Correspondence
"Correspondence" To the Editor: Ludo/mel No sooner had I fihished reoding Fuchard Herrnsteln's "scientific" speculation on IQs for Psych 101, than I found Peter Rusthov(m!s article in the October issue of...
...Then too they complain about the lack of paper brought on by wage and price controls, strikes, and environmental safeguards...
...2) I very much resent the inference that my use of a pseudonym instanced a lack of courage...
...In the future, one would hope that standards for intelligence in this country need not be based on tests so blatantly discriminatory in nature...
...Economist and Sportsman Dear Dr...
...What more could I ask of one publication...
...It is bad for their eyes and worse for their minds...
...Queers queers queers...
...According to Morley, they can be found among not only "the Upper Crust" but among "immigrant construction" workers...
...If what She meant to say was that intelligence is difficult to define, she may be correct...
...I have also received partial relief from two soft corns, tennis elbow in my left arm, and thin blood...
...vetives are in important ways like Communists...
...But the fact is that this supposed shortage has actually been carefully planned by experts...
...9 Peter Rusthovan Cambridge, Massachusetts To the Editor: You are puffing out one damn fine magazine...
...Perhaps I should have used the example of cancer instead...
...Thus the use of the pen name "John Randolph...
...The air will be ] ] cleaner than it has been during any period since the Ice Age...
...Somehow I must recover from this momentary setback with my credibility and my charisma intact...
...And the highways...
...You have a touch of the mulligrubs, the migraines, and the spleen...
...Many foreign nations have thrived on planned economies featuring wage and price controls, rationing, and the works...
...After years of chaos from the free market, America is finally accepting rational planning of the economy...
...The highways will be clear and clean again...
...11, Box 360, Bloomington, Indiana 47401, Continental U.S.A...
...Americans read too much junk...
...Watch more television...
...Felix Morley Gibson Island, Maryland The Alternative January 1974 29...
...Since Morley offers no othar example of ~d~at be cunsiders consorvative thought's "attributer we are left with the impression that Only in Europe (since "less chivalrous characteristics" tend to "dominate" in the Urdfed States) can true conservative values be found, and tben only antong a few aristocrat~ At this point I began to believe Morley was writing a parody of Russell Kirk...
...Plunkitt: We are forever hearing what's wrong with America...
...Yet Morley twice attempts to link Presidant Nixon with the Nazis...
...Having in.one sentence ~ Taft squan~y on the side of thoee who are convinced that them cannot be a genuine Amedcan conservatism, Morley than statas that "consen,~ t h i n i d n g . . , has many fine attributee"--end, es an eemple, offens the ptwase "noblemm oblige" which, be adds, is still "msaningful for the remnants of Eumpe~ aristocncy...
...Two quick comments, after which I promise to leeve Dr...
...If you cannot even account for tapes of your own conversations, why should we expect you to account for tapes of other peoples' conversations...
...Was Nixon's election in 1972 a political landslide...
...He attempts to attribute a cause and effect relationship tothe intelligence of minority peoples strictly on the basis of raw test scores...
...Yes, says Morley, but Nixofl "nevertholess permitted the most unsavory tactics by his antourage in Order to secure a Ja vote of Natlone]lst Socialist proportions.'" In case we don't get the point, Mr...
...Unless weare to twist words totally out of shape to meet our preconceptions, the word "revo4utlonary" simp4y cannot be app4ied to any part of the Constitution of the United States...
...I for one believe that things are getting better...
...Gavin tends to confirm my point that this is not now the case...
...Brudnoy in peace to battle the brutish, ignorant straw man he chose to attack in lieu of my arguments: 1) I did not-compare homosexuals to murderers...
...Plunkitt expects to earn ten million dollars from sales of his new book, he has agreed to continue to advise public figures through this column...
...The contention was rather that intelligence has no meaning except in a societal and cultural context...
...Nixon and so, within limits, am I. He thinks the President "has enough real troubles and real faults" without allegations that his tactics have at times resembled some used by the Nazis...
