle the S5-4, 55-5, and 55-20 missiles it has s~tioned on the continent, the CND denounced the proposal as one "mainly about propa~ ganda and not about disarmament."

Even one of CND's own members, John Braine, who has subsequently resigned from the organization, was quoted in fteader's Digest as saying, lithe CNO reaction to the Reagan

See "PEACE': page 14

page 11

MARCH,1983 ('

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People roll on the floor when they hear . advertised as retro. Upon going inthose idiocies. side, one found that shirts like the "Me, I'll believe in them until my turn-of-the-century one mentioned death."

From page 10 above predominated: striped; with"1 believed in them too. When 1 read the Manifesto I had a flash. Then

by Girouard, offers to give up his last' out a collar, to be worn buttoned; or everything became clear." with a rounded collar, to be worn race so that one of the protagonists "And what remains of this flash?" with a tie. Before they acquired the can run without violating his reli"Nothing. Nothing more. All that's chic appellation retro, these shirts gion's injunction against such activity in that old book is false. Capitalism is were known as "grandfather's shirt." on the Sabbath. In noting Chariots's in agony: that's false. The proletariat is Nor was this style divorced from going to free itself from its chains: success, National Review expressed that's false, that's extremely false. meaning, as a team of reporters from pleasure that, unlike most films to"And equality? And fraternity? the socialist magazine Le Nouvel Obday, it celebrated normal human That's false too?" servateur unhappily found out a year emotions, such as striving for excel"Equality, that's the grisaille. It's later when investigating the world of lence. That a world containing charChina-~--" the under 25 year-olds: The vogue acters at an elitist university who this year, they said, is to spending have normal human emotions, strive The tastes that account for historical money and business. And too bad for for excellence, behave like gentlestyles in clothes are similar to those Marx.

In making the rounds of clubs men, or draw strength from religion that have given rise to the vogue for when the under 25s spend their evenshould appeal to the popular mind post-modern art. (On post-modern ings dressed as "cleans" (mods) or Romust have shocked that portion of the art, see Hilton Kramer's essay in the mantics, they discovered a world cultural left that is fascinated by the September 1982 issue of The New Criwhere privilege was not a despised abnormal, strives for egalitarianism, terion.)

At least three groups can be word, journals that spoke of a neoviews aristocrats as - at best - a joke, identified.

The first group is probably bourgeois sensibility among the and does not consider orthodox reli, but is very influential the smallest, and former revolutionaries young, gion a force that could motivate one since it includes many of the creators with the younger trying to fit in of its characters. of this task.

For them, everything has that the Vietcrowd, disillusioned A taste for historical styles reappears regularly, and the choice of which periods to imitate tells us a "fhe rugby shirt evokes images of chivalry and medieval knights. The great deal about the spirit of the heraldic stripes appeared during the medieval revival in 19th century times. One thinks of David's portrait England." of Mme Recamier lounging in a classical chair, dressed as a Roman, expressing the pandemic nea-classicism of the 18th century. The decline of been done before: after modernism, namese Communists turned out to be masquerade balls has deprived us of what is left? So other styles are borimperialists. seeing what historical figures are rowed for their very pre-modernism: S?rneof theconversati?n~ of th~se ·f··:'~"f·;i!\t, :~1ri:;i•.·:ti~~gi¥~,J,pi6~~~J~~~~~&u~~· ~:~ yeJuhgpeople are~'ftlJiny;' 'others, in Not only is modernism exhausted, but it has lost its quality of alienation, calls meeting Oswald Spengler at their utter cynicism, are sad, but at for the bourgeoisie lines up to see it in such a party dressed as a Manchu emleast are beyond the delusions of the the galleries or, as the case may be, Left that blinded the reporter's generperor - perhaps the Decline of the buy it off the racks. It's not altogether ation.

The reporter is told that West was already on Spengler's mind. coincidental that late-19th century fashion designer Coco Chanel had a In our own time, a small revolution clothing should accompany a revival has occured in our choices of coungreater role in history than socialist of interest in traditional salon or tries and cultures to borrow from. icon Jean Jaures, for she wanted to libeaux arts school painting. The reThe late sixties and early seventies berate women's bodies and succeedabounded in styles influenced by cered, whereas Jaures never liberated turn to historical styles is thus an intain Third World countries, advenanyone. Translation of a conversaside joke on these people, telling turers, people living on the margins them their instincts were right all tion, with the reporter speaking to a of society, history's losers, or any along, when the creators of this new girl at the club: group opposed to the Western estabaesthetic may think nothing of the lishment. Thus, we had the spectacle sort. As Hilton Kramer points out, "But if you are a boss, you are going of Nehru jackets, beads, buckskin this camp sensibility of knowing to exploit your friends ... Like a boss would have done with you." everythings (with lorig fringes!), Mao something is opposite and celebrating "Yes. So?" it has a strong link to homosexual hats. By 1978, however, it was possi"So? Nothing, I said that like that, to culture. ble to buy an Adolfo man's shirt talk." sporting the label lit urn of the cenThe second group is composed of "You want to say something that would who sincerely wish their work those tury." Similarly, a couple of months embarrass me?" and their times to be influenced by ago in a Laura Ashley store, I hap"Maybe."

"And the others, are they going to be certain historical influences without pened to watch a young lady checkembarrassed with me?" giving up their essential qualities: the ing how a blouse looked on her. The "No. But I thought: if we stood toartist who wishes to put more repreblouse was white and had buttons on gether, maybe we could ... " (burst sentationalism in his work, or the dethe back, pleats on the front, a high of laughter all over). signer who regrets the passing of a collar, and Ruffed sleeves. When she asked the sales~girl whether it was too degree of style and quality that his At this point, an ex-revolutionary full, the sales girl told her to "think profession demands. friend of the reporter takes him aside Victorian"! It now takes imagination People in the third group genuinely to explain: to remember see-through blouses of prefer the historical styles because vaguely Third World origin. they believe they represent a time "Those stories: we're going to take I; 1979, boutiques in the student period of taste. This group is influenthe lead, we're going to change the world, that doesn't work anymore. tial beyond its numbers because the quarter of Paris carried a new look /I

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literalism of its style makes it highly visible. It encourages those in the second group who would just add a flourish of this style or would gradually change their style (e.g., narrower ties) to come closer to conforming to the historical style. (The visibility of a few new wavers had the same effect a couple of years ago: Their color preferences- black, white, red and cut of clothes - slim and short - are now popular far beyond their immediate circle.)

The other element in contemporary conservative style is a classic, quieter look. It is defined by many as "those clothes that never go out of style," which is funny, because almost no one wore them a few years ago in a different cultural environment. A headline from the sixties tells us how far we've come: "Reagan Fires Clark Kerr As Berkeley Chancellor: Scores 'Permissiveness' ." That Governor of California takes office as President in 1981 and a New York Times reporter asks an observer of fashion if the conservative styles among young people have anything to do with Reagan's election. No, the shift occured earlier, is the obvious answer, much to the relief of the Times reporter, as if cultural change is supposed to coincide exactly with the rhythm of elections established two centuries ago.

Although cultural change was an important factor, conservative clothing also appeared because of irresponsible economics of one era guaranteed that a younger generation would grow up knowing only a decade of recession. Speaking of miniskirts in the late sixties, Gilman Ostrander observed: ''The middleaged, who like long skirts, determine standards in times of depression or recession. And young people, who like short skirts, determine standards in times of prosperity." Maybe. But that fails to explain who obviously conservative styles have caught on so forcefully with young people, at least as much as with the middle·aged, and certainly more so than with their immediate elders. The answer probably lies in the importance of formative experiences in the late adolescent! early adult years, which, for today's young people, have been looking clean and responsible to succeed in tough times, the influence of growing up in a changed cultural and intellectual climate, and the natural desire to distinguish themselves from their predecessors and their times.

The velocity of change in this regard is amazing. Someone who graduated from high school in 1978, a period of transition, and went back a couple of years later could be taken back by the changed appearance of students. If this graduate was

MARCH. 1983

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------------------------ •............................................................ pleasantly surprised in 1980 by the changes in students two to five years younger than he, a couple of years later he could stare incredulously at a national evening news broadcast of picture after picture of the latest tnmd among some 12-15 year-olds: crew cuts. In the aftermath of the sixties, a thousand commentators gleefully told us how subversive hair length could be. Even Fidel Castro, who generally tries to look like he just gpt back from a month in the jungle, banned long hair at the University of Havanna in 1968. No need for any subversion after the Revolution, thank you. One wonders what these commentators think of the conservative subversiveness of short hair (of which the fad for crew cuts is only a minor part).

