Correspondence
CORRESPONDENCE A Sober View One might get the impression from Elizabeth Kristol's "Declarations of Codependence" (TAS, June 1990) that Alcoholics Anonymous is as flaky as any program using Twelve...
...The absence of this discipline reduces operating efficiency...
...And when Wilson tells the truth, he is all too often repeating earlier Lewis authors while pretending to be original...
...I've found another example of such gems, this time attacking animal experimentation...
...Moon's speech in Moscow before a cultural audience which included Raisa Gorbachev far differently than Maitre, who, Bethell reports, walked out upon hearing that Rev...
...As a matter of fact, I'm going to start by blowing off the rest of my studying for tomorrow's Corporations Law exam...
...If Bowman had been aware of all of Wilson's dotty fabrications, he might have been too distracted to turn out such a delightful critique of Wilson's posturing, so I can't complain...
...I am aware there are those who would rejoin that any problems that contribute to personal unhappiness are the stuff of Twelve Step programs, but I hope my article showed that the casual designation of illness and the indiscriminate seeking of treatment breeds its own set of problems...
...Donald G. Mashburn Oklahoma City, Oklahoma Another Mysak article...
...Most of the other early reviews have been uninformed puffery...
...G. I found that Tom Bethell's article "Moon Over Moscow" (TAS, June 1990), captured the experience of the World Media Conference very well, but I have one problem with it...
...Kathryn Lindskoog Orange, California In some recent "Current Wisdom" columns, the editors have featured several examples of liberal animal-rights zealotry...
...A Russian friend confirmed that the Russian translation caught the essence of what the Reverend was saying and that the anti-Leninist implications of the remark were clear...
...However, the bath water can eject the baby before we relegate it to the sewer...
...Moon also let the audience in on part of the content of his private meeting with Gorby...
...The picture of the Rev...
...On page 162 Wilson claims that for twenty-two years he has thought about Lewis's June 1938 letter to Owen Barfield stating that to feel the wind in your hair, walk barefoot on wet grass, or swim in the rain are Nazi or homosexual pleasures...
...Can you believe that, until I read the June 1990 TAS, I had never heard of "codependency...
...But as anyone can see by looking at Lewis's Letters, he had overheard a couple of undergraduates spouting the nonsense about Nazism and homosexuality...
...Moon has been duped or that he is pouring big bucks into the Soviet Union merely so he can deliver a "kick in the teeth" to Kim Il Sung...
...In fact, the relationship between Catholic, Anglican, evangelical, and unchurched Lewis admirers is an almost syrupy model of ecumenical harmony, and it is easy to name names to prove it...
...Even canny James Bowman, however, comes to Wilson with too much trust...
...Surely TAS readers can understand that just because some flakes and greedy pop-psychologists have perverted the original intent, the life-saving message of the initial program shouldn't be shunted aside with a shrug...
...That is why he reported the rubbish to Barfield...
...In conclusion, while it may be true that Rev...
...This was not true in earlier periods...
...What's more I know a lot more who would be just as dead were it not for the program...
...My fears seem to be justified by this article...
...And if the government is dumb enough to insure against loss, it deserves to lose...
...Asked about his opinion of Soviet reforms, Rev...
...Those who would presume become those who must be obeyed...
...His report on the Drexel affair ("Putting Junk to Rest," TAS, May 1990) is concisely and superbly written . . . and contains valuable lessons for those in danger of becoming disoriented by unrestrained desires for power or wealth, or both...
...As for Mr...
...Since the twelve steps started being applied in other areas, some of which Kristol described, I have been concerned that Alcoholics Anonymous might be in some way adversely affected...
...But take this one step further...
...Although Bethell admits that "maybe Rev...
...G. and other members of the nomenklatura do not come from a man who has set aside his anti-Communist principles in order to play it cozy with the Kremlin...
...By supporting forces like Moscow News and liberalizing groups within Novosti, Rev...
...Such public statements in front of Mrs...
