MARXISM, SAYS THE AUTHOR, HAS OFTEN BEEN COMPARED WITH CHRISTIANITY AS A WORLD-HISTORICAL PHENOMENON, AND MARX THOUGHT HE HAD COME TO SAVE WESTERN CIVILIZATION. KOLAKOWISM, THOUGHT HE WAS WRONG, AND IN THIS PAPER THE AUTHOR EXPLAINS WHY HE HIMSELF DOES, ALSO.
THE AUTHOR STATES THAT OIL, IN THE HANDS OF A RATIONAL OIL REGIME, IS NOT A WEAPON, BUT CONCEDES THAT IN THE HANDS OF AN IRRATIONAL ONE IT MIGHT BE. IF A REGIME IS REALLY CAPABLE OF SELF-DESTRUCTIVE FITS OF OIL WEAPONEERING, AMERICANS MUST EITHER LIVE WITH IT OR ACT AGAINST IT, BUT THEY SHOULD HARDLY PUT FAITH IN POLITICAL BARGAINS WITH IT.
THE AUTHOR PRESENTS AN ESSAY ON POVERTY & INCOME DISTRITION. HE DISCUSSES STATUS & BEHAVIOR, THE MEANING & MEASUREMENT OF POVERTY, THE SOURCE OF POVERTY, USUAL SOLUTIONS TO POVERTY, WHAT CAN BE DONE, & JUSTICE & FAIRNESS. AS A PRACTICAL MATTER IT IS POVERTY, NOT DISTRIBUTION OF INCOME, WHICH CONCERNS THE PUBLIC. THERE SHOULD BE A MINIMUM STANDARD OF MATERIAL LIVING; LEVEL IS DEBATED, GOAL IS CLEAR.
FROM 1900 TO TODAY, HUGE NUMBERS OF WOMEN HAVE TAKEN JOBS OUTSIDE THE HOME OF THE FAMILY FARM. THE PROPROTION OF THESE TO ALL ADULT WOMEN HAS RISEN FROM LESS THAN TWO OUT OF TEN, TO OVER ONE-HALF. THEIR FORMAL EDUCATION HAS RISEN MORE THAN MEN'S HAS AND LEGAL DISABILITIES HAVE GIVEN WAY TO AFFIRMATIVE ACTION. YET THE AVERAGE PAY OF WOMEN HAS NOT RISEN RELATIVE TO THAT OF MEN. THE CONVENTIONAL ANSWER HAS BEEN DISCRIMINATION IN THE MARKETPLACE, THIS ARTICLE TAKES A CLOSER LOOK AT PAST STUDIES AND MAKES ITS OWN CONCLUSIONS FOR THIS DISCREPANCY.
Questions about poverty are often confused with questions about income distribution, & questions about the most effective social policy are often confused with questions about personal merit. The public's humane desire to alleviate poverty is often misused politically to create a status-based society in which income is determined by politicians & intellectuals, rather than by the users of one's services. All status-based social systems are necessarily threats to freedom, whether the status involved is equality, superiority, or inferiority. AA.
WHEN WE ADVOCATE TAX CUTS, SAY THE AUTHORS, WE MUST BE PREPARED TO ADVOCATE CUTS IN GOVERNMENT SPENDING OR BIGGER DEFICITS. CUTS IN SPENDING ARE THE BETTER CHOICE. DEFICITS, IF ALLOWED TO ACCUMULATE, HAVE EVIL CONSEQUENCES: INFLATION, GOVERNMENT BORROWING WHICH MEANS LESS CHANCE FOR PRIVATE FIRMS TO BORROW FOR IMPROVEMENTS AND EXPANSION.
NOBODY EXPECTED SUCH A CLEAR CUT VICTORY FOR SOCIALIST CANDIDATE OVER THE OUTGOING CONSERVATIVE PRESIDENT IN THE RECENT FRENCH ELECTIONS. IT WAS 52% FOR MITTERAND; 48% FOR VALERY GISCARD D'ESTAING. A MILLION-VOTE MARGIN VICTORY, WHILE IN 1974 GISCARD WON BY 400,000. MITTERAND WILL BE THE 1ST SOCIALIST IN THE ELYSEE PALACE; IT IS ALSO THE END OF 23 YEARS OF GAULLIST RULE. A PERIOD OF UNCERTAINTY MAY ENSUE.
WHEN "BUSINESS WEEK" STICKS TO THE FACTS, IT CAN DO LITTLE WRONG. EVEN WHEN IT DOESN'T, GOOD SENSE OFTEN PREVAILS IN ISOLATED POCKETS OF THE MAGAZINE. BUT, THE AUTHOR NOTES, ONE WONDERS IF ITS EDITORS EVEN READ THE MAGAZINE, IN LIGHT OF ITS HOSTILITY TO THE MARKET, OBLIVIOUSNESS TO COMMUNISM & OTHER TREATS TO FREEDOM, & UNFRIENDLINESS TO THE SPIRIT OF A FREE SOCIETY, IN THE LAST FEW YEARS. ANALYSIS & EVALUATION.
BERNARD CRICK'S "GEORGE ORWELL: A LIFE," IS THE 1ST STUDY OF ORWELL UNDERTAKEN WITH FULL ACCESS TO ALL OF ORWELL'S PAPERS. THIS REVIEW ESSAY OFFERS A CRITIQUE OF THE BIOGRAPHY & THE THEORY OF DESPOTISM & HIS GRASP OF THE GREATEST SOCIOTHEORETICAL ISSUE OF OUR TIMES, THE RELATIONSHIP BETWEEN THE INDIVIDUAL & THE STATE, AS MANIFESTED IN HIS "1984".
THE ANONYMOUS SATIRISTS OF EASTERN EUROPE HAVE LEARNED TO EXPRESS THE UNHAPPY PREDICAMENT OF THEIR PEOPLE THROUGH A HIGHLY DEVELOPED GENRE OF POLITICAL JOKES, WHICH CAN EXPRESS THE FATE OF AN ENTIRE SOCIETY IN AS LITTLE AS A SINGLE LINE. THIS ARTICLE IS A COMPILATION OF SUCH POLITICAL JOKES FROM SEVERAL EASTERN EUROPEAN COUNTRIES.
WE IMAGINE, ACCORDING TO THE AUTHOR, THAT WE ARE SUPERIOR TO ANIMALS YET WE ARE ACTUALLY NOTHING MORE THAN A SET OF ORGANISMIC RESPONSES TO STIMULI LIKE SMILES, PACKAGING, GENDER CODES, THE CONNATATIONS OF WORDS, IMAGES, AND SYMBOLS OF ALL KINDS. THIS ESSAY ON THE IDEA OF CONDITIONING IS EVEN A RESPONSE, AND THE AUTHOR EXPLAINS PRECISELY WHAT TRIGGERED IT.
It is puzzling that Karl Marx, trained in philosophy, should have provided no answer to the obvious philosophical problems raised by his work. It is illuminating to consider this problem in the light of a general thesis that Marx was no different from V. I. Lenin, Mao Zedong, & other communist leaders in that his interest was power, not understanding. He sought the transformation of society, which is impossible without destroying the independence of all other members of society. His theory of ideology converts this impossibility into a more manageable difficulty, ie, that those who oppose the transformation are suffering from bad thought determined by their social situation. Marxist realism (in opposition to utopianism) makes moral self-improvement unnecessary, & encourages adherents to do what they evidently most like doing: theorizing & plotting. AA.