Interviewed on television, these crew cut boys turn out not to be Clash City Rockers or ska fans (although new wave styles helped make their hair style seem cool), but are likely as not members of the football team.

The network correspondent found out that one of the big influences on them was the popular film An Officer and a Gentleman. Weare talking about a film that portrays military discipline favorably and whose two big applaust: lines occur when the officer-candidate (1) decks someone who called him a warmonger and tried to pick a. fight with him; (2)carfies' a girl out of a factory so that she can become a naval aviator's wife.

Fashjons on the Left In completely different contexts, George Orwell and Tom Wolfe have observed how the left's alienation from (and of) the people it says it wants to help had had significant consequences and says a great deal about its mentality.

In The Road to Wigan Pier George Orwell analyzed why socialism did not appeal to "ordinary decent" people. Part of the problem, he found, was the socialist style. To appreciate Orwell's perceptions, one must put the book in context. Orwell considered himself a socialist and understood himself to be arguing for his vision of socialism (which he left vague) in The Road to Wigan Pier, a book that was the March 1937 selec· tion of the Left Book Club in England.

The first half of the book is a description of the life of the poor in English industrial towns, illustrated with 32 photographs of grim living conditions.

The second half of the book is Orwell's analysis of the problems of socialism. Orwell begins by discussing the snobbery that separates the classes, about which, both from his

MARCH, 1983

upbringing in the "lower-upper middle class" and his living with the lower class for long periods of time, he knew a great deal. He also reflects on the "absurd" quality of his experience as a tramp and critiques camps that King George VI set up - where prep school boys and boys from the slums were supposed to mix - as institutions that would intensify class prejudice.

Orwell quite obviously had a greater understanding of the problems of socialism than his comrades. He wanted to take a good look at the public's perceptions of socialism for, "Anything is relevant which helps to make clear why Socialism is not accepted." In words that sound contemporary, the author of 1984 and Animal Farm wrote: One sometimes gets the impression that the mere words "Socialism" and "Communism" draw towards them with magnetic force every fruitjuice drinker, nudist, sandalwearer, sex-maniac, Quaker, "Nature Cure" quack, pacifist and feminist in England. One day this summer I was riding through Letchworth when the bus stopped and two dreadful-looking old men got on to it. They were both about sixty, both very short, pink and chubby, and both hatless. One of them was obscenely bald, the other had long grey hair bobbed in the Lloyd George style. They were dressed in pistachio-coloured shirts and khaki shorts' into which their huge bottoms were crammed so tightly that you could study every dimple.

Their appearance created a mild stir of qorror on top of the bus. The man next to me, a commercial traveller I should say, glanced at me, at them, and back again to me, and murmured, "Socialists" ...

Four decades later, Tom Wolfe looked at the impact of Radical Chic and Funky Chic. Radical Chic "swept not only socialites but also intellectuals and cultivated persons of every sort in the years 1968-70," causing them to do such things as "give parties for the Black Panthers (to name but one of many groups) at their homes, from Park Avenue to Croton-onHudson." Thus, rather than merely reflecting political change as most fashions do, it also began "to cteate political change on its own-i.e., many influential people who had been generally apolitical began to express support for groups like the Panthers."

While Radical Chic temporarily helped the left, Funky Chic hurt it.

Wolfe pointed to a long block in New Haven, Connecticut. At one end is Yale University, at the other a black

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page 13

"PEACE" From page 11 initiative once again gave the game away. Despite its great protestations of political impartiality, CND is about as independent of the Soviet line as a ventriloquist's dummy."

Many other organizations and individuals active in the peace movement have spoken out against Soviet involvement yet have been given scant media attention. In the fall of 1981, the French trade union CFDT and the French Socialist Party refused to participate in the Paris demonstration because of the organizers' blatant proSoviet stance. In January 1982, thePortuguese Socialist Party declined to participate in a communist-sponsored demonstration against NATO in Lisbon, referring to it as a "reflection of the diplomatic and military logic of the Soviet bloc." In response to President Reagan's statement that "the World Peace Council is bought and paid for by the Soviet Union," Homer Jack, secretary of the World Conference on Religion and Peace, concurred in The New York Times (January 30, 1982), "the World Peace Council has for more than 30 years· faithfully transmitted Soviet foreign policy." In the New York Times (April 6, 1982) the Greens had publicly "charged that the West German Com___

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lated a meeting in Bonn, Germany in which representatives of 37 groups, describing themselves as members of the anti missile mov~ment, planned a major demonstration against President Reagan when he visits Bonn ...

June 10." The Greens recognized the meeting's pro-Soviet stance when every resolution made against the Soviet Union was rejected-including Soviet interference in Poland and Soviet intervention in Afghanistan, yet every resolution condemning the United States was "adopted by a large majority."

Besides the World Peace Council, the Committee for State Security (or KGB) has been actively involved in the "struggle for peace." The KGB's covert role in the nuclear freeze movement has been to supply disinformation, to forge documents and to provide clandestine funding for cooperating organizations in other countries, in particular, money for mass demonstrations. Such "Active measures" as they are called in Russia are a major part of the KGB's method of operation. Former KGB officer Maj. Stanislow Aletsandrovich Levchenko, who escaped to the United States in 1979, has revealed numerous examples of Active measures and various Soviet front organizations. In a forthcoming book, John Barron,

page 14

author of the highly acclaimed book The KGB: The Secret Work of Soviet Secret Agents, 1974, quotes Levchenko on purposes of Active Measures:

,

Few people who understand the reality of the Soviet Union will knowingly support its policies. So

by Active Measures the KGB ..rustorts or inverts reality. The trick is to make people support Soviet policy unwittingly by convincing them they are supporting something else.

Almost everybody wants peace and fears war. Therefore by every conceivable means, the KGB plans and coordiantes campaigns to persuade the public that whatever America does endangers peace and that what ever the Soviet Union proposes furthers peace. To be for America is to be for war; to be for the Soviet Union is to be for peace.

Several events in the European movement have demonstrated the truth in Levchenko's words. Shortly after Brezhnev's call for a nuclear freeze, the Dutch government, in April 1981,

treating them to gifts. In November 1981, Soviet Embassy Fist Secretary Stanislow Chebotok was expelled for offering money to several Norwegians to write letters to Norwegian newspapers against NATO and the deployment of Pershing II missiles in Europe. Over a year later Portugal expelled two KGB officers- Yuri Babaints and Mikhail Morgov-for attempting to instigate riots against NATO. Nor did the KGB hesitate to make use of its ability to-forge "classified" U.S. documents to heighten the atmosphere for demonstrations in Europe. In several countries during 1981, including Italy, Austria and Denmark, copies of "top secret" U.S. nuclear plans were conveniently discovered and passed to sympathetic newspapers. These plans described among other disinformation various European cities the U.S. would bomb in the event of war.

Direct Soviet involvement in the U.S. movement has been presumably on a smaller scale although many

By creating a front to push Communist party objectives such as unilateral disarmament, the U.S. Peace Council has received support from those who otherwise . .. would not support it.

expelled Vadim Leonov for espionage. While posing as a Tass correspondent, Leonov was in fact a KGB tl~~fif'issI~firig'iDti't'6fi"p~ace-~g1'6ups.

In a drunken boast, Leonov told a Dutch informant: Do you know that all those well meaning people in the Netherlands are being taken for a ride? They believe that the anti-neutron bomb movement and the reaction against the cruise missiles and other NATO activities have grown out of a pure idealism based on compassion for and concern with the fate of one's fellow man and his children. Oh, if those people just knew that everything is taking place according to a blueprint in Moscow, how they are being manipulated by a small group of communist ideologues who receive their instructions through me.

If Moscow decides that 50,000 demonstrators must take to the streets in the Netherlands, then they take to the streets .... (Quoted in De Telegraaf, July 1981, p. 9, reprinted in Current News: Foreign Media Edition, Oct. 28, 1981, pp.

3-4)

Danish authorities, in October 1981, ousted Soviet Embassy Second Secretary Vladim Merkoulov for subversive activities after he paid Danish author Herlov Peterson $2000.00 to purchase newspaper ads promoting a "Nordic nuclear freeze zone," while at the same time attempting to influence Danish public opinion makers by

'peace'-oriented organizations (like the Campaign for Nuclear Disarmament) have been involved in both m'Ovenrents;-One can only guess how much the European peace movement fostered the atmosphere for the U.S. movem~nt. A month after Brezhnev's call for a nuclear freeze, the first meeting of the American Nuclear Freeze Campaign took place at Georgetown University. Two of the invited guests were Soviet KGB officials - Oleg Bogdanov, an International Department official who flew in from Moscow and Yuri S. Kaprs>lov, a representative of the Soviet Embassy in Washington. Kaprolov, not surprisingly, took an active part in the meeting urging those who attended to protest the new proposed American weapons. It i~ rather curious how American disarmament groups readily accept official Soviet points of view on the arms race while disregarding American officials', let alone inviting them to attend their conferences. At Harvard, in front of 800 students and faculty, Kaprolov blatned the United States for the antis race; the Boston Globe, as John Barron writes, quoted him as saying, "It's funny that when our leaders talk very clearly and as forcefully for peace, some of your people just discredit it as transparent propaganda. We would prefer that your leaders would talk as clearly and as forcefully for peace and arms control as ours." Despite the applause that this statement received,

no one bothered to make the distinction to Kaprolov between Soviet words and Soviet actions, which have, over the last 10 years, shown no restraint.

