Exchange: ‘Hit Piece’ by a ‘Takedown Artist’ Exchange: ‘Hit Piece’ by a ‘Takedown Artist’
Brooklyn, N.Y. Beneath its facade of unassailable erudition, David Wallace-Wells's article on Lewis Hyde ["The Pirate's Prophet," Nov. 15] bears all the markings of that most unserious of critical genres: the hit piece that doesn't even bother to get its facts right. Wallace-Wells seems determined to portray Hyde—erroneously, sneeringly—as some starry-eyed Romantic, and he isn't above misrepresenting the evidence to achieve his ends. As the author of a profile of Hyde on whose reporting Wallace-Wells sometimes relies, I feel a duty to point out one particularly egregious misrepresentation. Wallace-Wells writes that Hyde's new book, Common as Air, "peddles an attractive but confected fantasy" about the pre-modern English agrarian commons. To support this claim, he cites "what the historian Jackson Lears has called Hyde's 'prelapsarian vision,' one that is 'common to some Marxists, most romantics and all Christian nationalists: Once upon a time, people lived in harmony with their world and one another; then they fell from grace—prodded by capitalism, scientific rationality or original sin.'" These remarks by Lears appeared in a 1983 Nation review of Hyde's landmark book The Gift; they follow Lears's summary of a chapter in it devoted to a history of usury. Lears's remarks read: "Summarized quickly, this view of history seems threadbare. It is a prelapsarian vision common to some Marxists, [etc.]... The nostalgia pervading this view makes it an easy target for the slings and arrows of historians, but Hyde sidesteps the volleys. He is well aware of the corruption and cruelty of medieval Christianity, the vicious anti-Semitism that sometimes powered the opposition to usury, the oppressive restraints of tribal community." Lears's point is precisely that The Gift does not join in this widespread "prelapsarian vision." Wallace-Wells is a takedown artist, but takedown is an exacting business, and honesty and accuracy are its prerequisites. DANIEL B. SMITH Washington, D.C. It was dismaying to find Lewis Hyde lumped in with copyleft extremists in David Wallace-Wells's review of Common as Air. Hyde's discussion of the founders' debates about what rights in literary property the government should grant makes a refreshing change from contemporary "copyright wars" rhetoric imbued with a strain of cheap moralism in which Wallace-Wells participates. Hyde points out that the founders sought pragmatic policies that could encourage the making and circulation of culture, always bearing in mind the social costs of monopoly. Wallace-Wells appears commendably interested in keeping culture lively, underneath all that hectic flourishing of his liberal arts education. But while noting grudgingly that Hyde doesn't "denounce copyright writ broadly or...advocate for the abolition of intellectual property entirely," he charges that "these gestures are accommodationist rather than principled" and urges readers to explore fair use within copyright as an alternative to rejectionism. Hyde has done just that, as an active contributor to three projects to create codes of best practices in fair use that we run at American University (centerfor
socialmedia.org/fair-use), for online video creators, media literacy teachers and poets (the last one is forthcoming). Fair use is only one of the structural features of copyright that constrain monopoly, including term limitation, the distinction between idea and expression, and users' rights to resell their purchases. If the framers' vision is to be realized, these must be reinvigorated, while recent disfiguring additions to the law, such as proliferating statutory damages, are reconsidered. Far from being a disguised call to abolish copyright, Common as Air is an ideological blueprint for returning this important body of law to its proper place. PATRICIA AUFDERHEIDE PETER JASZI Cambridge, Mass. In Common as Air, Lewis Hyde makes just the sort of argument American society needs right now: an argument about the "mixing of private sovereignty and public service," about how to create "a social market, one constrained by moral concerns." With respect to intellectual property—and virtually every other kind—the balance between public and private has been badly skewed in recent decades, an imbalance driven largely by corporate propaganda and lobbying. With unshowy erudition and analytical scruple, Hyde sets this development in historical and philosophical perspective, at the same time acknowledging that "if there is no [intellectual property], there is no way to make money and thus...o incentive to produce," so that "legally bestowed exclusive rights" can "actually enrich the commons." Hyde's ingenuity and nuance were unfortunately lost on David Wallace-Wells, in whose view Hyde is a romantic-anarchist buccaneer, a giddy celebrant of cultural "piracy," advocating "the plundering of culture," eager to "deprive artists of their right to profit from their work" in order to "make that work available to others," determined to "obliterate ownership to preserve access." Blinded by a "fundamental antipathy to the market," Hyde ignores the need of "those working in the arts to secure their livelihood from that work" and forgets that "to support culture we must find ways to support those who make it." Hyde and his fellow "digital Maoists" even want artists to refuse "royalty payments and song-writing credits." None of this is true; Hyde says the opposite, clearly and often. Common as Air is as cogent and eloquent a meditation on the sorry state of cultural commerce in America as anyone could hope for. One might have expected uncomprehending jeers in Reason or Wired, but not in The Nation. GEORGE SCIALABBA Wallace-Wells Replies New York City Daniel B. Smith is right to point out that Jackson Lears was admiring in his 1983 review of The Gift, and that Lears was careful to argue, in it, that Hyde was too nimble a thinker to succumb to the charms of a "prelapsarian vision," even if his worldview resembled it in its broad outlines. I disagree that Hyde avoided succumbing, but that context should certainly have been made clear, and I apologize for the mistake, both to Hyde and to Lears. I've been heartened to read the heated response to my review of Common as Air, in these letters and elsewhere, because I share with Hyde and many of his comrades a sense that the health and well-being of culture is under new threat in our shape-shifting marketplace. Hyde is not as naïvely utopian as some of the free culture champions—he acknowledges the legitimacy of pragmatic objections to a truly "free" regime of cultural ownership—but he shares with the most radical of them a problematic, collectivist ideal: a guiding belief that "art and ideas, unlike land or houses, belong by nature to a cultural commons, open to all" and that "if the monopoly privileges that we've granted to 'content providers' stand in the way of" the self-erasing participatory cultural regime he calls "true citizenship," "then the privileges should be called into question." But a campaign to defend culture should not begin from first principles that question the status of creative work as intellectual property, encourage artists and writers to provide their labor at no cost out of distaste for the market or undermine their ability to profit from that labor. If we truly believe in the value of artistic work, we must find ways to reward it, and sustain those engaged in it, rather than impoverishing culture in order to make it "free." Not all members of the free culture movement share all of these perverse impulses; as I wrote previously, the movement is a loose alliance that includes anarchistic hackers, bottom-line businessmen and entrepreneurs, and self-styled iconoclasts in music, writing and art, some of them more reckless in their advocacy than others. But their common cause, promoting cultural production and exchange outside the marketplace from which we draw our daily bread, amounts to little more than a quixotic resistance to those market forces arrayed against culture. This campaign does not constitute a true battle against those same forces so much as a principled capitulation to them. DAVID WALLACE-WELLS
Dec 8, 2010 / Our Readers and David Wallace-Wells
A Traveler’s Tale: On Patrick Leigh Fermor A Traveler’s Tale: On Patrick Leigh Fermor
Patrick Leigh Fermor's fifty-year correspondence with Deborah Devonshire reads like an accidental memoir of a disappearing world.
Dec 2, 2010 / Books & the Arts / Wes Davis
Letters Letters
Anglicans Against Apartheid Princeton, N.J. Katha Pollitt's "Postcards From Cape Town" ["Subject to Debate," Nov. 15] mentions apartheid-compliant Anglican clerics. Many Anglicans were out front in the civil organization against apartheid for decades. Father Trevor Huddleston, who came to work in Sophiatown in 1943 and was made president of the antiapartheid movement in 1981, is the most notable example of their active conscience, which leads directly to Bishop Desmond Tutu's high-profile presence. D.E. STEWARD Black Women Fight Back Cummington, Mass. Thanks to Melissa Harris-Perry for "To Whom Apologies Are Really Due," which places Virginia Thomas's request for an apology from Anita Hill into historical perspective ["Sister Citizen," Nov. 15]. The good news is that alongside the persistent vilification of black women Harris-Perry recounts, there is an equally long history of resistance. Hill stands in a continuous line of women who have fended off assaults and refuted the stereotype of immorality, from the slave known as Celia to Rosa Lee Ingram to Dessie Woods, to name a few. Until that strand of resistance is woven into our national narrative, conservatives will peddle myths and half-truths