Correspondence
correspondence A -., — •.)6.'''ii..„ • To the Editor: If ever anybody wanted to cure this country of "Cronkitis," it has been me; and I would love to think that we could have reason without...
...I, on the other hand, would have to cancel: my two daily newspapers, a gift subscription to Time from my witless brother-in-law, ten public service announcements, eight situation comedies, seven detective shows, five out of six new movies, four radio programs, three network news shows, two, educational TV entertainments, both Houses of Congress, and a partridge in a pear tree...
...What I regret is that in my essay I did not differentiate between superior individuals like him and those libertarians whose politics is not a function of their worship for third-rate novelists...
...Maybe you could talk your future subscribers into staying away from one Rock Show or limit them to one Pet Rock, or even suggest that they miss one philharmonic performance rather than the Keystone Cops and me...
...Revolt in 2100, the overthrow of an American theocracy...
...I mean, they even do it with each other...
...It is only fair to point out that while Stranger in a Strange Land is one of Heinlein's best sellers, it is perhaps more difficult for those with cultural prejudices and problems to understand...
...For anyone interested in following this up, I would suggest: Starship Troopers,expressing patriotism in libertarian terms...
...J. Whitney Stillman's rather dated book review of Robert Heinlein's Stranger in a Strange Land was perhaps the most inane piece of quasi-mysticism this side of National Review...
...And it is not the result of finding the novel too difficult to "understand...
...I must al warn you that after extensive experiments, has been demonstrated that your magazi causes cancer in rats...
...I, therefore, ha alerted the proper federal authorities and ticipate the EPA demanding complete e torial compliance by 1978...
...As someone who is a limited-state libertarian and used to be a life-long conservative, I am fascinated by Stillman's discovery that Heinlein (a) likes sex, (b) dislikes organized religion, and (c) has no hang-ups about nudity...
...The faction under the banner of "sock justice" happens to be stronger than othe factions and institutions which also had thei day: business and defense, for example...
...The au thor himself finds a parallel between present day union power and medieval Church power —and it is a pity he did not pursue this his torically enlightening line of argumentation Politically speaking, why in the Middle Age: were Church, feudal lords, private armies and free cities so recalcitrant and turbulent' Because State power was weak, the notion o common good existed only in the jurists books, and factions all vied with each other fo supreme—State—power...
...These qualities are not unusual in a popular novel...
...Centuri of democracy have made such a prospect u realistic...
...Wow, Still-man's powers of observation overwhelm mel Such perception should rank him somewhere between Galileo and Copernicus, a couple of dudes who had their own problems with the theocrats, bureaucrats, and statists Heinlein has so thoroughly renovated in a number of novels and short stories...
...Ilona Easton Bethel, Connecticut To the Editor: I looked upon the addition of your feature "Among the Intellectualoids" with great delight when it first appeared...
...but I certainly don't feel responsible for Cronkite...
...Th weak State, as Burckhardt saw it a centur ago, always whores after the strongest fa( tion, copying its program—and today th strongest factions are the labor unions, th leftist parties and pressure groups, and th media...
...The Moon Is a Harsh Mistress, containing at least as much hard-core libertarian thought as Atlas Shrugged with a lot less pages...
...I do not know how anyone could find this novel—so reeking with obviousness —difficult to understand...
...Stillman replies: My low opinion of Robert Heinlein's Stranger in a Strange Land is not based on political or religious grounds...
...I know the old ones are keeping television alive, and most of the old ones are mine...
...Unfortunately, I thought it was supposed to be written about them, not by them...
...It may be that only strong State, not subservient to, and not symbiosis with, any faction, can restore th balance that emerged at the end of the Midd Ages...
...I understand S Bayh envisions hearings...
...all the characters talk as if they were eleventh-graders at an American high school during the fifties...
...Thomas Moln New York, New Yo To the Editor: I find it shocking that such a journal yours could be published in our enlighten and compassionate nation...
...But a warning to the Stillmans of the world...
...and finally Time Enough for Love, Heinlein's EM Heidenleben...
...What makes Heinlein unique (forgetting about Ayn for the moment) is that he infuses his product with raging egotism...
...To the Editor: I very much enjoyed Peregrine Worsthorne's article on British trade unions in your February issue, first, on account of its lucidity, and second, for its courage to show that labor unions are a power elite like other power elites, past, present, and future...
...Franzi seems a prime example of this moronic master-class...
...I say mysticism because I am mystified as to the purpose of his verbiage...
...the sex scenes—far from being shocking—are strictly for minors...
...The Puppet Masters, a classic dissertation on internal subversion...
...and I would love to think that we could have reason without Reasoner...
...The institutions advocating the con mon good and civil peace are downgraded, i nored, and sacrificed...
...Once the protagonist, Valentine Michael Smith, learns how to speak English, the navel does not contain an idea, a description, or a piece of dialogue of any complexity or subtlety whatever...
...Yet the entire public policy is against such restoration because it would have to be fected on the Aristotelian line that inequali is inevitable and must be accepted...
...This, suggest, is a rather superficial view...
...It is, in fact, comically juvenile...
...Perhaps as a follow-up, The Alternative could secure someone who is not a conservative but a life-long liberal who became a libertarian to review God and Man at Yale and explain that William F. Buckley, Jr...
...They get to watch as "theocrats, bureaucrats, and statists" are "thoroughly renovated" or, more typically, dumped in manure...
...Worsthorne arguesthat union arrogance stems partly from th previous social inequality in Great Britain, the style and image of which have persisted anc rendered middle-class resistance to unior despotism timid, sporadic, unpopular...
...This was the es sence of feudalism, and still is, although w dare not call the present situation "nec feudal...
...But let us observe that while we co plain about the Syndical-State, others, els where, are in a similar quandary: the wea ness of the State in modern times has pr duced such hybrids as the Army-State, t Party-State, the Bureaucratic-State...
...Emil Franzi Tucson, Arizona Mr...
...It is an outrage all Americans who believe in George Mea national health care legislation, the imp tance of Havana ice cream cones to wo peace, and the American way...
...the thoughts expressed by the author's various mouthpieces are hackneyed beyond belief...
...and all this is capped off with sickening cuteness and sentimentality...
...But these fortunate folk need only cancel their subscriptions to The Alternative in order to avoid ideas which upset their sensibilities...
...his lampooning of kooky evangelists (who should be considered beyond satire) is tiresome and heavy-handed...
...In most of these novels, people take off their clothes and have sex and even enjoy it...
...Are the not equivalent phenomena...
...is, in fact, a Catholic...
...Greensboro, North Carol Joseph MeN 38 The Alternative: An American Spectator May 191...
...His youthfully-minded readers are made to feel that they are superior to the masses...
...John Wayne Beverly Hills, California To the Editor: I know exactly how disgruntled correspondents Cooke and Hoggatt (March) feel...
...Which is, of course, thoroughly untraditional...
...I disagree only with his explanation...
...The only thing that irritates me is that couldn't you pick on something besides the movies...
Vol. 9 • May 1976 • No. 8