On the same day as the Georgetown conference, the International Physicians for the Prevention of Nuclear War held its first conference in Virginia. Ironically, a Soviet physician! did not head the Soviet delegation but rather Georgi Arbatov, director of the USSR Institute of the USA and Canada, did. This institute has long been known as a Soviet propaganda tool to paint the grimmest picture possible of American life implicating her for most of the world's ills (see News and World Report" Jan. 24, 1983, "Strange Picture of U.S. that Kremlin Concocts"). CIA intelligence reports estimate that at least 15% of the identified personnel have a current or for:mer KGB affilitation. In spite of the fact that Arbatov blamed the United States entirely for every strain in U.S.-Soviet foreign relations, he did receive, according to press reports, a "thunderous" applause. Indeed Arbatov and his colleagues enjoy a measure of credibility with certain media people in the West-on occasion, he can be seen on Meet the Press.

The U.S. Peace Council, the American branch of the World Peace Council, has been. very active in the U.S. nuclear freeze movement.

Founded in November 1979, the U.S. Peace Council is led by U.S. Communist Party function Michael Myerson and has provided considerable signatures on petitions advocating the nuclear freeze, pushing the California referendum on the freeze in addition to being one of the organizers of the New York demonstration June 12. By creating a front to push Communist party objectives such as unilateral disarmament, the U.S. Peace Council has received support from those who otherwise, because of its affiliation, would not support it.

Support has come from a variety of organizations as well as elected public officials including Representative John Conyers of Michigan, Michigan State Representative (from Ann Arbor) Perry Bullard, Michigan State representative Jackie Vaughn, State Senator Julian Bond of Georgia, and Gus Newport, the mayor of Berkeley and co-chairman of the U.S. Peace Council. One can now see why the U.S. Peace Council and World Peace Council have the influence they do when public officials like Gus Newport refer to U.S. foreign policy as "the worst in the world" while at the same time refusing to support the Polish Solidarity movement.

Working with the U.S. Peace Council has been the group Mobilization for Survival, long-active in campaign-

u.s.

MARCH,1983

ing against every new weapon system proposed by the Defense Department and serving as a network for local unaffiliated 'peace' and anti-nuclear groups. Composed of radical activists, Communist party members, and pacifist elements (hardly representative of those people around the country who voted for the nuclear freeze in November), Mobilization for Survival has held numerous conferences across the country in the last two years and was the major organizer of the June 12 demonstration. Although an independent organization, MFS supports total U.S. disarmament and has been involved in anti-NATO demonstrations with the World Peace Council in Bonn, Germany.

The American Friends Service Committee, one of the groups that helped develop the "freeze" idea and a major organizer of the June 12 rally, is purportedly a pacifist quaker organization. When perusing, however, one of the group's pamphlets by John Bristol, one questions whether they are America's friends: before we deplore terrorism, it is essential for us to recognize whose "terrorism" came first. . . . It is easy to recognize the violence of the revolutionary when he strikes out against the inequities and cruelties of the established order. What millions of middle class and other nonpoor fail to ralize is that they are themselves accomplices each day in meeting (sicl out inhuman allpervading violence .... Revolution then is needed first and foremost in the United States, thoroughgoing revolution, not a mild palliative.

The Women's International League for Peace and Freedom (recently made a World Peace Council affiliate)whose major program is called "Stop the Arms Race" - pretends to be a pacifist group despite its open support for the Palestine Liberation Organization. One of its pamphlets is entitled "The Myth of the Soviet Threat" and whenever members see a newspaper article in reference to Soviet aggression or the Soviet military build-up, they have been urged to call the reporter and editor, and politely explain that "Soviet threat" concepts are examples of "biased thinking." Regarding the United States, however impartia)ly, the group believes that "all life on earth is threatened by U.S. imperialism."

On January 29-30, 1982 nearly 300 disarmament activists representing 90 groups met in New York to set the agenda for the two weeks of disarmament activities that concluded with the massive demonstration of 700,000 people on June 12 at the United Nations special session on disarmament.

A dispute arose during the confer-

ence concerning how much blame for the "arms race" should be attributed to the Soviet Union. Although moderates maintained that both superpowers be blamed equally, the Communist Party of the USA, acting as a "left stalking horse," urged no criticisms of the Soviet Union. The "compromise" agreement that was adopted centered on the "guilt" of the United States, stating "As r~ople of the U.S., our primary responsibility is to work for the reversal of U.S. nuclear arms policy." To the perceptive reader, this is hardly a compromise at all, but a rewording of the directive put forth by the World Peace Council in Bulgaria and carried out in the massive anti-NATO demonstrations in Europe.

One can only speculate on how much impact the organizations and Soviet fronts have had on the peace movement. (Only a few of the major 'peace' organizations ha ~Te been described.) This is not to say that the peace movement would not have occurred without their involvement.

In addressing the inherent political assymetry of the movement that has preponderated against America and its NATO allies, several questions can be raised. Why has the movement failed to demonstrate against the Soviet threat to Poland, or at the time, the imposition of martial law or the imprisonment of Solidarity leader Lech Walesa? Why has the peace movement failed to publicly condemn the Soviet invasion of Afghanistan and the more than 2.7 million Afghans? But major demonstrations including the June 12, 1982 rally, have vigorously protested U.S. policy in Latin America. Skeptics need only to read any of the 'peace' calendars around campus to see this assymetry.

Why is it that those who have been actively involved in spreading the medical horrors of nuclear war have yet to condemn the Soviet use of chemical warfare in Laos, Kampuchea, Vietnam, and Afghanistan in violation of two international treaties?

Ten thousand chemical warfare

"The Soviet "peace" offensive initiated prior to the invasion of Afghanistan has been successful in directing attention from Soviet expansionism, unprecedented military build-up and numerous human rights violations. "

The unfortunate fact is that most people who voted for the freeze in the U.S. have never heard of any of these organizations, or if they have, by title only. Nor can one measure the influence from the extensive media coverage these mass demonstrations have received portraying them only as spontaneous expressions of concern and fearby sincere and honest people.

Certainly the media has had remarkable impact on its viewers reporting on a movement that has been largely anti-American. Perhaps we should heed the words of Nobel Laureate Andrei Sakharov (developer of the Soviet hydrogen bomb}f Russian dissident living in exile in the USSR in his letter smuggled out of the USSR and printed in The New York Times (June 8, 1980): The West and developing countries are filled with citizens who by reason of their positions are able to promote Soviet influence and expansionist goals.

Those "by reason of their position" Sakharov explains, include "a great many writers and journalists ... and heads of press and tel.evision;' To realize the unmifigated truth in Sakharov's statement, one only' has to note that not one of the facts presented here on the peace movement has ever made headlines of a major newspaper or newsmagazine in the U.S. during the last two years.

deaths have been documented by the State Department while other nongovernmental estimates are as high as 50,OOO-deaths resulting from individuals choking and eventually drowning in their own blood, on hideous par, no less with those deaths that would occur in a nuclear war.

Are these violations not relevant to negotiating arms control with 'the Russians, or, for that matter, to peace?

The fact remains, furthermore, that during all the demonstrations in Europe-Paris, London, Rome, Bonn, Amsterdam - not one addressed the Soviet deployment of more than 300 SS-20s able to obliterate within 15 minutes 945 European targets. All were in protest of the NATO deciSIon to deploy the Pershings and the Cruise missiles; all even seemed to claim that the threat of war comes not from the Soviet Union, but from their own governments and the U.S. government. Is it sensible to say that European citizens will have reason to feel safer from these S$-20s if the American missiles are not deployed?

While the June 12 disarmament rally outside of the United Nations focused the world's attention on the "provocative and destabilizing" nature of President Reagan's rearmament plan, events a week later in the Soviet Union merited no cause for alarm.