...The writer actually compares the treatment of animals with the oppression of blacks and other minorities: If we cut up beasts simply because they cannot prevent us and because we are backing our own side in the struggle for existence, it is only logical to cut up imbeciles, criminals, enemies, or capitalists for the same reasons . . . if mere sentiment justifies cruelty, why stop at sentiment for the whole human race...
...They are a means to regain control over managements...
...Hofmeister's fear that the baby will be ejected from the bath water: I'm just glad I don't have to bathe in Indiana...
...But of the dozens upon dozens of misrepresentations, here is one I find especially poignant...
...Those who would presume to protect us just love this stuff...
...He was appalled...
...Although Miss Kristol didn't directly cast aspersions on the program, her slightly derogatory tone is out of place...
...AA, that is...
...Restrictions on junk bonds will protect corporate managers from stockholder demands for efficiency...
...Washington staffs get larger...
...Alcoholics Anonymous is a very commonsensical, spiritually based program which has been the lifeblood for millions of alcoholics who almost certainly would have died without it...
...As an ex-drunk who has enjoyed . . . yes, enjoyed . . . over thirty-two years of sobriety, I can state without a shred of a doubt that I would have long ago been dead were it not for AA...
...But Wilson's disdain for reality also worms through the book...
...Maitre's question'Is this [conference] turning into one more peace front...
...Name withheld by request I couldn't possibly agree more with Miss Kristol's central theme that we have become a nation worshipping addictions, with virtually every reasonably well-educated man and woman in the country becoming all-too-familiar with the ubiquitous buzzwords of the day: co-dependent, enabler, adult children, etc., ad nauseam...
...A high yield is the market's way of saying that sharp investors have decided a bond is risky...
...Moon shakes his finger at the interviewer and states, "You must put away the posters which adorn your (continued on page 41) THE AMERICAN SPECTATOR AUGUST 1990 7 CORRESPONDENCE (continued from page 7) streets and get on with creating real perestroika which will improve the lives of the masses of Soviet citizens...
...Moon supported perestroika and was praying for the Soviet people...
...Moon's prophetic role —to proclaim God's message to the rulers of history's most powerful atheistic empire...
...But thanks to you, now, even as I write, I can feel the healing begin...
...Gary A. Hofmeister Indianapolis, Indiana Thank you, Elizabeth Kristol and The American Spectator, from the bottom of my heart...
...No psychiatrist, psychologist, medical doctor, counselor, or therapist has ever succeeded in keeping someone sober over an extended period of time...
...is certainly legitimate...
...Moon is helping to provide a desperately needed voice, much as he has done through supporting the Washington Times in this town...
...If so, he apparently is careful not to imbibe anything which dulls his senses...
...But, as a Unificationist myself, I cannot abide by the implication that Rev...
...And though the solutions aren't nearly the common knowledge i wish they were, anyone familiar with alcoholism knows that AA empirically is the only known solution...
...M C Davis Chicagq Illinois Elizabeth Kristol replies: I am glad for the opportunity to clarify what I obviously glossed over in my article: while I clearly intended to ridicule many of the excesses of the Twelve Step movement, I did not mean to cast aspersions on AA, a program designed with great care to meet the needs of a highly specific group of individuals struggling to overcome problems that are serious and disabling...
...I'll have to look harder next time...
...Moon would use what leverage he has with the Soviets to tame Kim Il Sung and encourage the unification of his homeland, his overall goals vis vis the Soviet Union are far greater than this: complete religious freedom, a major opening of the Soviet marketplace, and rapid progress toward democratization...
...It's been my experience that when the subject of alcoholism comes up in intelligent conversation, most people mention at least two close friends or relatives who are alcoholic...
...The junk bonds which concern Mr...
...Alan Houston Nacogdoche.% Texas THE AMERICAN SPECTATOR AUGUST 1990 41...
