RadicalPrindples, by Michael Walzer

...With its crisp, lightly hopped flavor and especially good aftertaste, it seemed the sort of brew that one could easily imagine thriving forever...

...A. Publication no.: 01488414 2. Date of filing: October 1, t980...

...Its output has fallen, and the company has had to sell its best brewery (in Syracuse, New York) to AnheuserBusch...

...For several years it held up absolutely but declined relatively, remaining a solid second until 1977...

...Economic history teaches us that once something starts to decline, ks downward movement is usually relentless...

...affluence, as Catholic theologians have never tired of reminding us, is its own vice...

...There has not been a church, a university, an art fair, a school choir, or a Little League team STATEMENT OF OWNERSHIP, MANAGEMENT AND CIRCULATION 1. Title of publication: The American Spectator...

...In an effort to reverse its steady loss of customers, Schlitz adopted a campaign featuring boxers and other heavy types snarling at the prospect of someone's "taking their gusto away...

...Those who know Walzer and his writing may be amused by the suggestion, but for those who are unfamiliar with him it should be made clear how these common concerns can lead to radically different conclusions...

...4. Location of known office of publication: 102 West Sixth Street, Bloomington, Monroe, Indiana 47402...

...After buying the Hawaiian Brewing Company, whose Primo Beer had dominated the island market for decades, Schlitz managed to lose that market to Olympia and others, eventually closing its failing Honolulu brewery and withdrawing to the mainland to produce Primo...

...This sort of utopian socialism grows more quaint as 40 THE AMERICAN SPECTATOR NOVEMBER 1980 the years pass and as it rejects many of its own children, but the attraction remains...

...I imagine a human being thoroughly divorced, freed of parents, spouse, and children, watching pornographic performances in some dark theater, joining (it may be his only membership) this or that odd cult, which he will probably leave in a month or two for another still odder...

...Indeed, the analogy is worth pursuing...

...copies printed B. Paid circulation1. Sales through dealers and carriers, street vendors and counter sales 1,206 2. Mail subscriptions 22,563 C. Total paid circulation 23,769 D. Free distribution by mail, carrier or other means,, sample, complimentary, and other free copies 805 E. Total distribution 24,574 F. Copies not distributed: 1. Office use, left over, unaccounted, spoiled after printing 1,880 2 Returns from news agents 804 G. Tota~ 27,258 Average no...

...Walzer has a keen eye for what ails the American polity, and while that eye may distort, that distortion reveals much about men, their politics, and their ideals...

...It is Schlitz...

...What went wrong...

...Hilton...

...Even so, by now we have surely dentified what should be the national ]rink for America in the 1980s...

...But in 1976, even its output began to decline...

...His conflation of liberalism and capitalism causes problems, particularly when he criticizes neoconservatives for defending aspects of both...

...our problem is that the country is full of New Jersey Marxists and Missouri Marcusians...

...Walzer insists that the culprits who 38 THE AMERICAN SPECTATOR " NOVEMBER 1980 have brought us the decline of civic virtue, a loss of shared values, and the current (in his words) "moral laissez faire" are capitalism, liberalism, and the welfare state...

...In the introduction he writes that muny examples of liberation inspire a bleak vision...

...Liberalism makes capitalism possible and, while it is still worth retaining and pursuing in many areas (he still talks about winning rights for various groups), it clearly undermines the sort of communal feelings needed in a polity...

...or "The prevailing tendency (among liberals too) has been to grant a kind of carte blanche to any 'oppressed' group whose militants adopt a radical rhetoric, as if there were no principles by which their particular demands might be judged...

...And, as gently as possible, he criticizes the "pastoral retreat" of the New Left from active, broadbased politics to self-serving community action groups and other disjointed populist causes...

...Unfortunately, neither Schlitz nor the nation held up as one might have expected...

...He is concerned, particularly in his later essays, with the damage that unfettered liberalism may have wrought on our culture...

...His one essay which deals with this problem, "A Day in the Life of a Socialist Citizen," seems oddly out of place in the book...

...On the welfare state there is much agreement between Walzer and the neoconservatives, though they end up pointing in different directions...

...The position of "neo-wobblies" must be a rather comfortable one these days, for it allows them to criticize Communist states, mainline liberalism, the New Left, and neoconservatives while maintaining their blessed "radical priociples" which, in Walzer's case (and probably to his dismay), are not so radical after all...

...Once the Antitrust Division of the FTC decides that Schlitz is a failing enterprise, anothe'r brewer could take over the firm without fearing the antitrust laws...

...copies each issue during preceding 12months 27,258 'Actual no...