On June 19, 1982, for 48 hours, the Soviet military engaged in an all out dress rehearSal ,for a first strike

nuclear attack. Land- and sea-based missiles designed to hit the U.S. were launched, intermediate range ballistic missiles mocked an.attack on Western Europe, while anti-satellite tests were carried out which in a real situation would have blinded U.S. early warning satellites. According to those who monitored it in Washington, the launchings over Soviet territory and waters were nearly exact duplicationsof wartime distances and trajectories. Yet the most frightening part of this episode路W1!rS not the event it路 self, but the fact that no one in the peace movement seemed concerned enough to "take to the streets" and demonstrate against ,this warlike, provocative behavior. Disarmament groups even went as far as to claim that this was a ploy devised by the Reagan administration to divert attention from its rearmament plan.

Soviet officials at the Kremlin must have enjoyed a good laugh knowing they had just rehearsed a first strike nuclear attack with muted public reaction, one week after the largest demonstration ever against nuclear weapons had taken place.

Earlier, on April 19, 1982, in the midst of all the disarmament campaigns, seven European tourists un路 furled a, banner in Red Square which in Russian said: "Bread, Life and Disarmament" when immediately the KGB seized them and took them to jail. More recently, in August 8, 1982 the Associated Press wrote: "A cofounder of Moscow's onlyindependent disarmament group is being administered depressant drugs against his will in a psychiatric hospital where he is being held, his wife said today." Neither of these events seemed to raise an eyebrow among the peace lovers of the world, or if they did no one has heard about it.

Indeed any open acknowledgement of the Soviet Union's bankrupt, expansionist foreign policy by those supposed 'peace' groups who have played a prominent role in organizing major demonstrations, any public outcry against the Soviet threat by those who protest for peace would somehow undermine their intense opposition to the Reagan administration by sounding, God forbid, anticommunist. It would be a tacit recognition that Western governments must somehow respond to the Soviet Union's actions. No one expects any Soviet front or any communist organization involved in the movement to make these criticisms but all the sincere and sensible people who participated cannot remain silent about these actions.: People cannot turn their backs to all the evidence linking

See "Peace," page路 20

..

MARCH, 1983

page 15

Poor-------------------------------of violence. In general, coercion involves making a person say or not say something, or into making or not making an exchange under the threat of violence. The person being coerced alwaysJoses utility as a result of coercion. The person who gains from the coercion is the coercer or the people that he represents. When there is coercion, one party gains at the expense of the other party. This is contrasted with the free 'market where both parties to the exchange benefit.

Most of the problems that poor people face in the United States are a direct result of coercion and the absence of free markets. As such this cause has gone virtually unnoticed by policymakers, researchers and many other groups who express a concern for the socioeconomic welfare of the poor. I will make my argument concrete by using the plight that many black people face. At the same time I want it to be clear that black people are not the only people who suffer from coercion. Black people are merely the most visible component of some of the effects of coercion by the state.

All too often the pr()blemslliat minorities face are viewed in terms of collective conspiracies, societal preferences, or good and evil. Such an approach to their problems not only ignores basic human behavior, but because it does, this approach will at best suggest policies that are relatively ineffectual and at worst harmful to the intended beneficiaries. Such an assertion makes an important break with conventional wisdom, so a few words are in order to explain and illustrate.

To say that certain outcomes are a result of individual preferences ignores the important distinction between what people want to do and what they can do. For example, suppose we polled people around the country asking them which they prefer: filet mignon or hamburger, Lafite-Rothschild or Annie Green Springs wine, fine jew~lry or costume jew!,lry? I bet that most would say that they prefer: filet mignon, LafiteRothschild wine and fine jewelry. But if you watched to see what th~y actually purchased you would see more hamburger sold than filet mignon, more costume jewelry sold than fine jewelry, and more Annie Green Springs wine sold than Lafite-Rothschild. The point of this observation is that an individual's choice is not only determined by his preferences (or what he likes most) but also by his income and the prices that he faces as well.

Now let us turn to an example of this principle as applied to race.

. page 16

Governor Wallace may, because ot his preferences, go to considerable lengths to avoid physical proximity to a black in a theatre or restaurant. But suppose Governor Wallace were on the battlefield under bombardment and in seeking cover he ran up to a foxhole that was occupied by a black.

Do you think that he would say, "Oops, let me look for another one"? I predict that he would not. Such a prediction is not predicated on Wallace's preferences changing. No. A better answer would be that the cost of indulging a preference to avoid blacks is prohibitively expensive. Such a prediction is consistent with a wide body of economic theory which predicts that as the cost of an action (or good) rises, people will do less of it.

What about collective conspiracies by whites as the explanation of the socioeconomic problems that blacks face? Collective conspiracy hypothesis ignores a basic fact of conflicting goals among men. The attainment of one man's goal may be inconsistent with the attainment of another man's goal. This means that there are considerable pressures for one or more parties to the conspiratorial agreement to break that agreement in the pursuit of his own personal goal.

This principle may explain how blacks managed to take over the use of housing resource.s in many urban areas even during racially hostile times. Imagine that a group of white neighbor homeowners agreed not to sell their houses to black people.

Suppose one of the neighbors were moving to another cjty and he found that he could get $30,000 if he sold his house to a black and only $20,000 if he sold it to another white person.

Immediately, he is faced with an internal pressure between honoring his agreement with his neighbors and his own goal of having more money for himself. One only needs to look at ethnic neighborhood progression to see how the goal conflict was resolved. .

Since collective preferences, good and evil, and collective conspiracies arguments do not contribute substantively to our understanding of the problems that minorities face, what does? I assert that a better understanding is gained, which yields more effective public policy, when we pay greater attention to the rules of the game, the legal structure of our society. We will see that it is the rules of the game which determine the outcome of the game, namely who wins.

There are numerous laws, regulations and ordinances in our country that are benign in racial intent but malevolent in racial effect. They rig the economic game against todays disadvantaged.

Black unemployment, particularly Who are the low skilled? It turns among its youth, is no less than a out that youths in general are low national scandal. Black youth unemskilled workers_ They are low skilled ployment in 1980 was nearly 40 per(less valuable to the employer as cent. White youth unemployment in workers) because they lack maturity 1980 was 16 percent. This is common and experience. Minority youths not knowledge. Furthermore, if we were , only share this characteristic of to include youths not working, not in youths in general, but they bear Some school and not looking for work, both of the burden of past discrimination figures, black and white unemployand they for the most part attend ment, would be considerably higher. grossly inferior schools. Therefore, if there is a law which discriminates What is not widely known or appreagainst low skilled people, one would ciated is that black youth unemployexpect that minorities would be more ment and their low labor force partiadversely affected. The empirical cipation rate is unprecedented in evidence supports the economic United States history. For example, in prediction.

1948 black and white youth unemIf the total effect of the minimum ployment in every age group was just wage law were merely that of deprivabout the same. In fact unemploying youths of spending change, we ment for blacks 16 to 18 years of age could pass it off as just another form was less than that for whites in the of foolish government intervention. same age group (9.2 percent comBut early work experiences do more pared to 10.4 percent). Furthermore, than provide spending change. Early until 1954 blacks in every age group were more active in the labor market work experiences teach youngsters: effective job search techniques, effecthan their white count~rparts. Today the labor force participation rate for tive work habits, respect or superblacks in every age group is less than visors, and they create a sense of that of whites. For some age groups pride and self-respect that comes the labor force participation rate is from being financially independent less than 50 percent of that of whites. or semi-independent. All of these How can we explain this dramatic gains from early work experiences, in reversal and deterioration of employany job, make a person a more valment opportunities for black youth uable employee in the future and relative to white youth? Can we exthey give him the opportunity to plain it by saying that today's busimake mistakes at a time when the rie~ses are more racially discrimimistakes are not as costly as they natory in their hiring policy than would be when he has a set of dethose in 1948? Can we say that blacks, pendents counting on him for a conin 1948, had more education than tinuous source of income. In addition, whites did in 1948? There is no evithe potential lessons to be gained dence that I know of that would even from early work experiences are remotely support either contention. especially critical for many black We cannot even blame the loss of youths who attend grossly inferior black youth employment opportunischools where such habits and attities on the economic cycles. Labor tudes are not likely to be stressed. statistics show that black youth If the minimum wage law has the unemployment rose both relatively effects that I have suggested, a reasonand absolutely during periods of able question might be: Why do we rapid economic expansion. have such a law? Part of the answer is What does explain the bulk of the that decent people, albeit misguided, trend of deteriorating employment want others to have a higher income. opportunities for black youths and to But a larger part of the answer is that a lesser degree white youths? The the minimum wage law serves the minimum wage law and other labor economic interests of one class of laws can do a good job of explaining. workers at the expense of another The minimum wage law effectively class of workers. We gain this sort of discriminates against the employinsight if we can find out who are the ment of low skilled workers. We can major supporters of the minimum see how it discriminates by putting wage law. Who spends hundreds of ourselves in the place of an employer thousands of dollars lobbying for and asking the following question: If I increases in both the level and extent must pay a minimum wage of $3.10 of coverage of the minimum wage per hour, does it pay me to employ a law? Without question the answer is, person who can produce only $2.00 labor unions do. With such a finding worth of goods and services per hour? one is faced with the next question: It turns out that to do so would be Why should labor unions, whose losing economic proposition. members earn far in excess of the minimum wage law, be the strongest supporters? Is it because those people are the most altruistic with a deep and unabiding concern for the less fortunate among us?

