Correspondence
To the Editor: Due to my miserable handwriting, and through no fault of The Alternative the following sentence was printed in the fourth paragraph of my review of Kissinger: Portrait of a...
...But the producers of this film committed crimes against humanity which should be punished rather than rewarded with a boxoffice bonanza, and any communications media, The Alternative included, which becomes party to their depravity smells to high heaven!t Leon S. Rhodes Editor, Bryn Athyn Post Bryn Athyn, Pennsylvania =.._ -,.., ERRATUM Due to an unfortunate confusion the copyright of Armymagazine did not a~o~ear wi.*h "A, merica~ Str~.tegy .---4 0 r3"~., ,.~ To the Editor: I look forward to each issue of The Alternative, and I find in "The Continuing Crisis" the same type of humor that made the early National Review ("The Week") so enjoyable...
...This month lived up to my expectations, but I found myself rolling on the floor as I read your editorial, "lntellectualoids: The Lumpen Intelligentsia...
...The virtue of free enterprise is that it uniquely approximates this just distribution of income and property...
...Thanking you for the use of your kilocycles...
...I have composed a dirge for the occasion: "The Persistent Private" (A Dirge on the State of the Republic) He flunked out of flight school But kept right on trying To master the science Of rotary flying "Practice makes perfect," Young Preston once heard So early one morning With nary a word He set out o're housetops, Just skimming the ground While squadrons of gumshoes (Those airborne bloodhounds) Bayed far to the rear, No closer they dared For young Private Preston Seemed not at all scared Of gravity, buckshot Convention, or guards Who waited, eyes skyward, In Nixon's backyard To poppings of gunfire The private descended Though wounded, he smiled (and his leg wounds soon mended) He'll have to stand trial, The Army's decreed But no more will Preston Sit still at Fort Meade For guard duty, sergeants And other dull things, None of them really suggesting The wings That Preston, like all of us, Dreamt he might find for Escape from the every day ,~.~ rues Grant To the Editor: My appreciation for the excellent quality of literature in recent issues of The Alternative...
...Clark has affirmed the most grotesque and noxious pretension of all: "Free enterprise is not inherently any more moral than truly democratic socialism...
...I knew a guy who accepted as many federal grants as he could lay his hands on, and it killed him...
...name ,, address city state date of change: zip . . . . . . . The Alternative May 1974 31...
...Are you no longer interested in federal grants...
...I think, though, that a close reading of Capitalism and Freedom will show that Professor Friedman (unlike Bentham) values "efficiency" less than the moral ideal of "freedom" and would sacrifice the former for the latter...
...Bernard Moser Fieetwood, Pennsylvania changing your address...
...lfwwhich is not the case--i was to concede that this film was a well-done film, I would still feel a nausea about the clamor and praise which will earn it a fortune and entice dozens of inept, cruddy, conscienceless filmmakers to out-do its horrors...
...The sentence should read: "But a country's foreign policy should not be youthful or immature . . . . " I don't believe U.S...
...Clark's argument that free enterprise is the most efficient economic system is correct, but not fundamental...
...J. Robert Brame, III Richmond, Virginia To the Editor: The Communist leaders of Soviet Russia are outraged by comparisons between Stalinist Russia and Hitlerite Germany made by Aleksandr I. Solzhenitsyn...
...Print your new address and mail this form to The Alternative...
...The mere form of democracy can give no legitimacy to a system inherently immoral...
...One of these truths is that each person is entitled to share in the fruits of human industry in proportion to his contribution thereto...
...Regardless of other material, pairing Alan Reynolds' item on pornography and Brudnoy's praise for The Exorcist (March, 1974) raises a very dark cloud, indeed...
...If--as is not the case--I was to concede that its subject matter and treatment justified its offenses, I would still consider its producers guilty of a most unforgivable offense...
...I thought that was the best part of it, although the cheap beer, McSorley's, and restroom walls stuff is pretty good...
...When those Americans of Eastern European descent appealed to the conscience of the free world, they were met with a conspiracy of silence, in many cases those anti-Communists were greeted by the self-styled liberal circles with open hostility...
...E.P...
...Enclosed is my check ($4.50 for students and faculty, $6.00 for others...
...As a filmmaker, I am familiar with special effects and rarely feel chill at a movie murder because it is only make-believe...
...Schmidt Oakton, Virginia To the Editor: i read your journal devotedly, and particularly appreciated Mr...
...Always attach address label when writing to us about your subscription...
...Important: allow six weeks for address change...
...I am pleased to report that, despite the implications from his letter, he is indeed in good health and, further, Panama City, Florida, is a fine city...
...To the Editor: Nell Howe's piece on "Defending Capitalism" (The Alternative, March, 1974) was most excellent...
...All socialistic systems--from Communism to liberalism--are arrant denials of justice...
...Nevertheless, wide circles of the Eastern "liberal" Establishment ignored the stories of those refugees in spite of the fact that the outrageous crimes against humanity committed by the Russian Communists in the once-independent Lithuania, Latvia, and Estonia, and in the Russian puppet states in Eastern Europe were well-documented by the resolutions passed by Congress...
...l wish you continued success on your subscription sales...
