. .,
4
ter 0
At
The Globa Screw
(Continued from page fer)
emerge to pave the way for a pro-
ductive detente. O b v i o u s 1 y the
A m e r i c a n-Soviet relationship is
meant to be a case in point.
The problem is China, which is at
the same time refusing to obey the
rules and attempting to become a
global power. We have no alterna-
tive but to force her to play the
game-hence Vietnam. Undersec-
retary of State George Ball left no
doubt when he said in a major poli-
cy speech:
A focus of the (East-West) struggle
has shifted recently from Europe
to Asia because the Soviet Union,
having grown powerful, has be-
gun to have a stake in the status
quo. The purpose of the forceful
containment of Communist China
is to induce a similar change in
its outlook . . . This is the issue
in Viet-Nam. This is what we are
fighting for. This is why we are
there.
There are reasons why we contin-
ue to be the protagonist in the Cold
War, and Oglesby's explanation
points to our need for economic
markets:
"The Free World is the world
economic area in which the Ameri-
can businessman enjoys greatest
freedom of commercial maneuver.
Simply add to this the observation
that America is the leader of the
Free World and one has grasped
the essentials of America's Free
World Imperialism." He goes on to
give names, places and profits, and
shows how the U. S. government
reinforces corporations' economic
hegemony around the world. The.
government's role has best been de-
scribed as welfare imperialism,
which includes police-military train-
ing and equipping, USIA propagan-
da, AID and bank loans, civic action
projects, labor union "advice," edu-
cational reforms, fiscal and admin-
istrative changes and many other
devices. The result is that Third
World countries become extremely
dependent on our presence, which
naturally makes it much easier for
us to influence and manipulate
their government's policy.
One example of Oglesby's re-
search which should be encouraging
to those who want to do research on
their own is the case of the Hanna
Mine Co. in Brazil. This company
had lost certain concession rights
and Oglesby wanted to show the
series of events which allowed them
to regain those rights. Originally,
his source was the Brazilian under-
ground press; but when Oglesby's
publisher objected, he was forced to
turn to open sources in this coun-
try. The result was a much stronger
documentation.
One of the best sections of the
essay is "The Revolted," which de-
scribes the psychology of the peas-
ant turned guerilla. The Hegelian
master-slave relationship becomes
meaningful when th.pasant and
his environment are viewed in spe-
cific and concrete situations. The
dilemma of revolutionary violence,.
which burdens the middle class.in-
tellectual to the point of inaction, is
for the peasant unreal. His life is
suffused with violence no matter
what he chooses. Half of his chil-
dren die; those who survive cannot
be fed, clothed or sheltered proper-
ly; disease is widespread; the entire
family is illiterate-which means
they are at the mercy of literates.
The peasant's labor belongs to his
master and not to him: life will be
short. This is violence. For Camus,
perhaps, there is a dilemma, but not
for the peasant.
Oglesby ends by considering the
old American pattern and its new
vocabulary:
The same imperial plunder con-
tinues, Gargantuan now, justified
as usual by some combination of
the three traditional elements of
orthodox imperialist ideology:
keeping the peace, now called
'Free World responsibility'; con-
quest of the wilderness, now called
'developing the underdeveloped';
and defeating the Heathen (Pagan,
Barbarian, Savage), a figure who
is now brought up to date and
secularized as the Red Menace -
same as the redskin, this Red,
except more ferocious, wilder, more
resistant and cunning. The choice
for Americans is not between free-
dom and tyranny, but "between
continuing the theft and breaking
it off."
Shaull's essay is important for
several reasons, but primarily be-
cause the author is a member of the
elergy. Also, he has spent many
years working closely with the
Catholic left in Brazil. The growing
concern of isolated clergy over Viet-
nam and problems of the Third
World vis-a-vis the United States is
a hopeful sign to. be encouraged and
understood. The middle class will
be a crucial sector of the society to
enlist if there is to be any hope of
developing a new foreign policy
public in this country. The church
is one institution which can start
this dialogue within the middle
class. Shaull brings out some new
ideas on technology which, com-
bined with its resulting alienation,
he thinks is creating a search for a
new style of life amongrmany of the
younger generation (SNCC workers,
student activists, hippies, communi-
ty organizers, New Politics advo-
cates). The membership is small, but
continually growing. Another inter-
esting issue which Shaull raises is
the paradox between social revolu-
tion and technology. One would
imagine that these two phenomena
complement one another, but today
the revolutionary and the techno-
crat stand bitterly opposed-again,
Vietnam.
.Both essays judge the American
nation to be guilty of crimes against
the people of the Third World.
And both authors areconvinced
that political action is the only
means to change our history.
Jon Frappier
Mr. Frappier received his B.A. in
philosophy at The University of
Michigan.
Meanwhile,
Back
at
the
Ranch 4
The Acidental President, by Rob-
ert SherrW . Grossman Publshers.
$4.95.
The winter of Lyndon Johnson's
discontent is stretching on into the
summer. Whether it will extend to
the fall of 1968 is anybody's guess;
but Robert Sherrill's new book
about him ought to keep leftist
members of Johnson's opposition
angry (as if they weren't already)
until then.
Sherrill-once a Texas-based
journalist and now Washington cor-
respondent for The Nation-feels
about Johnson the way most Texas
liberals do: he hates him. About the
most charitable thing Sherrill can
say about LBJ is that "the ol' boy"
is "a fascinatingly rousing bastard."