MARCH,1983

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We readily have answers to these questions when we recognize, as economists do, that for many productive activities low skilled workers can be used as substitutes for high skilled workers. For example, suppose a fence can be built by using either of two techniques: three low skilled workers or one high skilled worker.

The wage of a single low skilled worker is $13.00 per day while that of a single high skilled worker is $38.00 per day. Clearly, the employer would hire the high skilled worker because it is cheaper ($38.00 labor cost versus the $39.00 if he used three low skilled workers).

Suppose the high skilled worker demanded $55.00 per day. He would be fired because the employer would simply switch to the three low skilled workers, which would cost just $39.00 and yet produce the identical fence.

But suppose instead the high skilled worker lobbied for a minimum wage of $20.00. He could advance his cause by arguing that workers needed protection from greedy bosses, that they needed to earn a living wage, that they were being exploited, etc. After the government passes a minimum wage of $20.00 per day, then the high skilled worker could demand $55.00 per day and have a higher probability of keeping his job. The reason is that he has used the coercive powers of government to price. his competition out of the market. He has used government to' enforce a collusion against other sellers of labor.

One thing must be made clear abQut union support for the minimum wage. I am not asserting that I '" have accurately described the intentions or motives underlying union support for the minimum wage. However, when we are analyzing the effects of a particular policy, we do not have to deny or affirm or even acknowledge intentions. Intentions are irrelevant to effects. In fact there are numerous human activities where the effects of an action bears little or no relation to the motives underlying the action.

However, there is very strong evidence that would support the argument that unions advocate the minimum wage law because of its discriminatory effects. The minimum wage law encourages racial discrimination. It does so because if an employer must pay the same minimum to no matter whom he hires, he has greater incentive to indulge his preferences for worker physical characteristics such as race or sex. Minimum wage laws and their analogous counterpart equal-pay-for-equal-

work laws are such powerful inducements for racial discrimination that in South Africa white racist labor unions are the most powerful supporters of the selective application of these laws. The New York Times reported: Right wing white unions in the building trades have complained to the South African Government that laws reserving skilled jobs for whites have broken down and should be abandoned in favor of equal-pay-for-equal-work laws,.

The conservative building trades made it clear they were not motivated by concern for black workers but had come to feel that legal job reservation had been so eroded by ~overnment exemptions that it no longer protected the white worker.

railroad owners in the U.S, were white. And more likely than not the racial preferences that they held were similar to the people that they hired as workers but "white man's" solidarity was not enough to keep them from hiring blacks. In each case to make effective a collusion against blacks the coercive powers of government was needed.

The minimum wage law is only one form of collusion against the disadvantaged. Federal, state· and local occupational licensing and business regulation is another. The economic impact of licensing and regulation is that of raising the cost of entry to a particular business or occupation. For the most part the major supporters of occupational and business licensing!

"Poor people today' need just what the poor people of yesterday had: a life with government off their backs."

'To understand how the job reservation laws, reserving certain jobs for whites only, became eroded requires only two bits of information: (1) during the post World War II period there had been a significant lind sustained building boom in South Africa and (2t black skilled workers were willing to accept wages less than 25 percent of those wages paid to whites.

Such a differential made racial discrimination in employment, when it could be avoided, a costly proposition. That is, firms that chose to hire whites when they could have hired blacks paid dearly - $1. 91 per hour versus $.39 ,per hour. White racist unionists well recognized that equalpay-for-equal-work laws would lower the cost of racial discrimination by building contractors and thus improve the competitive advantage of'· white workers. In other words,. if contractors had to pay blacks the same wages as they paid whites, the cost of discriminating against black workers would be zero.

Even in our own country racist raih;gad unions, at the turn of the century, went out on long and bitter strikes attempting to force railroad companies to pay black firemen the same wage that white firemen were paid.

As our discussion has shown, preferences and collusion alone cannot adequately explain the employment problems that blacks face. In the examples of South Africa and the railroad companies in the United States, the contractors in South Africa and

regulation are the incumbent practltioners. These people advance their cause of restricted entry by arguing for rules and regulations that are ostensibly in the "public interest."

One of the most flagrant forms of business regulation is the licensing of taxicabs in most major U.S. cities.

Particularly interesting about the taxicab industry, so far as the disadvantaged are concerned, is that it is a business where the entry costs are low~ To be successful one does not have to have years of formal education; neither does he need large financial resources-just the price of a down payment for a car. As such the taxi industry should be an effective way out of poverty. Government regulation, however, robs the poor of this opportunity.

Most cities place a numerical limitation on the number of taxis licensed.

This means that if one wants to enter the taxi business he must purchase a license from an existing licensee. The prices for these licenses can be prohibitively expensive. Such a license sells for $65,000 in New York City, $45,000 in Boston, $35,000 in Philadelphia and $40,000 in Chicago, just to list a few cities, What is the effect of such licensing requirements? They tend to discriminate against people who do not have the license price or who have credit records such that they cannot get bank financing for t.\:le liceJ,lse price. Obviously, the disadvantaged are disproportionately represented among such persons, particulaFly minority disadvantaged.

In Philadelphia, for example, there are two black-owned taxi companies having a total of approximately ten cars.

In Washington, D.C., the picture is quite different, Blacks own approximately 75 percent of all the taxis that operate in the District. Can we ex· plain this outcome by reference to the standard arguments of racial discrimination? No, we cannot. It turns out that the entire cost of licenses and other fees in Washington~ D.C. is less than $100.00, Furthermore, there are no numerical restrictions on entry.

Earning opportunities for the disadvantaged are not .the only benefits from the free market for taxis, Taxi consumers are better off also. Washington's taxi prices are among the lowest in the country. Services, measured by the number of taxis, are also higher. Washington, D.C. has 12 taxis per 1,000 of the population. New York City, the next highest, has 2.3 ~axis per 1,000 of. the population.

The occupational licensure of cosmetologists is another example of legislative disadvantage. Stuart Dorsey did an unpublished study of the licensing of cosmetologists in Illinois and Missouri. He found that in both states the failure rate of blacks was about four times that of whites.

However, when he broke the examination into its parts he discovered some interesting observations. In both states there is a written and a practical examination. On the practical portion of the examination, the candidate fixes somebody's hair in the presence of a board of examiners.

Dorsey found that on the practical part of the examination the black failure did not differ from the white failure rate. In fact the pass rate for veryone was about 96 percent.

It was the written portion of the examination where blacks had a high failure rate. Such a finding implies two things: (1) the written examination was a poor predictor of one's ability to fix hair and (2) people were being denied work opportunity when in fact they could perform adequately as indicated by their performance on the practical part of the examination.

This means that blacks are doubly penalized: first by the grossly inferior schools that they attend as children, and second, because of this they face difficulty hurdling the artificial state barriers to entry.

There are many other specific areas of economic life which could have been selected as examples of the adverse effects of state coercion on the lives of disadvantaged people. If a list were to be formed, we would have to include the effects of government

• MARCH,1983

page 17

4.......

Poor---------------

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clothes and some nice food, but no conferred union monopoly, state eduniceschools. Such an observation cation monopoly and the destruction . would be puzzling were it not for an of housing choices through local rent control laws, zoning ordinances and the U.S. Housing and Urban Development agency's policy.

The characteristic featur'es of virtually all ,f orms of state intervention are: p) they are legislated in the name of good; (2) they tend to redistribute income in favor of the more preferred; and (3) they involve coercion by the state. But in addition they make the political arena a more important decider of the economic issues of who gets what is produced, how things are produced and what things get produced. In the political arena these questions tend to be settled in favor of the more numerous, more preferred and more politically powerful people. Such a set of characteristics hardly describes the diSadvantaged of America, both black and ' , white. As empirical evidence of such an assertion, albeit anecdotal, is the appreciation of how cars, houses, readily made observation of any city clothes and food are distributed verslum. The observer would see some sus how schools are distributed. The nice cars, some nice homes, some nice former are distributed, for the most

part, by the market mechanism, while schools are distributed by the political mechanism. It turns out, incidentally, that there are a few nice schools in some slums. And interestingly enough these schools, for the most part, are produced outside the state education monopoly; they are the parochial schools, private community schools and Black Muslim schools.

