Book Reviews

As I get it from the behavior of his disciples, Dr. Marcuse wants to level capitalistic society (and Soviet communist society, too) in hopes that "liberation" can some how be found by the dwellers in the ruins. But this is to assume that human nature would behave differently in the future if it could only begin over again with a total ly clean slate. Like Dr. Vivas, I consider such an assumption to be utterly crazy. 'Human beings are as they are, a most variegated bunch. As Schopenhauer (quoted by Dr. Vivas) puts it, they are "gregarious porcupines"; they want to get along with each other, 637 638 THE FREEMAN October but they find the going tough from time to time, particularly at close quarters. In Oriental societies, the "porcupines" have traditionally turned over the job of quill-pull ing to tyrants (see Karl Wittfo gel's devastating explorations of Asiatic "hydraulic societies") . But in the West, where the principles of voluntary association are at least dimly understood and partially ac cepted, the porcupines have devel oped some ability in choosing en vironments (Burke's "little pla toons") that enable them to con trol their quills. Marcuse, who can't tolerate freedom to choose one's own associates, is, of course, anti-Burke. He is also anti-porcu pine - i.e., anti-human - at least in his net effect on those who pro fess to understand him.

"Play and Display" I confess that Marcuse's distinc tions, if taken literally, make no contact with the world that I know. He thinks, or appears to think, that our vaunted tolerance is "re pressive" of the Left. But I con cur with Dr. Vivas that Dr. Mar cuse's own academic world is, in general, repressive of the Right. Again, Dr. Marcuse thinks that our technology, our Puritan work habits, and our addiction to "affluence" (meaning a multiplica tion of gadgets), all combine to keep us from being "liberated" to "play and display." But this is nonsense. If we didn't have a high technology and an ability to work at creating the conditions of affluence, we would be left in a starveling condition. Few. people would have the energy to "play and display." What does Dr. Marcuse mean by "playing" and "displaying," any way? A man watching a pro foot ball game on a Sunday afternoon, a beer can in his hand, is indulg ing his playful instincts in a spec tatorial way. The players them selves are engaged in display of a most skillful kind. My wife's mod ern dance students take their di rections from a most playful na ture, and they learn an art and a technique of display that must please them or they would not de vote so many hours to master what they call the vocabulary of move ment. I see "play and display" all around me, on skating rinks, ten nis courts, and at small boat ma rinas. I also see it on city streets where a "liberated" public has suddenly taken to making life a huge costume party. Anything goes in dress or wigs; I see Beau Brummel walking down East Forty-fifth Street in New York City with Kit Carson or Jim Beck wourth, the Mountain Man. Beau Brummel looks in one direction to ogle a girl wearing hot pants; Jim Beckwourth prefers a more un1971 CONTRA MARCUSE 639 kempt lass in torn blue jeans and a sweat shirt. The scene· has its esthetic drawbacks, but a univer sal costume party can hardly be considered "repressive." It also happens to be financed by our af fluence, which supports a whole new industry of wig makers, hair weavers, and anti-barbers.

The Three Mis of Coercion The West, being generally vol untaristic, will pass on from its costume party phase to something else. But Dr. Marcuse will not be pleased. Dr. Vivas calls him one of the "three M's," the two other be ing Marx and Mao. In their zeal to change the "relations of produc tion" (whatever that may mean), the "three M's" have all been will ing to accept a philosophy of al leged progress that depends on sending recalcitrants to the wall. But what has this to do with free ing men to "play and display"? Dr. Vivas asks a nice question: "In view of the way men seem to be eager to give up their freedom to despots and demagogues in ex change for promissory notes whose only collateral is the rhe toric which they are offered, on what ground does Marcuse say that the true interest of the indi vidual is the interest in freedom ?" The individual in the West has the protection of his institutions, which are those of a pluralistic society. Different groups have wanted different freedoms ("Eng lish liberties"), and, in fighting for rights, even class rights, they have achieved a precarious bal ance that permits the more eccen tric to find special niches for them selves in the interstices. I like it that way, so I don't like Marcuse.

A Study in Nonsense This is not to say that I under stand him. I only understand the effect he has on others. His use of words, to me, defies common sense. When he says that we must reject "the tyranny of the genital" and "re-eroticize" ourselves in con formance with something called "polymorphous" (or many-shaped) sexuality, I can only think that he is in favor of turning human be ings into eunuchs. The reproduc tive drive is present in all animals, indeed, in all nature. So how get rid of the "tyranny of the genital" without getting rid of the human race? Dr. Vivas, with his own common sense, remarks that Dr. Marcuse doesn't know what he is talking about when he speaks of the "tyranny of the genital" any way. Recalling a "proto-Kinsey survey" published in the middle twenties, Dr. Vivas dryly observes that "the variations of sexual needs among people" are "quite wide." The best things in Dr. Vivas's 640 THE FREEMAN October book are the pages in which he defends our civilization against all the tabula rasa wreckers, whether they are Marcusean, Marxian or Maoist. It is true, says Dr. Vivas, that "Big Brother"

(meaning the Big State with its computers) has our finger prints and our dossiers. But nobody suff ers from prosecution for calling Lyndon Johnson "Old Corn Pone" or alleging that Richard Nixon has broken faith with conservaA. Magic Word tives. If one were to call Brezhnev "Old Corn Pone" in front of Len in's tomb, it would mean Siberia. In Richard Daley's Chicago the worst that could happen to a pub lic name-caller would be a charge of disorderly conduct. Quite a dif ference, says Dr. Vivas. The meas ure of Dr. Marcuse's stupidity is that in his "colossal'self-right eousness" he can't perceive that there is any difference at all. ~ IDEAS ON ~ LIBERTY An alarming percentage of our citizens, it is to be feared, stop with the word "education" itself. It is for them a kind of con juror's word, which is expected to work miracles by the very utter ance. If politics becomes selfish and shortsighted, the cure that comes to mind is "education." If juvenile delinquency is rampant, "education" is expected to provide the remedy. If the cultural level of popular entertainment declines, "education" is thought of hope fully as the means of arresting the downward trend. People expect to be saved by a word when they cannot even give content to the word.

RICH ARD WEAVER, Life Without Prejudice the Freeman VOL. 21, NO. 11 • NOVEMBER 1971 VoluntaryParameters Leonard E. Read 643 A commentary on terminology used to camouflage the latest round of inflation and controls. Economicsand Etbics: Search for a Moral Order Edward P. Coleson 646 A history of material progress under Natural Law and the need to return to its rule. Man and His Environment Does modern agriculture pollute or improve the environment? Samuel R. Aldrich 661 The Foundingof the AmericanRepublic 4. The ColonialPolitica.1Experience Clarence B. Carson 667 Training for self-government, but subject, as always, to the wisdom to do it well. Bad Money Drives Out Good! Paul L. Poirot 678 Gresham's Law prevails, regardless of government controls in the attempt to counte ract inflationary policies. Conflictof Whose Interests? Bertel M. Sparks 682 Concerning political grants of special privilege as a scheme for buying votes.