...CORRESPONDENCE A Sober View One might get the impression from Elizabeth Kristol's "Declarations of Codependence" (TAS, June 1990) that Alcoholics Anonymous is as flaky as any program using Twelve Step "therapy," and this would be unfortunate...
...Its articles deal as openly with Soviet problems as any Western paper, and scores of activists gather in front of its offices each day to debate the latest news and rumors...
...If junk bonds are risky, then probably some investors will lose money...
...Who benefits from the restrictions on investments...
...Laws get passed preventing speculative abuses...
...There is indeed a feud between Lewis admirers who believe Walter Hooper and those who do not, but that feud rages within and without all three church groups, never between them...
...Sorry folks, but I goofed...
...Moon won this round after all," I believe the Reverend's activities in Moscow deserve a fuller explanation...
...If you don't like risk, invest elsewhere...
...It certainly is soothing to know that my "hole in the soul" will be filled just as soon as I start doing only the things I feel like doing...
...If you ignore the market's risk assessment, I'm sorry, but you were warned...
...A 32-year-old law student is an "adult child" if ever there was one...
...This explains why average returns to stockholders from LBOs are fifty percent—restructuring restores the discipline formerly provided by the directors...
...Sounds pretty scary...
...That quote wasn't from a left-winger, but from that well known right-wing extremist, C. S. Lewis...
...Protected by stock ownership restrictions enacted during the 1930s, they now have little to fear from boards of directors...
...I just hope that the Higher Power known as Professor Dunlop understands...
...Moon has consistently taught that it is Marxism-Leninism itself—not the Soviet people or even their leaders, if they recognize their mistakes and make appropriate changes—that should be considered the real enemy...
...As Bethell and I discovered while visiting the paper's editorial offices, Moscow News is a major center of information for reformist parties...
...Mysak enable these LBOs...
...The liberal concludes: those poor investors, that terrible Milken, we should do something about this...
...Wilson's sleight-of-hand disdain for Lewis and everyone else (served up in a display of "generous" spirit) is the rotten core of the biography...
...For me, they represented a confirmation of Rev...
...Wilson deplores Lewis's obvious mental disorder and claims that the Christian apologetics Lewis began writing at that time sprang from a diseased root...
...Not this one...
...The last fifty years demonstrate that corporate managers have benefited...
...James T Moser East Lansing Michigan Moon and Mr...
...Dan Fefferman American Freedom Journal Washington, D.C...
...How many of your readers care to embrace New Deal protectionism...
...Perceptions of C. S. Lewis Hurrah for James Bowman and his magnificently perceptive review of C S. Lewis by A. N. Wilson (TAS, May 1990...
...Nor should Rev...
...His facts, even his dates, can't be trusted...
...Oops...
...Wilson names no names because he hasn't any...
...Managers who ignored stockholders' interests were quickly disciplined...
...Sun Myung Moon, largely through the eyes of Arnold Beichman and Joachim Maitre, as having been co-opted by Gorbachev's glasnost policies, begs for a response...
...Come on...
...Thus Bowman accepts at face value Wilson's self-serving claim that there is a "curious feud" between Catholic and evangelical Lewis admirers...
...Moon's $100,000 donation to the Moscow News after its offices burned be seen either as a payoff or as evidence of Moon's going over to the other side...
...There is a sentiment for a white man against the black, the Herrenvolk against the Non-Aryans...
...Hail to the Chief Does Joe Mysak's masthead title of "Chief Saloon Correspondent" mean he hangs out in saloons to gather information...
...In the same speech, Rev...
...I told your husband," he said to Raisa, "that the problems of the Soviet Union can only be solved with God and with prayer . . . [and that] materialist worldviews will only lead to self-destruction...
...I recently saw a videotape of a documentary which was produced by Novosti on the World Media Conference and televised nationally in the USSR...
...For example, I interpreted Rev...
...And how obvious it is, now that I am addicted to hour upon hour of legal research and daily grillings by my instructors...
Vol. 23 • August 1990 • No. 8