A more typical comment: ".. .the
man is not likeable and is, in
fact, treacherous, dishonest,
manic-aggressive, petty, s p o i 1 ed,
and, above all, accidental."
The very chapter titles virtually
quiver with hostility: "Will the real
Lyndon Johnson please sit down?",
"The Great What?" and "Lyndon
Ueber Alles." The journalistic over-
kill is so vast that the reader occa-
sionally finds himself gasping, "My
God, he can't be that bad."
Indeed, he often isn't. For exam-
ple:,
Every time a reporter disturbs
one of his press conferences with a
query about unemployment, John-
son sails off on the wings of eupho-
ria and returns with statistics to
prove that unemployment is way,
way down-under 4 per cent. It
looks good. But as a matter of fact
numerous experts in this field, in-
cluding Dr. Charles Killingsworth
and Gunnar Myrdal believe that
unemployment in this country has
been at the 8 to 9 per cent level for
years. Many people hunt for work
for so long, unsuccessfully, that
they become discouraged and drop
out of the market. They are not
counted by Johnson. Neither does
he say much about the "underem-
ployed," just as frustrated although
better fed: the millions who are
working at jobs far below their
abilities. It has been reputably esti-
mated that this group constitutes 25
per cent of the labor force.-
The reference to the two "ex-
perts" is pleasing. But, like a lot of
the book, it is misleading. True,
Johnson doesn't count the "hidden"
unemployed. The Bureau of Labor
Statistics doesn't either-in fact, it
didn't under Presidents Kennedy,
Eisenhower or Truman. But (John-
son's) Council of Economic Advisers
does estimate that there are aboft a
million of them. And the BLS has
during LBJ's incumbency instituted
a new figure for "labor force time
lost" which-you guessed it-
in e a s u r e s "underemployment"
(which most economists think of as
work-hours lost by those who can't
put in a full work-week for econom-
ic reasons, but would like to).
And if Sherrill sails off on the
wings of antagonism and returns
with inaccuracies on. occasion, he
also tends to forget about political
realities. Politics, alas, is the art of
the possible. A lot of what Johnson
wants to do just isn't possible. The
mentality of Congress and the state
of public opinion--not LBJ-are of-
ten at fault. -
For example, Sherrill notes that
"after the Mayors of two cities had
told Congress that they would need
$65 billion over the next decade to
save their cities" Johnson told a re-
porter that "the best thing Congress
could do (to attack urban decay
immediately) is pass my teachers'
corps legislation." Sherrill com-
ments:
Thousands ot stupefied dope ad-
diets, alleys and hallways that
serve mainly as depositories for
garbage and through ways for rats,
toilets that don't flush, toilets that
don't exist, human and animal ex-
cretion that clog rivers, transit sys-
tems that don't transit, and feeder
systems that don't feed-1700
teachers should be able to fix it.
What he forgets is that Johnson
was having trouble squeezing even
that much out of C o n g r e s s-
because, as Sherrill himself implies
later in another context, Johnson
isn't a "legislative wizard," particu-
larly when the Congress isn't inter-
ested in doing what he wants. A key
housing section in a 1965 bill
passed by only 6 votes in the House,
and the Administration's demon-
stration cities program has been in
Congressional trouble since it was
first proposed. One main obstacle is
Rep. Joe Evins of Tennessee, the
chairman of a House housing sub-
committee. He doesn't like housing
programs.
JOHNSON '
: '
Realities always modify goals in
politics. Johnson didn't defeat the
open-occupancy (fair housing) sec-
tion of the civil rights bill last sum-
mer-it died in a Senate filibuster
after the Administration tried lob-
bying and compromise in the House
(which worked) and pressure on Mi-
nority Leader Everett Dirksen in
the Senate (which didn't). Old Ev
had the
occupar
has coi
Pointe
can't d
althoug
open-oc
by all
fate.
But f
penchar
devil, m
son is 1
politics
possible
trickery
three.
that 1tl
tician is
some se
ers.
Here
ways op
ed agai
least U
there h
Santo I
from u
were gc
(the am
didn't I
and, in
any bul
KC
7ke best of the published
and unpublished writings of the doyen
of the Chicago School of Criticism
a
"
00""i 04
-1
THE IDEA OF THE. HUMANITIES,
and Other Essays, Critical and Historical
Tntil one has seen how a man can, without xnconsisteucy, pursue a mode of
criticism rigorously and even passionately and at the same time believe that mode
to be only one of many valid modes, one cannot really catch what Crane is about.V
says WAY c. zoox xii his itroductiofl -
The new understanding these volumes afford c 'w at Crane is about" is suNe
to engender new admiration for R. S. Crane and the infuueccl he has exerted over
generations of students and wkiters.
Volume I traces the history of the Rumanistic arts and discusses major figures inxthe
history of ideas. Volume If, after an extended inquiry into the theory of critids
considers particular critics and includes some cf Crane's own studies of Austen and
Hemningway.
T'ovol esun, e 15.0O
A 15th Anniversaty team'fcoi.
UNIVERSITY OF CHICAGO PRESS
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Jun1967 * M ID W ESiT LItT E
SMIDWEST LITERARYE
R E V I E W 1967