that serve their ends. Just as Clarence Thomas resorted to a skewed account of lynching that overlooks sexual violence against black women, the antiabortion movement today spins a twisted tale that sidesteps black women's realities. The religious right is waging an "endangered species" campaign, alleging that a genocidal conspiracy proceeded inexorably from slavery to lynching to eugenics to legalized abortion. This warped argument portrays black women as dupes of white elites and profit-driven abortion providers rather than as moral agents who negotiate economic inequalities and discriminatory policies to make difficult reproductive decisions. Black women are fighting back. When the "endangered species" campaign targeted Atlanta recently, Loretta Ross, Dázon Dixon Diallo, Paris Hatcher and supporters from SisterSong Women of Color Reproductive Justice Collective, SisterLove and SPARK stood them down in the streets and in the legislature. They defeated legislation that would criminalize abortion as a coercive, racially motivated procedure. These leaders have formed Trust Black Women and rallied allies like Toni Bond Leonard, Barbara Smith, Faye Wattleton, Angela Davis and the Black Women's Health Imperative to challenge the campaign in other states (sistersong.et/trust_black_women.html). The sooner we heed these voices from the front lines, the sooner we'll get behind a reproductive justice agenda grounded in the truth— all of it. JOYCE FOLLET Cape Elizabeth, Me. As a woman I totally agree with Harris-Perry's indictment of a system that doesn't support women and children; but I disagree with her conclusion that women should ignore the lack of a support system and have children anyway. For many years I've been wondering when someone is going to speak up for the children. I am a retired teacher from a white, Christian, rural upstate New York school system. I see the results of single-parent homes. It is virtually impossible to give children the time they need to be successful in school when you are struggling to feed them. The problem is not color; it is poverty. Unless a single woman can afford to move to a safe community with services that support her children, it's not fair to the children to bear them. KATHLEEN MIKULKA Can Brits Throw Bricks? Saratoga Springs, N.Y. In "(G)rêve général(e) in France" [Nov. 15], Agnès Catherine Poirier claims that whereas France has a long tradition of popular protest, "it is not in the British DNA to demonstrate." Having lived through Britain's miners' strikes, Greenham common protests and poll tax riots of the 1980s and early '90s, I beg to differ. BEN GIVAN Tea Party Blues (Reds?) Ann Arbor, Mich. A sobriquet for hate-spewing opportunists who have seized the Boston Tea Party as a symbol of justice-seeking protest: Hatriots. GORDON E. BIGELOW Deadline Funny Bone San Antonio The first thing I do with The Nation each week is check in with Deadline Poet Calvin Trillin. What a breath of fresh air! Perhaps growing up in Kansas City, in the heart of the nation, gives him such poetic clarity on the foibles of the world. LAFE WILLIAMS As Many of You Have Told Us... Diane Simon, in "The Merry-Go-Round" [Dec. 6], writes, "In an effort to 'get' Herbert Hoover, Anderson and his 'legmen'...followed the FBI chief to lunch with his handsome young deputy, Clyde Tolson." Needless to say, the FBI chief was J. Edgar, not Herbert.
Dec 1, 2010 / Our Readers
The Whole Human Mess: On Saul Bellow The Whole Human Mess: On Saul Bellow
Drollery, mordancy, tenderness and soul talk: Saul Bellow's letters are a Saul Bellow novel!
Nov 23, 2010 / Books & the Arts / William Deresiewicz
Letters Letters
Election by Sewage United Thousand Oaks, Calif. Re "Democracy for Sale" [Nov. 1]: Looks like we've had one of those "fair and balanced" elections, with a stream of corporate cash (sewage) funding right-wing candidates and flooding the media with one message: gummint is bad. Of course, corporations want government off their backs, and now they can sink as much sewage as they want into elections, thanks to Citizens United. It was a brilliant plan by Rove & Co. The left, satisfied with an Obama win in 2008, rested on its laurels and wasn't paying attention. It seems Rove & Co. gave up a real fight in 2008 and got to work on 2010, funneling all sorts of sewage into creating front groups for corporations, and that bogus grassroots movement, the Tea Party. NATHAN CARLSON Hebron's History Portland, Ore. It saddens and surprises me that a Nation editor has failed to provide the proper context for an important story. In "Postcard From Palestine" [Nov. 1], Christopher Hayes states, "In 1929 Arab rioters killed sixty-seven of the small number of Jewish residents of the city (several hundred were saved by their Arab neighbors, who hid them in their homes), and the last Jewish resident left the city in 1948." Hayes, like most people, fails