...Ronald E. Burr, Pubh:rher which has not suffered the onslaught of politics outside its own realm...

...What is missing in most of Radical Principles is any recognition of nonpolitical social groups and institutions, what have come to be called "mediating structures": churches, universities, cultural and intellectual groups, etc...

...Schlitz now runs a weak third in the industry, with an output considerably less than half of Anheuser-Busch's...

...Once constructed, the welfare state becomes another faceless, but far more powerful, enterprise which serves yet rules people without bringing them together for a common purpose...

...On Gusto Back in the 1950s, when all seemed to be going well for America, the largest-selling beer in America was Schlitz...

...The words which best sum up his vision are, I am afraid, Waizer's own when he considers the neoconservatives: "The search is powerfully motivated and often eloquently expressed, but I do not see how it can succeed...

...Liberalism not only lost its sense of proportion within the polity, it literally gushed out into every nook and cranny of American life...

...Schlitz stays in business independently, mainly because nobody appears willing to merge with it...

...I must admit that by the time I got to the final section of essays, titled "Democratic Socialism," I was a bit baffled by just what Walzer means by this term...

...A definition of sorts pops up: This is t h e working p r i n c i p l e o f democ r a t i c s o c i a l i s m : t h a t p o l i t i c s c a n be opened up, rates of participation s i g n i f i - candy i n c r e a s e d , decision making really s h a r e d ; w i t h o u t a f u l l - s c a l e a t t a c k on private life and liberal values, without a religious revival or cultural revolution...

...Unfortunately, it didn't work against an opponent willing to wage laborintensive warfare and do a slow job of that...

...He is a serious thinker who should be taken seriously, but the best explanation I have of his tenacious hold to socialism is romance...

...I looked forward, then, to the challenge of reading his new collection of essays, most of which were originally printed in the aforementioned journals, and I have not been disappointed...

...This approximately marks the beginning of America's decline, although following the analogy Schlitz should have dropped out of first place precisely on January 1, 1959, when Castro took control of Cuba--but then, analogies are never perfect...

...A. No...

...George V...

...NationaJ Review T he view that the scientific and moral achievements of the West are unique, not derived from the Classical world or the Bible, was first popularized by Spengler...

...He and neoconservatives now ask that the welfare state be "hollowed out," but while neeconservatives would shift the emphasis to local governments and mediating structures, Walzer has in mind new organizations based on "participatory democracy...

...The Left has become ubiquitous, but half-witted...

...Walzer is hedging...

...Whether they are willing to be labelled conservative or neoconservative is another, and less important, matter...

...Most important, Schlitz ruined its quality by investing a lot of capital in a fast brewing process: The traditional flavor that was advertised as "just the kissofthe hops" was replaced by a new one that tasted as if the hops were poured in from a bottle...

...The taste may not be what it was before 1959, but then neither is the nation...

...Walzer here uses many surprising words, and uses them seriously: civility, republican virtue, citizenship, and patriotism...

...America fared little better during the same period...

...He is sympatheticwith many of its aims, but pointedly denies that any meaningful political action will come out of the barrel of a gun or that police officers are pigs, and during the late sixties and early seventies desperately tried to inject realism and civility into the "movement...

...Schlitz proved no exception...

...happiness and community are important, but are to be received elsewhere...

...Although this is a book of essays written over two decades, not a tightly written theOretical work, it is clear that his conclusions share a common overemphasis on the importance of politics in everyday life and a permanent attraction to the socialist dream...

...Lift one to celebrate America's fortunes...

...work out either...

...Younger conservative (or non-left) thinkers are less fortunate than older ones...

...This is a rather odd mixture, but the reasoning is straightforward...

...On those occasions when I have unexpectedly found myself in these deeper waters, I have had to regain my footing and start all over again, only slower and with more care...

...Walzer wants to draw a false dichotomy between a liberal capitalism that is slowly eroding the community and his democratic socialism that might preserve it...

...Inc 6919 Radnor Road.Bethesda...

...To quote: " . . . the counterculture of the sixties was so much a matter of the head: it denied the deepest intimations of our political experience...

...Rather than having a worthy and august opponent in the Left, they are faced with an odd blend of esoteric Marxist scholasticism, "community organizing," California narcissism, innumerable "rights" groups, and the sort of confused counterculture (no longer so counter) that can be found on contemporary television and in Madison Avenue advertising...

...Schlitz then engaged in some underhanded marketing practices that were subsequently brought into the courts...

...This reaction is understandable and, when paired with a good sense of humor, may be indispensable to surviving our times, but I don't see how it alone can produce the sort of minds and ideas we so desperately need...

...It might be crudely said that each of these groups has its own sort of " p o l i t i c s , " but I think this fundamentally misunderstands the differences in the nature of action in each realm of social life...

...Lil~eralism does present problems, but Walzer is wrong to label neoconser~' atives as "nervous liberals" who fail to see a contradiction between the maintenance of social values and liberal capitalism...

...They probably were...

...Extent and nature of circulation A. Total no...

...Brown's searching and imaginative mind, his wideranging interest in allthe facets of human life, give his book substance and depth...

...in that case I am a socialist and so are a great many other unwitting souls...

...Defenders of capitalism may refer to Adam Smith's argu* ment: The virtue of capitalism_is that it makes people affluent, not happy...

...Is this a liberated human being...

...what really matters is the kifid of democratic socialist-organizing which, in his view, led the way to the welfare state but is now smothered by it...

...3. Frequency of issue: Monthly...

...what the other" mediating structures" need is not more politics (of whatever brand), but a long respite...

...copies of single issue published nearest to filing date 30,400 1,259 25,376 26,635 1,038 27,673 9 1,888 839 30,400 I 1. I certify that tile statements made by me above are correct andcomplete...

...The virtue of those who were instrumental in turning the tide, and who are now in their salad days, is that they were a product of a reaction against an Old Left which was tough and intellectually rigorous, a Left which has all but disappeared in the intellectual diaspora that followed the eruption of the New Left in the late 1960s...

...P e t e r S k e r r y demonstrates t h i s q u i t e poignantly in his a r t i c l e " C h r i s t i a n S~h~mls vs...

...RonaldE...

...Capitalism, of course, has very little to do with the political problems that concern Walzer, yet he makes the obligatory references to worker control (socialism happens "on the shop floor")and the need to politicize work in general to make it meaningful...

...One doesn't know how far to push analogies, of course, but it's true that Schlitz lost Hawaii...

...Carl Schmitt has written that politics always divides people into "fi'iends and enemies...

...Perhaps in some poor syndicalist country there could be a greater degree of civic virtue, but that would be because it was poor, not because it was socialist...

...Walzer is unquestionably a man of the (01d) American Left, but heis one of the very best it has produced...

...9. For completion by nonprofit organizations authorized to mall at special rares: The purpose, function, and nonprofit status of this organization and the exempt status for Federal income tax purposes have not changed during precedin~ 12 months...

...Walzer, in Dissent and elsewhere, defended the growth of welfare programs, and still does to some extent, but now makes it clear that making certain people better-off was not his primary goal...

...This was thought in the advertising industry to amount to a threat: "Drink Schlitz or I'll kill you...

...But it is precisely because life became so political over the past two decades that many of these nonpolitical communities withered and lost both authority and the respect of their members...

...The struggle for the welfare state was a communal struggle which, in Walzer's eyes, overcame the atomism of liberal capitalism, but no longer engages people in politics...

...In one of his novels Walker Percy says there is nothing more dangerous than a Georgia Freudian...

...In Vietnam our highly capital-intensive military was supposed to win a quick victory...

...there are plenty of quotes from Brecht and Whitman here, as well as references to "the Good Old Cause...

...In The Might of the West, Lawrence R. Brown, an engineer with a broad grasp of science and history, demonstrates this uniqueness without recourse to Spengler's mysticism...

...of issues published annually: 12 B. Annual subscription price: $15.00...

...For the socialism Walzer evokes is very old...

...Burr 12 For completion by publishers mailing at the regular rates: 39 U.S.C...

...3626 provides in pertinent part...

...I am enthusiastic about the book because it drove home a point that was becoming more and more evident to me: It has become much easier to be a conservative intellectual...

...For this reason a l o n e , Radic.al Principles should be widely read by those who have left the Left...

...7. Owner: The Alternative Educational Foundation, Inc., 102 West Sixth Street, Bloomington, Indiana 47402...

...are advocates o f community" and that "socialism is the effort to sustain older values within a social structure that accomodates liberated, that is, free and equal individuals...

...It becomes easy, as the last sentence makes evident, for these developments to blend into a gestalt which is often carelessly labelled "liberalism" or "modernism" and then quickly rejected...

...In 1979 it lost over $50 million...

...Some of the notes are right, but the song lacks harmony...

...Our underhanded efforts in support of leaders like the Shah of Iran and Anastasio Somoza didn't...

...6. Names and complete addresses of publisher, editor, and managing editor: Publisher: Ronald E. Burr, 102 West Sixth Sti'eet, Bloomington, IN 47402...

...In accordance with t]~e provisions of this statute, I hereby request permission to mail the publication named in Item I at the phased postage rates presently authorized by 39 U.S.C...