...Frankly I do not understand how it is that people have such difficulty believing that you, the President, were ignorant of the Watergate break-in and of the cover up, when it is obvious that you are not even certain who is on your staff, what they are telling the press, or--as you recently made clearmwhere your historical records, your memos and your tapes, are hidden...
...Uttlefire proposes one herself two sentences later...
...I do wonder, however, precisely what the editor had in mind when he decided to publish the piece...
...President Johnson did it, and he was none the worse for the experience...
...Rather, we both explicitly disavowed such a statement and pointed out that more evidence was needed...
...Rusthoven circumvents the fact by applying a working definition: intelligence is that which is maasured by IQ tests...
...I can onty say that if thie Is whM Bob Taft thought about the Constitution, than Bob Taft was wrong...
...That does stagger me...
...Third, Ms...
...that in western civilization, certain mental abilities or kinds of thinking are more highly valued than others...
...How can we convince Americans of the bright side of our new economic miracle...
...I fear that Bill Gavin goes far, in quantity and quality, to justify my obiter dicta on the poor prospects of Conservatism as a political force in the United States . . . He is sorry for Mr...
...Russians would fit the bill nicely, except for the fact that I III I I knows American conservatism needs a no-holdsbarred, knock-down, drag-out critique, but it must be one that shows some sign of its author having read some recent conservative literature and having some understanding of how contemporary American conservatives see themselves . . . . William F. Gavin Arlington, Virginia Morley responds: As all editors know, it is from those pinched by the shoe that anguished outrage always emanates...
...God bless you and your honorable colleagues...
...Charles C. Deyspring Santa Borba~ California To the Editor: I want to thank you for the useful work you are doing on behalf of our country...
...Since I began reading your magazine three months ago my outlook on life has become immeasurably sunnier...
...the citizens of that great union of free and progressive republics fall prey to an odd mental disorder when they are away from home, and refuse to return...
...Not oontant wlth draping the swastika nag over the slumped shoulders of the President (who, it would ssem, bes anough ~ troubles and reel faults to make his enemniee gNe up trying to pin the Nazi label on him), Moray o4~s a coofuaod and conf~ng crttk~e of ~ cr He begins by involdng Taft's ghost...
...It would seem obvious that a successful Conservative movement must be led by people with a fairly complete knowledge of their national history and institutions, thereby knowing what they are working to conserve...
...Hermsteln's article more careful reeding...
...God 28 The A l t e r n a t i v e January 1974 Dr...
...If he will read the document he will find many provisions that were revolutionary, in the sense that they were nonexistent elsewhere at the time of their promulgation: "All bills for raising revenue shall originate in the House of Representatives...
...Eat health foods...
...Galbraith: This is a matter of education...
...Liffiefire fails completely to deal with Herrnstein's data establishing high cerrelations between IQ scores and heredity...
...To the Editor: Ludo/mel No sooner had I fihished reoding FUchard Herrnsteln's "scientific" speculation on IQs for Psych 101, than I found Peter Rusthov(m!s article in the October issue of TheA/ternat/vo...
...It is further alleged that I knew of the attempts made by certain, now inoperative, White House aides to cover up the aforementioned low deed...
...For one who compares a president to a Nazi for wearing an American flag in his iapal, it is but an easy step to say that the conservative is"curiously akin"ito the communist . Tht~ we have Morley's argument agelnst American conservatives: If cortservatism has any merits as a philosophy, it can be found only in Europe among the aristocracy...
...Now what about, those "less chivalrous cheract~istics...
...Some say there is an American conservative philneophy, but Morley doubts this...
...Is Modey telling us that, between the final disestablishmeqt and the recent invocation of "law and order," the unnamed ruling class was desperatety searching for some kind of semt-rnystical device to keep the common man in his p l a c e ? . . . But Morley is baraly warmed up...
...Both have a "craven fear of change" and both have "a faith in restrictive authority" to "maintain the status quo...
...Brudnoy (in most un-lihertarian fashion) apparently tried to squelch publication of my response onthe ground that I did not intend to use my own name...
...Tyrrell's enlightened editorials, one ulcer that had afflicted the inside of my nose for several years has completely disappeared...
...This is another example of Americans' pathological obsession with the negative...
