Letters
Editors: In her article on living wage campaigns at U.S. colleges and universities ("Living Wage 101," Fall 2001), Rachel Neumann misrepresents my and the college administration's view of the...
...For anyone to misrepresent this effort, and its intention, only makes it more difficult for this important effort to succeed...
...Is this what the editor wants when he demands a "morally intelligent politics...
...His comment that labor markets set the wages and that higher wages require cutting in instruction or financial aid is in line with what he said to me in our talk, which I quoted verbatim...
...Is it only the critics who are predictable...
...Randolph Bourne noted in the spring of 1917 that the war sentiment had become a "chorus so mighty that to be out of it was at first to be disreputable and finally almost obscene...
...The "root cause" of every unhappy event is not, finally, somehow, always, the Great Satan (or, alternatively, the Little Satan...
...DISSENT / Spring 2002 n 127...
...What if all sides are not equally deserving of criticism...
...The college is trying hard to provide to these members of our staff conditions more generous than the markets require...
...At the same time, we must contend with the reality of finite resources...
...World War II was not World War I. The Gulf War was not the Vietnam War...
...But for me, morally intelligent politics makes distinctions...
...Well, I dissent...
...Chomsky, Said, and Cockburn understand that this war strengthens the men of power, the national security state, and these are no small matters to any concerned leftists...
...Surely there can be valid and worthwhile debate about the causes of 9/11 and its meaning and about U.S...
...But Macdonald's position was not at all bizarre...
...Just another imperialist war, you know...
...On 9/10 you could have predicted everything Chomsky et al...
...I have admired Mitchell Cohen's editorship, but I found his hyperbolic smear of Chomsky, Said, and Cockburn offensive...
...126 n DISSENT / Spring 2002 LETTERS Editors: As a long-time friend of the magazine who was asked to write for it by Irving Howe in the sixties, and who has been disturbed by some of the more recent issues, particularly the Winter 2002 issue, may I suggest that you change the name of the magazine from Dissent to Assent...
...got 9/11 wrong...
...A committee broadly representative of our staff, with the full support of the administration, has undertaken a comprehensive review of compensation policies and recommended higher salaries for lower paid staff...
...I don't think it is the job of intellectuals to be free "to openly criticize all sides...
...colleges and universities ("Living Wage 101," Fall 2001), Rachel Neumann misrepresents my and the college administration's view of the well-intentioned campaign underway at Swarthmore and misquotes my comments on the subject...
...I hope that my article— as members of the campaign have generously reassured me—was a help rather than a hindrance in that process...
...policies in response...
...To the extent that allocations for staff wages exceed market benchmarks, less money is available for other expenditures central to our educational mission ranging from instruction and library to financial aid...
...We are currently attempting to locate the financial resources required...
...I am glad to hear that Swarthmore's committee has recommended higher salaries for the staff...
...Like a significant (though small) part of the left, he imposed the debates of 1917 on 1940...
...If we can only establish world socialism, all other matters will resolve themselves...
...When I was writing about Dwight Macdonald in the 1940s, I thought his antiwar position bizarre, but I agreed with Robert Westbrook, who noted that his position may have been a mistake, but it was a "creative mistake" because "it freed him to openly criticize all sides in the conflict...
...I assent...
...To suggest that criticism is a part of the culture of excuse and apology is to demand conformity...
...Creative" doesn't seem to me the appropriate adjective for the failure to comprebend the threat of Nazi Germany...
...I'm sorry President Bloom felt my comments misstated his or the college's position...
...One can challenge the arguments of Chomsky, Said, and Cockburn, but to suggest that they are apologists for terror is shameful...
...Things are a little more complex...
...I believe the labor markets that surround us set wages for our lower paid staff members that are below what they deserve given the work they perform and the costs of a decent life...
...His letter seems to reaffirm, however, the position I attributed to him in the article...
...would say after 9/11, and that their first bent would not be to join the mourning, but to explain how this (well, yes, tragic) event demonstrates how they were always right about everything...
...I think intellectuals need critical judgment, not formulas they reapply in all circumstances...
...Is it necessary to show contempt for opponents of your own positions...
...That Michael Kazin might even think that because he feels that the United States should address the grievances that bin Laden and his supporters have been .. . articulating" he might be seen as an appeaser illustrates how intimidating the wave of conformity has become...
...Mike Wreszin argues that as Macdonald got World War II wrong, so Chomsky et al...
...note: The writer is president of Swarthmore College...
Vol. 49 • April 2002 • No. 2