The free market implies that poor people will get at least some of what they want , while political distribution may very well imply that poor people get none of what they want.

All too often the plight of poor people is observed and their plight is used as justification for massive government programs. It turns out that if we tallied all federal, state, and local annual expenditures that are justifi~d on the basis of fighting some aspect of poverty, we would find that over $250 billion dollars is spent on these programs. It turns out that if we were simply to give that money to the poor, each poor family of four would receive , about $40,000 per year. They do not get that money. Most of it goes to non-poor people, bureaucrats, and professionals charged with ca ring for the poor. It is like feeding the sparrows through the horses. This turns out to be an inevitable way to feed sparrows, particularly from the horse's point of view.

The most unique feature of the United States is that we are a nation of minorities . Virtually all of these minorities arrived penniless and uneducated. To add to our uniqueness, all of these immigrants faced varying degrees 'Of hostility; none were welcomed to our shores with open arms, often not even by their own kind . But these people w e re able to melt , en masse, into the mainstream of American society . They did it in many ways.

They worked in sweatshops; they were hucksters and peddlers; whole families , including children, worked.

Indeed the conditions were roughbut they made it. Today , through numerous so-called progressive laws, these harsh conditions have been removed. And ironically it turns out that the very people that we saved from the harsh conditions are having the greatest difficulty in entering the mainstream. The reason is that jobs for the lowest skilled person have all but been destroyed . In this sense we have cut off the bottom rungs to the economic ladder.

What today's poor lack that yesterday's poor had is a free economic system. Today's poor have subsidies that flow from the welfare state; yesterday's poor had economic opportunity. Poor people today need just what the poor of yesterday had: a life with government off their backs.

â&#x20AC;˘

Reprinted by permission from IMPRIMUS, copyright (C 1980 by H illsdale College.

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MARCH,1983

slum. Twenty years before, the area near the heart of Yale was teeming with men's custom-tailor shops for "Yale was still the capital of collegiate smart dressing" where the new sons of Eli, "the jeunesse doree of America were being groomed .. . to inherit the world; the world, of course, being Wall Street and Madison Avenue:" In the seventies they came from largely the same families but, Wolfe observed, had abandoned the tailorshop look for the "unvarying style ... best described as Late Army Surplus":

At the other end of the avenue are young black men of the same age but "from families whose gross incomes no one but the eligibility worker ever bothered to tote up." In an equally detailed description, Wolfe documents the high fashion-consciousness of these "young aces and dudes" and concludes that "somehow the sons of the slums have become the Brummels and Gentlemen of Leisure, the true

jeans became adorned and stylized in the late seventies and had thus "lost much of their funk." The reason why they scorned jeans was simple: 'Jeans were associated with funk in its miserable aspects, with Down-and-Out, bib overalls,- Down Home, and I'm Gonna Send You Back to Georgia."

This reversal caused problems for the New Left where no ideological division was immediately apparent, for as Wolfe recounts:

/

"With the addition of these new styles, campuses today offer more eclectic ~nes than the boring unif0nrty of 'yesteryear. n

Visible at Elm and York are more olive-green ponchos, clod· hoppers, and parachute boots, more leaky· dye blue turtlenecks, pea jackets, ski hats, long-distance trucker warms, sheepherders coats, fisher· man's slickers, down·home tenantfarmer bib overalls, coal-stoker strap undershirts, fringed cowpoke jerkins, strike· hall blue workshirts, lumberjack plaids, forest-ranger mackinaws, Australian bushrider mackintoshes, Cong sandals, bike leathers, and more jeans, jeans, jeans, jeans, jeans, more prole gear of every description than you ever saw or read of in a hundred novels

by Jack London, Jack Conroy, Maxim Gorky, Clara Weatherwax, and any who came before or after. -

fashion plates of the 1970's, and the Sons of Eli dress like the working class of 1934 .... " The example of blue jeans encapsulates this irony.

The author of The Electric Kool-Aid Acid Test and The Right Stuff writes that "Well-to-do whites in America began to discover the raw-vital reverse-spin funk thrill of jeans in the early sixties." However that "any such appeal was utterly lost on black or any other colored street aces" until

I never talked to a group of black militants, or Latin militants, for that matter, who didn't eventually comment derisively about the poorboy outfits their middle-class white student allies insisted on wearing or the way they tried to use. black street argot, all the mans and cats and babies and brothers and baddests. From the very first, fashion tipped them off to something that was not demonstrated on the level of logic until much later: namely, that most of the white New Lefters of the period 1968-70 were neither soldiers nor politicians but simply actors.

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The New Left's problem was merely symptomatic of the left's whole relationship with the people whom it is supposedly helping. The less fortunate do not seem to think that poverty is an appropriate subject for chic and wo~ld like to escape poverty, even psychologicaUy - not have wellto-do statists manage their poverty.

On this score. Orwell made a devastating observation:

"

It may be said, however, that even if the theoretical book trained Socialist is not a working man himself, at least he is actuated by a love of the working class. He is endeavoring to shed his bourgeois status and fight on the side of the proletariat-that, obviously, must be his motive.

But is it? Sometimes 1 look at a Socialist - the intellectual, tract-writfng type of Socialist, with his pullover , his fuzzy hair, and his Marxian quotation-and wonder what the devil his motive really is. It is often difficult to believe that it is a love of anybody, especially of the working class, from whom he is of all people the furthest removed. The underlying motive of many Socialists, I believe, is simply a hypertrophied sense of order. The present state of affairs offends them not because it causes misery. still less because it makes freedom impossible, but because it is untidy; what they desire, basically, is reduce the world to something resembling a chessboard _

This helps to explain why the elaborate apparatus of a welfare state must be maintained, rather than the less expensive option of giving every poor person enough money to lift him above the poverty line . Thomas Sowell put it succinctly: "Social reformers would become superfluous if the government 'just gives money' to the poor .. . . " Times have changed. Scenes such as the one Wolfe described at Yale a few years ago can still be seen, but only in fragments. With the addition of the new styles discussed above, campuses today offer more eclectic scenes than the boring uniformity of yesteryear. The inertia of our times seems to be toward continued change.

These new, styles and values are strongest among the youngest groups on campus, The changes occuring everyday make this the most exciting time to be a student in years.

We also live at a time when conservatism enjoys an intellectual prominence almost unparalled in this century. Conservatives have an opportunity to establish a lasting presence. As both critiCs and practitioners, conservatives can effect change not only in government policy but also in our culture: its arts, architecture. criticism, decoration, music, literature, journalism, and personal style. ~

page 19

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"PEACE"

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the assassination attempt on Pope John Paul II with the Kremlin. Is this not relevant in interpreting what the Soviet government means when it talks about "peace"?

Peace and its synonyms have become the most perverted and adulterated words of the decade. The Women's International League of Peace and Freedom uses the word as a facade to denounce "U .S. imperialism" while exposing the "myths" of the Soviet threat. American Friends Service Committee, a "pacifist" organization defines peace in its own terms thereby condoning violence and terrorism as expressions of "oppression." Other groups, like Mobilization for Survival, that are fighting for "peace" denounce U.S. weapons systems while at the same time believing we should gladly supply Western technology to the Soviet Union even though they employ it to perfect their weapons systems or to invade nonaligned countries. More at home for the reader, the juxtaposition of these titles o~ The Political Economy of World Peace Lectures given at the University of Michigan by Hans Ehrbar, a German Marxist graduate student in economics reveal what kind of definition of "peace" one might expect from him: "Why does a Bour~eois State Need Elections?" (Feb. 2, 1982), "Is Freedom What the Polish Workers

~

Need?"(Feb. 9, 1982), and "The American Peace Movement: Can It Succeed?" (Feb. 10, 1982). Sensible people only need to look at the past ten "peaceful" years to understand the Soviet notion of "peace." Peace for the Soviet Union has meant training, financing and supplying terrorist organizations in the Middle East, Asia, Europe and the Americas to undermine non-Communist regimes allied with America. It has meant the conquest of Indochina, the establishment of military facilities in the Caribbean, on the coast of Africa and in Vietnam.

Peace for them has meant the invasion and conquest of Afghanistan and the maintaining of communist dictatorships in Nicaragua, Angola, Grenada, Mozambique, South Yeman and Zimbabwe. To preserve the 'peace' the Soviet Union has ordered the crushing of the Polish Solidarity Trade Union and the imposition of martial law. During this time of "peace" the Soviet Union has engaged in the largest military build-up in history. Lenin seems to summarize these "peaceful" actions best when he wrote: lias an ultimate objective, peace simply means communist world control."

