Correspondence
-CORRESPONDENCETo the Editor: Poor Michael Clurman (March) has "not seen a single modern cogent, moral argument for accepting the distribution of income which a free market presents us with."...
...Sure, "Hair" was highly profitable in Boston (and elsewhere) while it ran, but "Jacques Brel" and "The Proposition" too, hove been just as profitable and popular in their own ways...
...They're not our kind, either...
...Did nat the great white man bring them here for slaves...
...In his heart, I know that John Coyne agrees with me, because the day American conservatism loses its basically eclectic and fusionisl character (i.e., the day we deny American pluralism) is the day we join the fate of moribund Liberalism...
...It's now part of the classical cinematic repertory...
...Let's also put ~tl~llcs and Jews on reservations...
...The danger in Conservative support of Nixon and the danger of not articulating a position to the right of this ontiprincipled administration would not have been real hod our political leaders, Governor Reagan and Senator Goldwater, offered a spirited to at least luke-worm opposition during those days of the week Nixon is Liberal...
...Anyone who frequents the theatre is bound to be sophisticated in his own way, and educated, even if superficially, to the kinds of changes the twentieth century has wrought in drama...
...Us or the "noble red man...
...Personally, I do believe that oil men (and women) are creotod equal and should be treated as equals...
...Perfiaps he hasn't really looked...
...1r Well, I'm not too proud of it...
...My income in a free market represents what other people are perfectly willing to give up in order to acquire my services, or the goods to which my labor contributes (ih this case, NATIONAL REVIEW...
...attempt in 1969 to decrease size of state department...
...That is, that there is a reason no one has ever written or attempted to write a book entitled, CHser~dhm, A to Z. As philosophical and-or political conservatives, our views are "in continuing approximation...
...e.g...
...In my opinion, you sound like on "1" man...
...Severa{ of his open-ended sentences and paragraphs could stand reply and clantication...
...I have never known any full-blooded Indians but I did work with a girl that was port Indian I believe her grandmother was a "'half-breed" as you would probably say...
...Probably tied up the boot when our a~,estors stepped off the Mayflower...
...And I I~/tfURRAH for Abraham Lincoln he was a great and wise man...
...Those who were weaned on Pirandella in the thirties can hardly be called "new theatre-goers" today...
...Now, Why does Mr...
...And so it is that a pragmatic president, described today as a "centrist," can tomorrow move thirty degrees to the left' and still be called a "centrist...
...And for each college production of "Fortune and Men's Eyes" he points to, I'll bet he can also point to a traditional play in a seasonal program, for my guess is that o collegiate company cannot hope to attract a sizeable audience throughout its season ,f .t insists on foisting the a~mmt#cede is bound to be artificial...
...You say, "look what we have done for the American Indian...
...Naturally, they multiplied as most species of human life does (Sic...
...By pulling off o Chino reverse and pleasing at least most editors of the New lepllllir with FAP, the President gains marginal political support in certain communities not accessible to a normal Republican...
...Clurman feel morally justified in fercfmg me, with the help of however large a majority, to share that which has bean freely given to me for my considerable efforts...
...Or so it Will be unless a few more established conservative leaders offer the nation a little more choice and o bit less echo on behalf of Nixon's right flank in the years ahead...
...On the other hand, Robert Bolt's "Vivat, Regina" is, by all standards, theatrically conservative...
...Have we left anyone out...
...I liked her and we got along just fine...
...They're just nat our kind, right...
...Some of my favorite entertainers are Negroes...
...Though it is true that one arises from the other, the two aren't always the some, To use an example from a form of entertainment he knows well, Robbe-Grillet's "'L'Eden et apres" is mrut.tlaede and would have been impossible without the DaliBunuel "Un Chien Andalou," but there's little point in calling the latter wuBt.ll-r6...
...And how did they get here...
...They may be representative of a theatrical sexual preoccupation, but probably not much more...
...And, third, if I may be forgiven for suggesting the matter, it does seem to me as if Mr...
...I've seen some Shakespeorean productions which Mr...
...That's Americanism and Christianism...
...The Silent Majority, which increasingly describes itself as conservative as time evolves, is satisfied with Nixon stands and-or moves on busing, abortion and areas of material interest...
...You also say "our government" is it not "their" government, too...
...Your humble servant, Steve Finer Boston, Massachusetts The Alternative Jur~-~eptember 1972 23...