...This is, of course, unacceptable...
...Morley has had too distinguished a career to be judged by this inexplicable folly...
...He finds it difficult to grasp my meaning when I refer, obliquely, to the clause in the old Anglican prayer book which admonished parishioners "to be content" in the station to which God had called them...
...Get these enlightened nations to send their citizens to the United States to proselytize actively for the planned economy...
...s country for almost two hundred years...
...I was distressed, but hardly surprised, to find Mr...
...So I think your best bet is Zaire...
...We might even get back to the cheery pastime of reading by candlelight if we can find an old newspaper to read, and if the New York Time~ is unavailable we will always be able to get plenty of government printed materials like commission reports from the Department of Labor, many of which are very sprightly written, providing ample heat for the standard family of four when ignited...
...They even say that we are suffering a fuel shortage brought on by price ceilings on fuel oils...
...but at that point, I fail to see how that difficulty in any way establishes that "ergo" intelligence cannot be hereditary...
...The citizens of Zaire are flourishing under a planned economy...
...Debra S. l.ittleflre Graplon, Ohio Rustho~n respom~: Much as I hate to disturb ~ Littiefire's adventures in Psych 101, I feel she owes both my own and Mr...
...and two, by her own confusion of the idea of intelligance with more compHcatad notions about.the basic worth or dignity of a human l~eing...
...Ctearly, intelligence must have some definition--and Ms...
...Americans eat entirely too much beef...
...Since reading Mr...
...It is a common indictment of "Liberals" that they find emotional excuses--of degrading environment, underprivilege, or whatnot--for red-handed criminals from our slums: Surely sentimentality is as misplaced when applied to that staunch Conservative Spiro T. Agnew, or others with a White House background...
...John Galbraith, Ph.D...
...Fourth, neither Harrnsteln nor myself argued that the lower average scores of minority groups established a "cause and effect" relationship between race and intetligance...
...Why can't we hear what's right with America...
...I would appreciate the opportunity to comment on a few of therR . . . If there is one thing this country does not need now, it is the use of unprincipled forms of argument by principled men and women attempting to make some political point...
...in response to the argument that homosexuality is "nat_9 ural" and therefore not immoral, I simply suggested that homosexual tendencies, like the urge to murder, might be perverse even though they recur in nature...
...I suspect Ms...
...Lest there be any doubt, however, about my desire to take a public stand on this and other vital issues of our time, I am, Since~y, Grover J. Flees, III New Have~, Connecticut To the Editor: Felix Morley's "From Robert A. Taft to Watargete ralseda number of important issues...
...Felix Mode/is" I am oedatn, too intelligent to realty believe such normrm and V thoJght that The At~mat/~ one of tbe last besfions of.rational discourse, woold be too ~,-,sible to print it...
...You might even try nude sunbathing...
...Plunkitt: As you might have heard by now, it has been alleged that I, the President, knew beforehand of the surreptitious entry into the Democratic Headquarters and the ofrices of that splendid public servant, Mr...
...The man most conservatives voted for in the presidential election of 1972 is a crypto-Nazi...
...I thought it had been explained to his satisfaction that my then-employer, a public official, was not enthusiastic about the publication of centroversial articles under my own name...
...A more reasonable, objective definition of intelligence would be the ability to adapt to circumstances and environments...
...Oh boy, what a dastardly deed that was...
...If there is, however, you can be sure it is confined to the Upper Crust, immigrant (you know how theyare) construction workers and those who mistrust democratic procedures...
...GWP I I I These, of course, are all in the original Constitution...
...and that these are indeed the things measured by IQ tests...
...I have had surprising difficulty convincing the public that I, like Mr...
...As we sit quietly in our homes we will be able to meditate undisturbed by the sounds of passing automobiles...
...I thought that every well-informed Conservative would know about this, but probably should have spelled it out, as iconoclastic Charles Dickens did: Oh let us love our occupations, Bless the Squire and his relations, Live upon our daily rations And always know our proper stations/ It is precisely because most Americans refuse to know their "proper stations" that right-wing Conservatism, though irascible enough, is making such heavy headway in our troubled political waters...
...A no-no...
