Correspondence
Correspondence Minimal downside risk Austin, Tex. To the Editors: Ronald Reagan's economic platform may in fact be, as Professor DuBoffcontends with such inner certainty ["The New...
...SerialsDataprogramNo.: ISSN 0010-3330.Second-classpostage paid atNew York,N.Y.Copyright© 1980CommonwealPublishingCo...
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...Let him witness the typical Bedouin post-partum procedure in most of the Arab world...
...The downside risk of progressive efforts is minimized...
...Let Garvey go to the boonies in Saudi, Yemen, Egypt, Iraq, Iran, Oman, and sample the average life-span of the local male...
...A group of individual decisions, each of narrower scope and lesser impact than the corresponding government policy action, has less potential for a net harmful effect...
...Did he obtain them in the U.K., the U.S., AUB, Western Germany...
...What indeed, we might answer, but, before we answer let's check the speaker's "credentials...
...Garvey's characterization of the PBS broadcast of Death of a Princess as tasteless is a subjective opinion at best...
...Reagan may not be as far off the mark as Mr...
...The real appeal of their program lies in the philosophy that will guide their approach to governing: under most circumstances, an individual, aware of his context and of his responsibility, is the optimal judge of what is best for him.CHARt.ESTODDDon't blame the Shah Choctaw, Okla...
...Strange that after five years, regular NVA troops are still in "Ho Chi Minh" City, and, stranger still, where is the NLF, the Viet Cong, et al, who were going to lead the peoples once liberation became reality...
...The GOP's economic "mythology," at least, has the virtue of congruity with a general philosophy of decentralized decision-making coupled with individual accountability for one's actions...
...Let Mr...
...Islam without technology peaked shortly after the Crusades, and future resurgences of Islam will of necessity be complemented by the critical need for modernization and education of those who will comprise the national infrastructure...
...Garvey misses is that the f'tlm was not intended to explain Islam to the Americans, but rather is intended to focus on a very tiny aspect of a very mysterious happening to a minor female member of the Saudi royal family...
...To the Editors: John Garvey's "Arrogance of Power" [June 6 ]. What an excellent title for an article that portrays precisely the arrogance which the author so righteously decries...
...What Mr...
...Garvey would like to think...
...Commonweal: 514...
...I suggest to Professor DuBoff that conservative theory does about as well--and as badly--as any other set of ideas his profession has produced.Abitmoreintellectual humility--particularly in light of the less-than-remarkabletrackrecord achievedbyeconomicsand economists--might be a useful ingredient in his thinking and writing...
...As one who has seen Islam up close, let me say that the bottom line is this: don't blame the Shah for trying to extricate his nation from a thirteenth century mind-set...
...Garvey attend a lecture at an Arab university and hear the speaker decry Western vacuousness...
...They have Islam, royal families, tribal tradition.., and more...
...Let him check the infant mortality rate, the diet, the housing....Mr...
...48106...
...just ask them...
...tocurrentissuesavailablethrough UniversityMicrofilm,300N.ZeebRoad,AnnArbor, Mi...
...Garvey overlooks what has occurred in Iran since the arrival of the Khomeinj regime, or he chalks it up to a reaction against the Shah, while ignoring totally Iran's pre-Shah history...
...To quote the contemporary "Adam Smith," to win, ftrst of all you must not lose...
...He should visit the local execution squares in any major city within the kingdom on any Friday...
...Granted, the spread of good works may be slowed somewhat (but compare the rates of scientific progress in the U.S...
...Correspondence Minimal downside risk Austin, Tex...
...Garvey apparently desires is a marathon twelvehour documentary balancing the good and the bad...
...The Garveys of the world made similar sounds about a gentleman named Thieu of Vietnam, i.e., we cannot support a corrupt, immoral regime, etc., · . .meanwhile of course the "liberation" goes on...
...The same argument applied to the Shah won't wash...
...and the Soviet Union...
...The test of the Republican economic theory, as of any other, is in its ability to explain the present and predict the future...
...To the Editors: Ronald Reagan's economic platform may in fact be, as Professor DuBoffcontends with such inner certainty ["The New Economic Mythology," July 4], grounded on a flawed theoretical base...
...Garvey on one point.Mr.Cartershouldhave apologized: f'LrSt,tOthe Shah for advising him to loosen control, and, second, to the Iranian people for casting them into the twilight zone created by Khomeini's totalitarian regime...
...Whathave they given us beside their technology," the speaker might say...
...John Garvey should also note that the bureaucratic roadblocks depicted in the filnf were not atypical...
...What Mr...
...just try to obtain a visa in the kingdom sometime...
...Garvey's critique of the rescue attempt is understandable insofar as one understands the author's background and mind-set...
...Hopefully, modernization and Islam will not meet the same fate in Sandi, but that distinction remains to be judged as effective...
...That the very technology he decries has discovered his oil, grown his food, built and delivered his jet airliners, his motorcars, his televisions, his communication satellites, his hospitals--and moreover, what could the West provide other than technology...
...Illustrations: p. 517, Bas., Tachydromos, Greece...
...The system does operate, and basically in the manner implied by the f'tlm...
...p. 528, The Drummer, LNS...
...p. 520, Liberation News Service (LNS...
...I will agree with Mr...
...A businessman or corporate executive will not always make a better decision than will a government official (but then, of course, the businessman often is directly and personally affected by the decision, a wonderful incentive seldom available to the official...
...In short, the Republicans may or may not be right in their specific ideas...
...Westernization and Islam did clash in Iran...
Vol. 107 • September 1980 • No. 17
