Friendly Fascists in Latte Towns
Friendly Fascists in Latte Towns David Brooks's "The Rise of the Latte Town" (Sept. 15) ended with an interesting suggestion: A portion of the Left has reconciled the cultural contradictions of...
...H. Camp Gordinier Lenox, MA Sanctifying Gay Marriage As reported by Mark Tooley ("Same Sex, Same Marriage," Sept...
...maybe a brown paper wrapper would help your circulation...
...You wrote that NATO expansion is the most consequential foreign-policy decision since the Gulf War and that "the opportunity is ours...
...In New York, they're merely one group among many...
...From my observations, this would take nearly half the motorists off the road...
...15) is very curious for a magazine with such talent for truth-telling and self-examination...
...15), the analogy between civil rights and gay rights put forward by President William Chase of Emory University is misdrawn...
...I urge The Weekly Standard to tell the rest of the story and to assess the extent of the moral crisis within the United Methodist Church...
...The civil rights movement has devoted itself to fighting invidious discrimination, not issues involving sexual morality...
...While Brooks did not have any luck finding the New Republic or The Weekly Standard at the local bookstores, had he traveled to Burlington's public library he would have found both titles prominently displayed...
...Lugar, who has championed the growth of freedom in Europe for years, is seeking to forge the broad consensus necessary to obtain NATO-expansion approval from his Senate colleagues...
...You will find few native sons and daughters in their midst...
...The Green Mountains are an extraordinarily beautiful alternative to messy city problems...
...Still, it was a great story...
...Obviously, conservative magazines such as yours do not sell in Burlington...
...Robert Lyon Philadelphia, PA Reading Mark Tooley's article was painful for me, still a member of the United Methodist Church...
...But it continues to be done in the guise of political liberalism...
...Robert Coleburn Burlington, VT David Brooks's article was splendid...
...Elizabeth Richman Alsea, OR Double-Agent Lugar Your seeming ridicule of Sen...
...Jesse Helms, who is not nearly as enthusastic about NATO's enlargement...
...Because of federal dollars and the presence of the University of Colorado, Boulder need not concern itself with the realities of private-enterprise economics...
...For example, many fatalities might be attributed by a patrolman to improper passing, not speeding...
...In Vermont, they figured they could swing the power base...
...Bruce F. Merkle Vienna, VA Brooks almost got it right...
...The code of the latte town, on the other hand, is to remake the world...
...Brooks is just writing what city folks think...
...Of all the dairy farmers I knew, there wasn't a single one who didn't have on his body a scar courtesy of one of these gentle animals...
...The "squishy" liberal politics are enforced with a heavy hand...
...Also, relying on figures that reflect low fatality rates only for supposedly speed-related accidents can be highly misleading...
...Perhaps along with the 75 mph speed limit we should require a minimum IQ of 75 before a driver's license is granted...
...I've heard local highspeed proponents cite figures that pertain only to the interstate highways, which indeed are designed to be safely motored at 75 miles per hour...
...Now Sen...
...Just two months ago, your editors courageously put forward the case for NATO expansion ("NATO: The More the Merrier," July 21...
...It is the stated goal of the city government to reduce the number of jobs in Boulder so as to reduce automobile traffic...
...The New Left always had a problem with reading comprehension...
...Cows are actually mean and sneaky...
...One's right to be offended takes precedence over the First Amendment...
...They want to run the state of Vermont, and after that, who knows...
...People dedicated to the principles of zero population growth and public acceptance of homosexuality are going to have a tough time growing in number...
...Brooks's description of Burlington fits perfectly the self-image of Boulder...
...Richard Lugar regarding his plan to enlarge NATO (Scrapbook, Sept...
...Much has been written lately about the extremes of political correctness on college campuses...
...Nevertheless, I am a firm believer in the old—and sometimes forgotten—liberal tenet, which is: We may not agree with what conservatives believe, but we do believe that you have a right to be heard...
...We should gladly seize it...
...Boulder is an entire city just like that...
...The terrible thing is that when it comes to rejecting the doctrinal standards of Methodism, Emory University is by no means an isolated case...
...He wrote, "Whoever fights monsters should see to it that in the process he does not become a monster...
...If so, raising the speed limits on the interstates is indirectly responsible for the increase in accidents on secondary roads...
...15) further demonstrates the decline in educational standards at American universities that began in the 1960s...
...I also have a tough time seeing restraint in waitresses with 19 ear, nose, lip, and navel rings...
...The result is a large number of the most self-centered and intolerant people imaginable...
...University officials (including my own) know that recognition of same-sex partnerships can only add to the social decadence of America...
...I hope Tooley's article will open the eyes of church members who prefer to keep them closed...