...To the Editor: Due to my miserable handwriting, and through no fault of The Alternative the following sentence was printed in the fourth paragraph of my review of Kissinger: Portrait of a Mind, that appeared in the March issue: "But a country's foreign policy should not be faithful or immature if that country is not going to act on its youthful ambitions...
...As so publicly pronounced, I am obligated to my dear brother Jerry for my subscription...
...It is the genius of conservatism to deny such a hopeless doctrine, and to argue from its apprehension of the eternal verities---i.e., morality...
...Died suddenly at age 96...
...Cy Gerde Lafayette, Indiana To the Editor: I just finished your recent editorial in The Altp, mative, "lntellectualoids...
...Great piece...
...Howe, see Posner, Economic Analysis of Law(1973), especially Chapters Fifteen and Twenty-eight...
...Lindley Clark, in his recent series on "The Lessons of Free Enterprise," has exposed some vulgar shibboleths of the anticapitalists, and laid to rest many of their myths...
...Efficiency is a weighty matter, but it can be freely sacrificed to higher purposes...
...I started writing what might be considered a typical conservative reply, quoting paragraph and sentence, I couldn't find any verse, when I suddenly realized the whole book could be answered in two words, three if one wished to wax eloquent...
...Yet at the end of this undertaking (February, 1974), one is appalled to find that Mr...
...Or did you get one too many...
...Therefore, millions of Americans of the Eastern European descent are confronted with the outspoken credibility gap created by liberal papers and TV networks...
...Best wishes and a sincere hope for a fine May and a rewarding November...
...It certainly is one of my most interesting Christmas gifts...
...The Alternative C i r c u l a t i o n Department R.R...
...Since I want to make this appear a little impressive, I will make it three: Khrushchev--England--Solzhenitsyn...
...As for the relationship of "efficiency" to the "moral prerequisites" touched on by Mr...
...Christopher DeMuth Chicago, Illinois To the Editor: Mr...
...47401 i it IHI t i i tl please attach address label here i ii i i i i ii [~ Please renew my subscription for one year...
...Douglas E. Adams Rockford, Illinois As with everything else it was a typo...
...it should be strongly emphasized that the same comparisons were made by many American citizens of Eastern European descent who fled from their native countries at the close of the Second World War...
...Don Samelson Madison, Wisconsin To the Editor: The Preston episode is an outrage, and ineradicable stain on the honor of the Republic...
...Please attach address label from the back cover of your Alternative in the space below...
...11, Box 360 Bloomington, Ind...
...This is true only if on~ accepts moral relativism, a view which reduces moral questions to the level of one's preference among brands of soda pop...
...They condemn Solzhenitsyn for informing the free world that the government of Imperial Russia was "liberal" and "loving" toward the people and that Hitlerites were "gracious" and "merciful" both to the Russians and the peoples of Eastern Europe, which the West failed to protect from the Soviet occupation...
...William Kristol Cambridge, Massachusetts To the Editor: Why did you change your masthead to eliminate the reference to federal grants...
...Whether one is trampled by the jackboots of storm troops or by the feet of a mob is a matter of indifference to the tramplee...
...Ar.y ~t!'~er system must beunjust and immoral, appropriatin~ to c~,e man the product of another, in the process destroying ;:he independence of both...
...In fact, it is almost as much fun to read The Alternative along the beaches as it is by our firesides...
...Clark's forced distinction between "truly democratic socialism" (begging the question whether such a beast can ever exist) and dictatorship is worthless...
...Cheers...
...It is an amazing fact that our liberal papers and TV networks, which blame President Richard M. Nixon for covering up the Watergate affair, have studiously refrained themselves from informing the general public about the Communist rule in Eastern Europe...
...Having spent some time in the worst breeding ground of them all (Yale Law School) I readily recognize the character type and was thoroughly entertained...
...thus, the moral argument is crucial...
...However, the nature of his letter to you (February 1974) required an almost immediate trip to visit him in Florida despite the press of many important matters here in our colder clime...
...Dan Hales Winnetka, Illinois To the Editor: Our first (unrequested) copy of The Alternative pleased us enough to subscribe immediately, and the second issue offends me enough to consider stopping my check...
...Nell Howe's article, "Defending Capitalism," in the March issue...
...foreign policy should be faithless...
...Perhaps in future issues you might include, for those of us noninteilectuals who reside further than you from the towers of academia, a pony for translation into the vernacular of us plain folk...
...I agree with you...
...Conservatives have scant need to talk of nickels and dimes when we can triumph on the issue of right and wrong...
...To rate it "must-see" and "screened magnificently" does your publication much harm...
...Those refugees left their native countries because they considered Communism the curse and pestilence of mankind...
...Thus, Mr...
...Those are so smart, they can't and walk at the same time...
...Alexander Vo Berkis Professor of History Farmville, Virginia To the Editor: i read the book review of Kissinger: Portrait of a Mind, with much interest, and to say that I wasn't the least bit disappointed, is to put it mildly...
...Reynolds declares "bad business drives out good" and as a filmmaker for more than thirty years I contemplate with horror the bad business represented by The Exorcist...
...Just like that...
Vol. 7 • May 1974 • No. 8