...Jeffrey Hart offers proofs in his, The Amerkm Dissent (New York: Doubleday, 1966), and one only has to read a single issue of llatleMI Review to realize that there is no party line amongst us...
...Penelope Penberthv bmomington, Indiana To the Editor: I admire John R. Coyne, Jr., and thus I was greatly disappointed in his ~ i s t Nkon, s Nation piece in your May Altermdi~m...
...One of my best friends is a Calkolic I don't believe in her religion, but I respect her right to her own beliefs no matter how odd...
...Ture, I did "inherit" a vocabulary and some tuition money from my parents (though I lived, rent-free, in a dog hospital), but that was tfieir right since their incomes were also obtained without force or fraud...
...Except for monopoly or theft, income is a measure of one's exchange value to others...
...Dionysus in 69," and "Fortune and Men's Eyes," the implicit suggestion in his review-article being that such like ore representative of all modern theatre productions...
...If memory serves me right I believe he was...
...People just can't be homogenized like that, especial.I), as concerns the theatre...
...First, for reasons articulately offered by George McCarter in the same issue and by Evans and Novak in their book, Richard Nixon is not a "centrist.'" That is, he is not a product of nor conscious espouser for the broad, middle base of non-ideolagical citizens which make up our country...
...Though some people by the rigor of their "conservative demonstration" may facilitate such appearances, I join the late Willmoore Kendall in his nearly universally held view...
...Brudnoy would hove found just as dismaying as anything done by the Living Theater...
...Thirdly, assuming the President is a pragmatic fellow, t also assume he acknowledges o momentary truth, though o truth no less: One can get away with moves to the left (eg., FAP, wage-price, China, law profile on defense, etc...
...ff Clurman wishes to take my little pot of wealth, the burden of moral justification would seem to lie on his modern shoulders...
...What makes you think you are any better than they are...
...Otherwise, we should brand ana prosecute him as the thief he aspires to be...
...Alan Reynolds Associate.Editor Notional Review To the Editor: I just read your editorial in the May issue of The AlterNtt~e and I didn't like the part about the "noble red men...
...I'm proud to say I'm not preiudiced against Indians, Negroes, Catholics, Jews or whatever I'm just preiudiced against people who are preiudiced...
...I have worked with some very wonderful Negroes men and women...
...But the great white man fought them and took the land away from them and put them on a little patch of land, gave them o few blankets and food and ordered them not to stray out of bounds...
...Brudnoy may be confusing the nmttlmrde with modern drama...
...Ronald F. Docksoi national chairman, Young Americans for Freedom To the Editor: Why exactly David Brudnay takes upon himself the task of reviewing a book, the contents of which and subject whereof he confesses some ignorance, is a question which I should think at least a few other readers may have asked...
...I didn't feel I was better than she was...
...that one cannot effect with impunity to the right...
...John Coyne perhaps unconsciously assumes that conservatism is an ideology...
...However, by omission, established senior conservative leaders in effect confirmed the media's portrait of Nixon as the Conservative Alternative...
...Secondly, by asking if we, as conservatives, "really (would) enjoy living in a completely conservative society...
...Don't they have a right to go to Senate hearings if they so choose...
...The dollars I have symbolize what I have created, just as surely as a pot belongs to the potter who made it...
...He has always been an introvert by nature, we are told by his intimates, and his few associates were men of non-descript though hyperambitious character with equal desires to achieve success...
...In my opinion, the qirwtest President this nation has ever had or ever will have...
...Contrary to the opening quote, I oo not hove an unnatural monopoly over libertarian economics, nor have I stolen anything from NATIONAL REVIEW's beloved subscribers...
...And you soy "no civilized man" times hove changed, Mr...
...The President is a card-carrying Pragmatist...
...The Silent Majority has never been an avid follower of foreign affairs, nor will it unless it directly involves American boys or an attack on American soil...
...The Silent Majority, the visceral base of "grassroots conservatism" sociologists are discussing more frequently these days, depends on the Barry Goldwaters, the Ronald Reagans and the identified public office holders to describe the "conservative's position" on China, Vietnam, etc...
...And while we're at it I suppose you believe the American Negroes should also be put on o reservation...
...First, he is wrong to iudge today's theatre on the basis of flying genitalia...
...I know that time changes lots of things - but I believe there is one fact in history which remains the some WHO WAS HERE FIRST...
...Tyrrell, they're civilized maybe mure man yen...
Vol. 5 • June 1972 • No. 9