...Robert S. Stein Arlington, VA Ihave never been to any of the other latte towns that David Brooks writes about, but I lived in Boulder, Colorado, for 18 years...
...Brooks suggests that this reconciliation will enable latte towns to "thrive" and "spread...
...Health and fitness enthusiasts and struggling artists abound in Boulder, as do drug users and all manner of conspicuous consumers...
...15) ended with an interesting suggestion: A portion of the Left has reconciled the cultural contradictions of capitalism with a new ethos of "environmentalism, healthism, and eglitarianism," thereby providing the self-restraint that previously was generated by the "old puritanical" code...
...It may include circumventing Sen...
...Most articles on Burlington end up sounding as ethically correct as Burlington would like to be portrayed...
...Further, the moral code of the latte town is inferior to the "old puritanical" code...
...Lugar for consorting with the enemy, President Clinton...
...They also came because they be-lieved—rightly, as it turned out—that a small state like Vermont would provide a stump for their "progressive" (read: socialist) politics...
...It's too bad your magazine doesn't sell well there...
...Helms notwithstanding, dedication to ideas and principles—not personalities—should be your guide...
...Contrary to Brooks's observation, the progressives aren't here to concentrate on local politics and small-scale activism...
...Matthew T. Sternberg Rutland, VT The Birth of Tragedy Matt Labash's "Leftovers Gone Bad" (Sept...
...Nietzsche was acutely aware of ideological distortion...
...Yuppies are alive and well, and self-fulfillment is the noblest pursuit...
...They're all newcomers...
...Bret T. Swanson Alexandria, VA Slow Minds at Fast Speeds Stephen Moore might be misinterpreting the statistics to reach his conclusion that higher speed limits have not resulted in significantly more highway deaths ("Untrue at Any Speed," Sept...
...But fatalities on non-interstates are up...
...I would be in favor of the higher speed limits if you could convince me that the average American motorist is competent to handle a two-ton machine hurtling down a narrow strip of asphalt at more than a mile a minute...
...Brooks's story looks at it with that classic Weekly Standard mix of humor and cynicism that can make your magazine such a fun read...
...How else to explain Ira Einhorn's "Nietzschean elasticity"—except to note his incomplete understanding of his mentor...
...As an encore," you conclude, "maybe Lugar should apply for a job at the White House...
...Having escaped, they have the leisure to ponder diversity and social responsibility...
...Because he thought he wasn't going fast enough, right...
...Maybe, provided the latte is caffeine-free, nonfat, and laced with Napoleon cognac...
...Lugar your endorsement for the top job at the White House—which I would welcome—I am surprised to have read such a cynical, and contradictory, account concerning a subject about which you have staked out so bold and clear a position...
...The old way sought to limit people's inherent licentiousness—a limit that made them better fathers, mothers, neighbors, and citizens...
...But why was the driver passing...
...It has been based on the premise that all men and women should be treated equally in their citizenship, not that all lifestyles be accorded equal treatment...
...The sobering fact is that each year this country kills on highways nearly as many people as died in the Vietnam war...
...Unless you are offering Sen...
...Holly Maddux paid with her life—in part because Einhorn was a poor student of the philosopher...
...Since he is a visiting "flatlander" (i.e., he didn't come from these mountains), he missed several key points...
...The main point is how Burlington fell victim to the latte crowd...
...The latte towns may be significant because of their wealth, but that may fall over time as their populations dwindle...
...Step carelessly into the street in Boulder and you risk being run down by a new BMW with a pro-envi-ronmentalism sticker on the bumper...
...I suspect it's because drivers psychologically cannot slow down from 75 mph when they exit the four-lane superhighway...
...I've noted a whole lot more dangerous passing going on since the limits were hiked...
...The city council is free to impose growth-control measures that have pushed the median price of a single-family home to over $260,000 and forced businesses to move elsewhere...
...How, then, can you chastise Sen...
...In other words, it is fascism with a human face...
...I know this because I was raised on a farm in north-central Indiana in the 1930s...
...Scott Clouston Longmont, CO Ithoroughly enjoyed David Brooks's piece...
...It's a chilling reminder that education which is permeated with ideological distortion leads not only to serious errors, but to tragic results...
...Myself, I'm skeptical...
...Boulder a latte town...
...However, his pronouncement that cows are pacifists reflects a very sad misconstrual of our bovine population...
...Jay Ford Colorado Springs, CO...
...Almost all of them are flatlanders, folks from New York and Boston who began to move here in the '70s to escape the evils of urban living...
...He recognizes, as do you, the importance of this, and he is doing whatever it takes to get the votes...
...Your recent enthusiasm for Sen...
...Clearly, something is wrong...
Vol. 3 • September 1997 • No. 3