The fear of nuclear war with the desire for peace as most Americans and Europeans have seen it in the last 37 years have drawn many wellmeaning people into the peace mov!!ment. Yet it has put them in a state of panic leaving them unable to think

GLORIOUS

NEW S.

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PRO V J DEC E.

OCtober l5. 1781.

Three o'Clock, P. M. THIS MOMENT an EXPRESS arriv~d at his 'Honour the Depucy·Governor's, frQm Col. C hril10pher Olney, Commandant Oil R hode-lOand, announcing the important Intelligence of the Surrender of Lord Cornwallis and his Army, an Account of which waS printed This Morning at Newport, and is as follows, viz.

Newport, October lS, 1781.

ES T E R DAY afternoon arrived in {his Harbour Capt. Lovett, of [he Schooner Adv<'nturc-, from York-River, in Chef3peak-Bay (which he left the 20th Inllant) and brought us th~ glorious News of the Surrender of Lord COR N W ALL I Sand his Army Prifonen of War to the al1i~d Army. under the Command of out illufl:rious General, and the French FI~cc, under the Com. mand 9f hi, Excellency the Count de G R ASS E.

Y

A Cefr.tion of Arm, took Place on Thurfday the .S[h Infhnt, in Confequence of Propofals from Lord Cornwallis for a Capitulation.

His Lordfhip propofed a Cdfation of Twenty.four Hours. but Two only were granted by His Excellency General WASHINGTON. The Articks were comple[('d thc-fame Day, and the next Day the: allied Army took PotTelllon of York· Town.

By this glorious Conqutll, NINE THOUSAND of lhe Enemy, inclUding Seamen, fdl into our Hands, witl! an immenfe Qtl4ntiry of Warlike Store" a forty Gun Ship, a Frigate. an armed Ycflcl, and .lbout One Hundred Sail of Tranfpom.

rationally. They carry the slogans for "peace" without looking to see who has made up these slogans. They have accepted all kinds of simple solutions, supposed panaceas, to the present arms control dilemma and repeat them reflexively within an instant of broaching the topic with others. Many in the past have never given U.S.-Soviet relations a second thought, but now having been scared to death by the 23 nuclear explosions they have seen on television, nauseated by the twelfth documentary on the arms race, and fed up with the 38 pieces of literature stating why one should support the nuclear freeze, people form their opinions almost as if subconsciously their main desire was to end all this talk about nuclear war-"freeze thought" on nuclear weapons-so that things can get back to normal again. The study of history has become irrelevant, past U.S.Soviet treaties need not be considered and present events don't count.

Lenin, Bukovsky reminds us, coined the phrase "useful idiot."

Now, in spite of all their blunders, senseless adventures, economic disasters, the Polish crisis, and the stubborn resistance of the Afghan peasants, Reagan's rearmament plan and UN resolutions, the Soviet rulers have scored a spectacular victory: they have recruited millions of useful idiots to implement their bankrupt foreign policy. They are no longer isolated and there still is a big question as to whether the Americans will be allowed to place missiles in Europe. .. Mind you, we are into only the second year of a planned ten-year "struggle for peace." Within a few years, the whole earth will be trembling under the marching feet of the useful idiots- for their resources are inexhaustible.

In the last. two years, we have witnessed classical communist doctrine at work in implementing seductive slogans to accompany ostensibly simple solutions. Rykov, Lenin's successor in the Council of Soviet Commissars once wrote: It is our duty to inculcate in the minds of nations the theories of international friendship, pacifism. and disarmament, encouraging their resistance to military appropriations and training, without ever relaxing our own efforts in building our military equipment.

On the same theme, Manuilsky, at one time a prominent Soviet professor at the School of Political Warfare said: The bourgeoisie will have to be put to sleep. We shall begin by launch-

ing the most spectacular peac. movement on record. There will bt electrifying overtures and unheard of concessions. The capitalist coun tries, stupid and decadent, wil rejoice to cooperate in their OWl destruction. They will leap at an other chance to be friends. {italic: added].

The Soviet "peace" offensive initiatee prior to the invasion of Afghanistar has been successful in directing atten tion from Soviet expansionism, un precedented military build-up ane numerous human rights violations "Peace" campaigns are not a new ele ment in Soviet foreign policy.

Throughout the 1930s, the Soviet~ mobilized foreign communist~ against fascism. After the 1939 Molotov-Ribbentrop pact creating a Soviel Nazi alliance, foreign communist~ were urged to promote defeatesl attitudes in Western nations where many politicians were calling for war preparations. To serve the Soviet~ immediate purposes, defeatist propa· ganda was spread by French com· munists and more than likely contrib· uted to the devastating French defeal of June 1940. Once the Nazis attacked the Soviet Union, the "peace" campaign was stopped.

"Peace" groups in this peace move· ment heighten their appeal by stress· ing only emotional issues- the mas~ destruction and death that would be caused by a nuclear war while vir· tually ignoring military, geo-political. historical and diplomatic aspects oj the "arms race" when promoting their views. For students, decisions based on knowledge of these aspects rather than emotional sentiment can only be accomplished by rejecting the peace propaganda on campuses and educating themselves on the issue. One must acknowledge that the Soviets will strengthen their military and bar· gaining positions through the manipulation of pacifist and defeatist (which we have seen are hardly either) sentiments in the West as well as that the Soviet Union is never accountable for its actions among Western "peace" groups. The proposal to ban all intermediate range missiles from the face of the earth is a much stronger proposal than any nuclear freeze, yet because it has oeen proposed by President Reagan, most "peace" groups will never support it.

Only when people begin to recognize the complexity of arms control along with the one-sided attack by this present "peace" offensive, will they stop pandering and accepting simple solutions with the idea that Q treaty with the Soviet Union is better than no treaty at all. Let us not "rejoice to cooperate" in our "own destruction." 2

• page 20

MARCH,1983

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Writing: - Political and Philosophical Commentary - Book Reviews -Investigative Reporting - Humor ,

If any of these projects interest you, let us know. Contact Ted Barnett or Andrew Mathieson at 663-4089. <, 14\ .•.

page 21

MARCH. 1983 \

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or not the government or others think that pickles and special sauce are .good for us. We'd rather "Have It Our Way." But recently we have noticed alarming trends, and since "the condition upon which God hath given liberty to man is eternal vigilance," we feel obligated to expose them. Although there is not yet any movement afoot to curtail our enjoyment of Big Mac's, where freedom of religion is concerned, the government has protected our liberty less diligently. Governments at all levels have systematically refused to protect the First Amendment freedoms of individuals belonging to certain "unpopular" religious groups, allowing, and in some cases, aiding private parties to kidnap these individuals and force them to deny their most deeply held beliefs. Even more blatantly, at least six state governments have introduced bills directly aimed at depriving these adults of their liberty - despite the First Amendment's command that "Congress shall make no law respecting thereof." While some Americans may find these developments incredible, this ever-more common practice is known as "deprogramming." And it smacks of the kind of state paternalism we conservatives deplore.

How is deptogramming accomplished? It begins with forcible abduction - a kidnapping. The "cult" members parents hire a professional who will receive as much as $25,000 for his services. Frequently, the deprogrammer will solicit business with claims that the child is in danger.

After the individual has been "picked up," he is usually whisked away to a motel room or house where he will spend 24 hours a day until he renounces his religious beliefs or escapes. When he fights back, he may be handcuffed and/or physically abused. His captors often deprive him of sleep and food, and for 14-16 hours a day they will harrass him with insults and verbal attacks on his religion. Ted Patrick, the father of deprogramming (a dubious honor at best), sometimes "breaks down" his captive by forcing him to remain nude for hours on end. The believer may be strong, but as day after day rolls on, he grows weaker. Some, however, escape, as did a 26-year old Detroit man who was found handcuffed in the back of a van in West Virginia - five weeks after his initial kidnapping. The courts are replete with cases that describe these and similar events. See Taylor v. Gilmartin, 686 F.2d 1346 (10th Cir. 1982).

What could possibly justify such

page 22

abuses in this the "sweet land of liberty"?

Deprogrammers argue that their questionable business is proper because "cults" themselves hold their adherents against their will with sophisticated "brainwashing" techniques. They cite such practices as food deprivation, high starch diets, sleep deprivation, and systematic indoctrination. Yet despite these allegations, the court cases are conspicuously devoid of supporting evidence.

For the most part, these charges have been leveled in the now-familiar "trial by media." And, despite these allegations, individuals leave many socalled "cults" in substantial numbers, traditional churches systematically indoctrinate their members, and 80% of the world's population subsists on a high-starch diet. As a third-year law student, I myself know the meaning of sleep deprivation. I can only hope that these sophisticated "brainwashing" techniques will soon be used to cleanse the minds of those who occupy our prisons.

vides Due Process for these adherents; no legal checks restrain their unlimited use of force or coercion.