...There is nothing I like better than to walk along a really clear and clean highway...
...No title of nobility shall be granted by the United S t a t e s " . . . "The President, Vice-President and all civil officers of the United States shall be removed from office on impeachment for, and conviction of, treason, bribery or other high crimes and misdemeanors" . . . "The trial of all crimes, except in cases of impeachment, shall be by j u r y " . . . "The United States shall guarantee to every State in this Union a republican form of government" _9 . . "No religious test shall ever be required as a qualification to any office or public trust under the United States...
...A slight historical problem arises in connection with Morley's unique analysis...
...Cordially, Richard M. Nixon, President Dear Mr...
...Someone from any minority background, e.g, blacks or native Americans, would find it impossible to adapt to the white man's middle dase tests...
...Both Herrnsteln and Rusthoven fail to deal with one significant factor in their postulation, i.e., intelligence is undefinable ergo it cannot be hereditary...
...Oscar the Grouch Mobile, Alabama To the Editor: In response to a suggestion David Brudnoy made to me in his October article, I decided to "take soma time out from calling homosexuals queers" to reread his assorted works on the subject...
...Second, my article did not blandly assert that "intelligence is what is measured by IQ tests...
...President: Cheer up...
...But why go on...
...The Bill of Rights immediately added many, even more revolutionary, provisions...
...It is causing heart and gastronomic catastrophes that will eventually kill them...
...Rightwingers lament that things are getting worse...
...The high correlation between IQ scores and the distribution of rewards in society is itself prima facle evidence that in the context of this culture (which is the only meaningful one for a discussion of intelligence in America), intelligence is indeed measured by IQ tests...
...Shame, Mr...
...Adlscussion of either, however, would require at least a full-length column...
...GWP Dear Mr...
...I am, alas, unmoved: Queers...
...First, her statement that "intelligence is undefinable ergo it cannot be hereditary" is absurd both in its premise and its conclusion...
...Think of the positive side...
...My only additional point in this regard was that there was nothing in the nature of the universe which precluded such a cause and effect relationship, however much that possibility might disturb soma...
...Plunkitt's book is about the importance of altruism in politics and it is titled What's in It for Me...
...What these ignorants do not realize is that the shortage is all part of a rational plan...
...Address all correspondence to The Bootblack Stand, c/o The Establishment, R.R...
...Morley, shame...
...Gavin asserts that "the word 'revolutionary' simply cannot be applied to any part of the Constitution of the United States...
...In fact the fuel shortage is almost unheard of there as do1~keys require very little high octane gasoline, or "magic water" as they say over there...
...Herrnsteln is also guilty of another major sin in the realm of Psychology...
...Taft, we aro tok:l, " ~ the applicability of consenra~ve thought to American politics be~____~_ of the e~.~,~tielty revolutlomw principles of our Constitution...
...But if CREEP wasn't trying, successfully, to secure a Ja vote of National Socialist proportions, then what in Heaven's name were all the dirty tricks attempting to achieve...
...Bebe Rebozo, am a totally honest man...
...Although Dr...
...Rusthoven's support for such racist dribble as Hermstain's article has been found to be...
...Harrnsteln mentions the fact and then dismisses it...
...No bill of attainder or ex post facto law shall be passed...
...Nonetheless reactionaries still grumble about the benefits of a planned economy like the shortage of beef brought about by wage and price controls...
...Morley, a few sentences later, discards and tells us "That miniature flag in the buttonhole is akin to Hitler's omnlpreeent s-dmsfika...
...George Washington Plunkitt, our prize-winning political analyst, is celebrating the publication of his new book, which is now available at avant-garde bookstores throughout New Jersey...
...Larry O'Brien...
...llttlefire is really troubled by two things: one, the idea that differential distributions of rewards may reflect intrinsic, rather than conditioned, differences between individuals...
...Morley then writes one of his more confusing sente~'mes, which I quote here In full: "Where there is no firmty estabEshed church, keeping parishioners in the station to which God is said to have called them, the less mystical substitute of 'law and order' must be invoked...
...There has not been an established church in...
Vol. 7 • January 1974 • No. 4