...Michael Walzer is a thoughtful man, but when he mentions socialism I hear echoes of the Montanist Tertullian maintaining his faith before the Platonic rationalists in the early days of the Church: "Credo quia absurdum" ("I believe because it is absurd...

...He sees a decline in community in general, and wants to "repoliticize American life by getting people involved in all sorts of social organizations, each of which 9 would be "democratically structured...

...Schlitz remained the dominant American brewer until 1958, when it was dethroned by AnheuserBusch...

...Managing editor: Wladyslaw Pleszczynski, 102 West-Sixth Street, Bloomington, IN 47402...

...Finally, our threats have proved an absolute disaster, producing the reverse of our intentions in Iran and elsewhere...

...strident or humorless...

...THE AMERICAN SPECTATOR NOVEMBER 1980 41 At this point it is probably best not :o pursue the analogy any further...

...RADICAL PRINCIPLES Michael Walzer / Basic Books / $15.00 Mark T. Lilla If reading the reviews and articles in Dissent or the New York Review may be likened, at times, to wading in shallow and rather muddy waters, then finding a piece by Michael Walzer in one of these publications is like stepping off a sandbar...

...MD 20034 on the Left, one who should be read, not only because he puts his case well, but because he shares many of the concerns about the state of contemporary society that have been voiced recently by neoconservatives...

...each has its own THE AMERICAN SPECTATOR NOVEMBER 1980 59 logic (or, in Daniel Bell's exotic term, "axial principle"), but Walzer wants to organize all realms around politics...

...By desiring a repoliticized America, Walzer is like a medieval doctor bleeding an anemic patient...

...8. Known bondholders, mortgages, and other security holders owning or holding 1 percent or more of total amount of bonds, mortgages, or: other securities: None...

...What is needed i s the expansion of the public s p h e r e . . , a new politicizing of the state, a devolution of state power into the hands of ordinary citizens...

...I (and Smith for that matter) will admit that the affluence Undercuts many common social values and civility in a society, but that is not due to capitalist "production" as such...

...the I.R.S...

...Walzer seems to think we'd all be friends...

...In Walzer the reader will finally find a worthy and challenging opponent "One of the fundamental books n-~-*~m nr,,m --Revilio P. Oliver in of our "lnstauration" "A historical work of the utmost importance...

...The author insists that the fate of the West, like that of earlier civilizations, rests in the hands of men, not in a destiny that inexorably determines its dying and its death...

...No person who would have been entitled to mail matter under former section 4359 of this title shall mail such matter at the rates provided under this subsection unless he files annually with the Postal Service a written request for permission to mail matter at such rates...

...National Review THE MIGHT OF THE by Lawrence R. Brown At bool~tores S20 or send check to Robert B. Lute...

...Editor: R. Emmett Tyrrell, .Jr., 102 WestSixth Street, Bloomington, IN 47402...

...The neoconservative argument has been that that balance is lost as social "liberation" has led to instability and a decline in authority, and as government action to promote equity has muted economic growth...

...We are told that "socialists "In the [:all issue of the Pubhc Interest...

...Capitalism, of course, is always a problem, not just because of class--he rejects that as too simplistic--but because it "privatizes" so much of life, from the workplace (which workers do not control) to the family (which, once affluent, no longer needs the community...

...The picture he paints of everyday life is of a worker who spends eight hours in a place he does not control, stops at a pornographic movie (as is his right)on the way to his relatively affluent private home, and expects to collect his Social Security check when he turns 65...

...It seems he has a profound understanding of the importance of all the ancient civic virtues and the problems inherent in the blind pursuit of liberty and equality, but he still wants the luxury of invoking "socialism" when he can, and I am not sure why...

...As his writing matured, Walzer also became a vocal and effective critic of the New Left...

...This is not to suggest that the ideas of the Left are widely held in disrepute, or that The American Spectator is selling out in newsstands across the country, but in intellectual circles where momentum often matters more than movement it is clear that the tide is turning and that a great number of creative and interesting political minds (both young and not so young) have been repelled by the Left...

...Finally, its advertising went stale...

...5. Location of the headquarters or general business offices of the publishers: Same...

...there is no contradiction here, but a healthy tension which must be maintained if our society is to remain stable, free, and affluent at the same time...

...3626...

...If many of his concerns and criticisms are attractive, why is Walzer co-editor of Dissent rather than a writer for Commentary...

...he is a careful and thoughtful scholar, and heterodox enough to avoid being Mark T. Lilla is Assistant Editor of the Public Interest...

...The reader may not share his "radical principles" (as I do not), but he will surely profit by reading them expressed so well...