What is to prevent the deprogrammer from restraining the individual indefinitely? Second, who can tell what are the long-term psychological effects of forcibly depriving the individual of this choice? What will fill the void that initially caused him to join the cult? His parents have arguably failed. Finally, who can define the word "cult"? The deprogrammers failure to define it convincingly is evidence that cults' basic trait is that they are persecuted.

Most disturbingly, deprogrammers themselves do not restrain their activities to so-called "hard-core" cults.

Many are willing to practice their art for whomever will pay them their $20,000-25,000 fee, despite positive evidence that the person is acting completely by free will. The Catholic Register, March 22, 1975, reports the kidnapping of Debbie Dudgeon, who was not a Moonie or Hare Krishna, but a Roman Catholic. Another article describes the 7-day confinement of

all to be right. But whether the cults are "right" is not the point. The First Amendment secures liberty - the right to choose. By liberty's account, whether a person's belief is correct is of no concern to anyone but himselfso long as that belief does not harm others. And even if the cults' ideas are "wrong," is anyone other than the individual to be given the right to make that decision? If we are unwilling to allow the government or others to interfere with our simplest economic preferences, should we willingly permit it to interfere with such an infinitely more complex' and intimate decision as how we will worship? Not if American liberty as we know it is to survive.

If the cults are acting illegally, then the government is justified in regulating them. If they are defrauding their adherents, they may be penalized through civil or criminal fraud or breach of trust statutes. 1ÂŁ they are holding people involuntarily, then they may be prosecuted under kidnapping or false imprisonment stat-

Dena Thomas, who was not a member of any religious group at the time of her capture.

Yet why does our government refuse to answer the call of liberty?

There can be but one reason - "cults" are unpopular. One does not win votes by defending unpopular causes.

And many government officials believe that the "cults'" religious ideas are "just plain wrong." All great movements of history have begun as "unpopular." Jesus Christ's ideas were unpopular; Columbus' ideas were unpopular. Galileo and Copernicus were ridiculed. All were persecuted in their times; today many consider

utes, the same ones under which deprogrammers are sometimes prosecuted today. The legal means for remedying whatever abuses occur is already in place. But where none of these factors is present, does not our liberty demand that believers and non-believers alike be left to the "free exercise" of their chosen religions?

State intervention in religious choice is exactly what the founding fathers sought to prohibit.

We conservatives love liberty. We Americans love liberty. W~ should have the mental fortitude to defend it with the "eternal vigilance" she deserves.

......--

But even if the allegations are true, deprogramming has major problems of its own. First, how will society protect the First Amendment liberties of those who genuinely believe the organization's teaching. At least some members of every "cult" are "true believers." Someone must be doing the brainwashing. Not only are deprogrammers insensitive to whether the person is really held against his will, they have no interest in finding out.

Yet by allowing deprogramming, the government places that judgment squarely in the hands of the emotional parent, or the financially-interested "hired gun." No legal mechanism pro-

~

MARCH,1983

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Divestinent From page 1 neous, and the fault lies in the failure to understand the tree enterprise system. As anyone who has had a basic macroeconomics course can tell you, when many' people buy a stock its prices goes up. Conversely, when a major portion of the stock is sold the price goes down. With stock prices low other investors will sense the opportunity to make money by buying stock cheaply. The value goes back up as more people buy the stock, and therefore the divestment has little effect: companies are not pressured to make changes in plant locations.

Let us assume for the sake of argument, though, that divestment did "work", and all American MNC's left South Af;ica. What then? Would the government of South Africa miraculously reverse its stand and grant all blacks equal rights? Probably not.

More likely, foreign firms (i.e. firms from West Germany or Japan) would seize the opportunity to locate in South Africa. The foreign MNC's would be met with open anns by the South African government, and the situation would continue. Past experience has proven the likelihood of such an outcome. Remember the Soviet grain embargo imposed by Jimmy Carter? Not only did our "allies" ~~足 tinue grain sales to the U.S.S.R., but they increased the. amount of trade.

So what are we to do? In his book The Real War, former president Richard Nixon deals with this question: A race war against South Africa is not the way to end racism in South Africa, nor will economic warfare against the most economically advanced nation on the continent solve the issue. Here in the U.S. we fought a civil war in part over the issue of slavery, and it took another century before even those racial dis-

criminations sanctioned by law were wiped away. With our own history we are hardly free enough of sin to cast the first stone - or even the second. Without condoning South Africa's racial policies, we should be more understanding of the need to change them peacefully over a period of time, and more sensitive to the other issues that are at stake in the future of that tortured part of the continent.

What we need, then, is a method for peacefully bringing about racial equality in South Africa. We already have that method in the form of the Sullivan Principles, a voluntary business code of conduct initiated by the Reverend Leon Sullivan, a member of the; General Motors Board of Directors.

Since its original signing in 1977 by 12 U.S. firms-including Ford, Mobil, IBM, Union Carbide and GM-the number of companies adding their endorsements has risen to over 130 businesses. All agree to follow the guidelines of the Sullivan Principles, those being to work toward desegregation, equal employment and com.pensation, . job training programs, more management positions, and improved quality of living for the South African blacks. This program represents a solid effort to help the oppressed of South Africa.

When one sees that U.S. firms are agreeing to these principles, one comes to the. conclusion that any mass exodus of our MNC's from South Africa would hurt the blacks there, not help them. Would West Germany's MNC's be dedicated to the principles of racial equality? In all probability - no.

Weighing the pros and cons of the issue, OI1e comes to the inevitable conclusion that the best way to achieve racial equality of any sort is not divestment. What is required is a continued commitment by American MNC's to promote the Sullivan Principles. ~ James Frego, a sophomore in the Honors College at the University of Michigan, is studying Pre-Law.

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I have declared. _ Alan Cranston For the Presidential nomination.

- Alan Cranston.

Democratic Presidenltal nomination.

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From California. The Senator.

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Let's forget the whole thing.

- Alan Cranston.

Not responsible for debts other than my own.

- P. Pulitzer.

Not responsible for debts other than my own.

-R. Reagan.

Not responsible for debts other than my own.

-Uncle Sam. Not responsible.

- W. Milliken

BUSINESS OPPORTUNITIES

MISCELLANEOUS

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Call the Detroit Panthers. (No collect calts accepted.)

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EARN EXTRA MONEY Hang nonsense posters on kiosks, bus shelter walls, bulletin boards. No political affili ation needed. Call Advert ising Bureau Otfice.

HELP WANTED Needed: Psychics, Wit ch Doctors, and Economists to write forecasts for " National Recovery." Contact U.S. Ministry of Trut h.

WANTED: Everything on a sliver platter.

Contact: PIRGIM.

Needed: Sado-masochlsts with political interests. e ontact Citizens for Governor Jim's Tax Hike.

Taxation hurts so good.

Wanted: Executive immunity.

Contact: A. GorSUCh, EPA, WaSh ington , D.C.

MARCH,1983

NOTICES

Wanted

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page 23

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"Americans are going into 1983 increasingly worried about the future, There's a sense of realism along with concern: most people figure that what路 ever Congress does this year, it won't have much immediate effect" U.S, News & World Report Newsgram (R)

"When national debts have once been accumulated to a certain degree, there is scarce, I believe, a single instance of their having been fairly and completely paid, The liberation of the public review, if it has even been brought about at all, has always been brought about by a bankruptcy.

Adam Smith

"The poor are usually more heavily taxed by inflation, in percentage terms, than the rich, for they do not have the same means of protecting themselves by speculative purchases of real equities. Inflation is a kind of tax that is out of control of the tax authorities."

Henry Hazlitt

--'

"The speaker of the house, Thomas P. O'Neill, Jr., today assailed a proposed constitutional amendment to balance the federal budget as a "cowardly way out" of the nation's economic problems, New York Times July 14, 1982

"Spending by the federal, state, and local governments this year will total $1184.4 billion - about $5138 for each man, woman, and child in the nation .. , ," Detroit News June 27, 1982

The Michigan Review

"Recently, I gave President Reagan's economic policy an "incomplete" grade.

But we don't grade Presidents as students of economics; we must grade them , as politicians living under a thousand pressures with a very fragile command over events. On that basis, I now give the President's performance a B grade, In contrast, when I look at former President Carter's record, I am reminded of a student who complained about the grade I gave him, "That's impossible to change," I said. "Why?" he asked. And I told him, "F is the lowest grade I'm allowed to give." .

George Stigler, 1982 Nobel Prize winner in Economics U.S. News & World Report, Jan 31, 1983