Soundings, September 2001

Another dewdrop has been found in the media cesspool: Yes, the New York Times is still a gargantuan bastion of excruciating political correctness and far-Left mumbo-jumbo. But, in fairness, "Soundings" has called attention to the paper's monthly publication of the redoubtable Virginia Postrel (every fourth Thursday, in the Business section) and, more recently, to its publication of the remarkable John Tierney (on the first page of the Metropolitan section.) Of course, the Times has for decades published the sometimes-interesting William Safire on its oped page. Now, another glistening spot of sanity has been sighted. On the first Sunday of each month, the Money and Business section puiblishes a column by Daniel Akst. (Formerly a reporter, Akst is now a freelancer and novelist.)

Here is a quotation from Akst's August 5 column, on the Genoa protestors: "The Group of 8 nations are so successful, in fact, that they can spare their young citizens the travails of pointsless war, periodic famines, or subsistence farming. Instead, capitalism offers them the balm of extended studies lasting well into adulthood, punctuated only public tantrums over the failure of their imagined utopia to materialize." Turning to French president Jacques Chriac's expressions of concern, Akst comments: "All we need now are Western leaders with the guts to act on what they already know."

And here is a section from Akst's June 3 column: "The critique of chains [that is, chain stores] underestimates the importance of low prices. By charging less—and I mean a lot less—the chains do more to help the poor than most of the rest of us do." Continuing: "Of course, the chains do take business from neighborhood hardware stores and the like, but I think it is a mistake to elevate the sale of pipe elbows and duct tape to the level of a sacrament."

How do such sentiments get into the New York Times? Only with a warning label. And not just one warning label, but two, both of which assure NYT regulars that this guy is, well, strange. The title of Akst's column is "On the Contrary," and his bio-line says he "tilts"—a nice reference to the mad Don Quixote—at conventional business wisdom. Apparently, the Times feels that publishing pro-capitalist thoughts, properly labeled as extremism, is no vice.

There are genocide trials in the Hague, Holocaust reparations suits throughout the West, and debates over slavery reparations in the United States. But the 85-to-100 million victims of communism are being forgotten.

The first piece of evidence comes from those fun-loving souls in Seattle's arts community. The "Artistic Republic of Fremont" boasts a seven-ton bronze statue of Lenin, which Czechoslovakian "counter-revolutionaries" toppled in 1989, and an area resident rescued from a dump in 1994.The statue was erected "without the full sanction of the community as to necessary permits, etc.," but then Lenin always was known as a fun-loving fellow who happily indulged the free spirits of communist Russia.

What the useful idiots of Seattle's avant-garde do is one thing; what the U.S. Postal Service does is another. According to National Review author John J. Miller (writing in the July 6, Wall Street Journal) , the USPS has just issued a stamp honoring Mexican artist Frida Kahlo (1907-54). The motive, evidently, was to put out the first U.S. stamp depicting an Hispanic woman. But even affirmative action should have some bounds. And the Post Office crossed all bounds by ignoring Kahlo's deep adulation of this century's greatest murderer. Her very last painting was a portrait of Stalin. And this was not undertaken, "before the facts were known." It was done in 1954. Nor was the Post Office unaware of Kahlo's Stalinism. Said spokeswoman Cathy Yarosky: "In those days it was fashionable to be a communist."

As Joesph McCarthy knew.

So where can you turn if you want to get away from anarchists, leftists, communist sympatizers, fellow-travelers, and useful idiots? Well, you can go abroad to a place where the local university is offering a course on "the American people and individualism, Benjamin Franklin and the theory of success, Ayn Rand and the theory of selfishness." Unfortunately, the course began on July 9, but perhaps it will be repeated if demand is great enough. The place? The University of Social Sciences and Humanities—in Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam.