4 OPINION Page 4 Thursday, November 8, 1984 The Michigan Daily A mixed review for the 'Review' By Brian Leiter Having received the dubious honor of being named "the most entertaining writer in town" in the most recent issue of The Michigan Review, I feel com- pelled to return the favor with an assessment of Michigan's own conser- vative forum. What does The Review's "alternative direction" offer to the in- tellectual climate of the University? On the front page appears the paper's motto: "We seek the truth, and will en- dure the consequences." It is a bold motto, but one ill-matched to the con- tents of the paper. The "Truths" the Review offers are by and large repetitions of the omnipresent conser- vative rhetoric of our era and the "con- sequences" are non-existent: what could possibly come as a result of repeating shop-worn Reagan themes? THE REVIEW deserves, however, to be commended on two points. The best articles are the ones dealing with local issues. Steve Angelotti, abandoning his characteristic hysterical slander (which I guess he reserves only for responses to my columns in the Daily), presents a thoughtful and informative piece on PIRGIM. And on the editorial page, The Review offered some in- teresting, albeit naively optimistic, reasons for voting for Proposal C. The Review should also be commen- ded for basically avoiding the striden- cy, insensitivity, and cruelty charac- teristic of many collegiate conservative journals (e.g. the infamous Dartmouth Review). An exception is the silly "Serpent's Tooth," a page that might be entertaining to staunch conser- vatives but annoying and meaningless to anyone else. For example, this page includes two shallow attacks on Perry Bullard which don't even consider his reasons for opposing Proposal C; there are condescending wisecracks about the Progressive Student Network which give no idea of what is either right or wrong with that group; and there is a similarly condescending paragraph about my columns in the Daily which quotes a remark that is supposedly illustrative of their tone but which in fact is a distorting paraphrase. Sniping remarks do not further the pursuit of truth and alienate more readers than they convince. Unless The Review wants only a conservative readership (and maybe this is the case), they should do away with "Serpent's Tooth." I have spoken so far only rather generally about the negative aspects of the paper; I will turn now to some specifics. EUGENE MEYER'S "Criminal 'Lawyers?' " is far and away the worst article in the paper. According to Meyer, Harvard Law School is THE MICHIGAN r ' R ' x . N R E V IE WWe seek the truth, and will endure the consequences; Vol. 3, No. 1 Ann ArborMI Does the Michigan Review live up to its motto, "We seek the truth, and will endure the consequences?" this plane protecting us they wouldn't have the freedom to protest. But clearly a protest in front of a fighter plane is a protest of a variety of things: America's militaristic imperialism, the suicidal arms buildup, wasteful defense spending etc. There is a great differen- ce between these things (which one could legitimately object to) and wan- ting to disarm the United States so it could be invaded. Michaels shows no awareness of this and settles instead for a black-and-white view of matters. What is really wrong, then, with The Michigan Review is that it does not con- tribute much to the intellectual climate because it relies heavily on popularized Reagan rhetoric and platitudes, and shies away from serious, thoughtful and probing commentary. I would like to see a conservative paper address issues like "The Value of Capitalism" or "The Meaning of Freedom" in a way which tried to come to terms with Marx and leftists instead of writing them off or just caricaturing them. To really seek the truth. means being willing to expose the hidden assumptions of con- servatism and then defend them. This may be a weighty task for a newspaper; The Review, however, is a good-sized paper with room for lengthier articles. Let us hope they will undertake these tasks in the future. Leiter is a graduate student in law and philosophy. dominated by a minority of leftist professors who identify themselves with a movement called Critical Legal Studies. It is true that two of the senior faculty at Harvard are key figures in this movement, but this hardly con- stitutes "domination." What it means is that the political spectrum there is somewhat broader than it is at most American law schools. Meyer talks only abut Duncan Kennedy, the less in- tellectually credible of the two, leaving out any mention of Roberto Unger whose work is sophisticated and widely respected. For Meyer to assert, without any substantive discussion of either Kennedy's or Unger's views, that "their ideas should not be taken seriously" is an affront to the purpose of the university. What his article reflects is a complacency with the status quo in legal scholarship and a desire to ignore any alternatives. Similarly shallow analysis and com- ments abound. The editorial "This Parrot is Dead" asserts that voters are realizing that "government's doing good things for people have real costs that the economy cannot always bear." Voters have certainly been told this frequently enough by Reagan; its truth is another matter. In recent years a variety of people, from Harvard business professors to Congressional subcommittees, have suggested that what the economy really can't bear is businesses that invest only for short- term profit, a private sector that wastes billions on corporate mergers, and corporations that use their money for non-productive investments like real estate (the trend throughout the '70s). Conservative economic commen- tary that is worth the time would have to come to terms with these criticisms. Kevin Michaels offers a comparably simplistic analysis of defense-related matters in "Eagle Attracts Bir- dbrains." Michaels equates the PSN's protest in front of an F-15 fighter plane with a failure to realize that without Cramer 01r Midii3au ?aku1 Edited and managed by students at The University of Michigan 1, Vol. XCV, No. 55 420 Maynard St. Ann Arbor, MI 48109 Editorials represent a majority opinion of the Daily's Editorial Board Rejoicing in democracy T he contrast between this nation's elections on Tuesday and Sunday's farcical elections in Nicaragua should inspire a profound appreciation of the American political system and in- tolerance toward those who fail to par- ticipate. Democracy should never be wasted. In his concession speech Tuesday night, Walter Mondale's first message was to "rejoice in our democracy.'' These words should be heeded. Long lines at the polls may be a nuisance, but they should also remind the American people of their fundamental freedom and the need to participate in the political process. In many areas the number of voters going to the polls was encouraging, but overall the statistics were disappoin- ting. Washtenaw County was reflec- tive of the nation as a whole: only about 60 percent of eligible voters par- ticipated. This means that even in a landslide year such as this only about 35 percent of the eligible public ac- tually voted a president into office. Turnout is reflective of the ap- preciation for this nation's political system. Obviously too many people take it for granted. Such neglect is unconscionable when one recognizes just how rare true democracy is. The Sandinistas claim that their elections Sunday were democratic and that President-elect Daniel Ortega's popularity was affir- med. Such claims are impossible to support, however, since the San- dinistas did everything in their power to stifle any legitimate opposition. The most promising alternative can- didate, Arturo Cruz, sought a delay of the elections until January in the in- terest of fairness but was denied. Or- tega's opposition consisted of four small left-wing groups and splintered fac- tions from two more traditional par- ties. Even with such weak opposition, the Sandinistas got less than 70 percent of the vote. A mandate it was not. Nicaragua's problems are complex, and ridiculous elections do not excuse American military intervention. Their elections do, however, show how easily the ideals of democracy can be war- ped. America complacency toward polit- ical inaction should not be tolerated. Every eligible citizen of this country has a duty to vote since so few people in this world have the right to vote. LETTERS TO THE DAILY Price overstepped his bounds .' N am'> ' \ Y 1 L7 r n fi To the Daily: I was astonished to read Alan Price's article " 'U' official replies to charges"(Daily, Oc- tober 28) attempting to justify his conduct in using University facilities to promote his op- position to the Nuclear Free Zone Act. The Attorney General has already given an opinion that Price abused his authority in sending a memo to faculty mem- bes which included material from those who opposed Proposal 1. In deed, what other conclusion could he reach? I hope that students will imagine their feelings on receiving a memo from their boss instructing them on how to vote on a ballot question. Remember that Price is a member of the University administration and as such has precisely that relation- ship to faculty and staff mem- bers. Sending out material produced by advocates of one side of a debate under such cir- cumstances is clearly abuse of authority and of University fun- Chamber of Commerce and the Citizens against Research Bans (CARB), who are spending hun- dreds of thousands of dollars to defeat Proposal 1. If Price wished to provide "information" he surely ought to have called the Campaign for Nuclear Free Ann Arbor and asked us to provide literature to be sent out with that produced by CARB. Or, he could have sent a memo to faculty providing addresses and telephone numbers for both cam- paigns so that they could obtain any information they wanted. Price claims that he simply expressed his personal views on the issue. However, he did not use means available to every citizen to express that "per- sonal" view. Certainly he is en- BLOOM. COUNTY titled to write letters to the editor or use his own (or CARB's) funds to print and distribute materials. Instead, he used his University title and University facilities, still claiming that he acted correctly. Unfortunately, Price's conduct is not atypical of the way in which the University chose to deal with the nuclear free zone proposal. Harold Shapiro published an article in the July 6 Science Magazine in which he wrote: "I believe that a university remains a creative part of society only as long as it remains an in- tellectually open community and not the ally of a particular point of view." He seems to have forgotten that laudable view, however, since Shapiro, like Price, has used his position as head of the University to disseminate a "personal" view in ways unavailable to the ordinary citizen. He held a press con- ference during the working day to express those views, and published them in a University organ, The University Record. Both of these administrators are entitled to their views. However, expressing those views in a way which made them appear to be University policy was an egregious abuse of authority. -Steve Latta November 6 0 I Ei - * UI 34 I. - ,m4- IAALI T ---L-.L AMMAW..h.-A I ' . r r I Latta is co-coordinator of the Campaign for a Nuclear Free Ann Arbor. by Berke Breathed .. }v1 / Y&V 607rM wII NoAhaiKER2L/fcs L/ST N. ;YOURS' ) j(J, I I II ml. l l; I J