to recognize that the massacre in Hebron in 1929 was part of regionwide riots between Arabs and Jews that began several days earlier in Jerusalem. Hayes would have us assume that Palestinian Arabs killed Hebron Jews for... why? A fit of racist ethnic cleansing? The bloody riots in Jerusalem started after Zionists there paraded nationalist banners at the Wailing Wall in a brazen provocation against Ottoman-era bans of such displays, in force for many years. These and other Zionist actions at the Wailing Wall (at the time owned and maintained by Arabs) were designed to provoke a violent reaction among Palestinians. Well, it worked. Once the killing in Jerusalem started, that news along with false rumors of Jewish attacks on the Al-Aqsa Mosque spread quickly to Hebron, where the Palestinians, in an unjustified fit of faux revenge, killed the non-Zionist religious Jews, whose small community had lived in Hebron in peace for hundreds of years. In fact, the August 1929 riots in Jerusalem, Hebron and elsewhere resulted in "207 dead and 379 wounded among the population of Palestine, of which the dead included eighty-seven Arabs (Christian and Moslem) and 120 Jews, the wounded 181 Arabs and 198 Jews," according to official British casualty lists, as recounted by US journalist James Vincent Sheean, reporting from Palestine at the time. Sheean's landmark 1935 book, Personal History, devotes an entire chapter, "Holy Land," to the 1929 riots. On the Hebron and Jerusalem bloodshed, Sheean concluded, "I was bitterly indignant with the Zionists for having, I believed, brought on this disaster." Sheean's credentials as a world-class journalist and author are above reproach. Personal History was named one of the 100 best works of twentieth-century American journalism by New York University's journalism department. Hayes owes it to the dead on both sides to report the truth. LAWRENCE J. MAUSHARD Silver Spring, Md. Christopher Hayes ignores for the most part the history of Hebron. Patriarchs of the Jewish religion are buried there—not only Abraham, as Hayes mentioned, but also Isaac and Jacob. There was a strong Jewish presence in that city until successive massacres starting in 1929 caused the Jews of the city to flee. From 1948 to 1967 Jews were not permitted in Hebron, where a mosque was built over that second-holiest shrine of Judaism. We should be pleased rather than angry that Jews have returned to that city and are honoring their forefathers, who are sacred to Christians as well as Jews. NELSON MARANS
Nov 17, 2010 / Our Readers
Letters Letters
Hobnobbing With Lou Dobbs Isabel Macdonald's "Lou Dobbs, American Hypocrite" [Oct. 25], and her subsequent media appearances, drew a barrage of mail, positive ("informative, well-written article"; "Ms. Macdonald, will you marry me!") and negative ("the biggest crock of bullcrap"). Herewith, a sample.—The Editors Tempe, Ariz. Isabel Macdonald, my new hero! Way to stick to your guns. I wish all writers would show half the guts! CHRISTOPHER HILL Bronx, N.Y. Awful, despicable, an example of the worst sort of libel—perpetrated because you feel shielded by the First Amendment. Who is the hypocrite? Disgusted, ARTHUR T. DALLAS Gilroy, Calif. I'm an antiwar, prochoice, prounion, pro-environment, pro–gun control Vietnam veteran, and I especially believe that a man (or woman) is innocent until proven guilty. Obviously, your rabid, pathetic excuse for a "reporter," in her attempt to assassinate the character of Lou Dobbs with no evidence (only hearsay) to support her claim—her own version of yellow journalism—does not share such values. Cancel my subscription to your magazine; no longer can I trust what your reporters write. THOMAS LISTER San Francisco Isabel Macdonald did an awesome job on her article and TV appearances, and debating the disgusting Lou Dobbs. HISPANIC/LATINO ANTI-DEFAMATION COALITION Watertown, Wis. Lou Dobbs's duplicity reminds me of members of Congress in Abe Lincoln's time, voting to abolish slavery while using slave labor at home for everything from cooking and cleaning to picking cotton. CATHERINE A. MORENCY Bow, Wash. Lou Dobbs says he is being "attacked" by The Nation as a fundraising mechanism. It works for me! I'm glad to subscribe and support this type of investigative reporting. Congratulations to The Nation and to Isabel Macdonald for truly courageous work—and for exposing this hypocrite. KATE ANDERSON Atlanta Lou Dobbs denies employing illegal immigrants. They may not be under his roof, but he knows they are being employed by some of the companies he deals with. Such a hardliner should take his horses out of any competition where there is illegal activity. LARRY SANTOS Montrose, Colo. C'mon folks, as much as I dislike Lou Dobbs and his ilk, it really is not his responsibility to check out the status of a contractor's employees! If I hire a roofing contractor or a plumber, it is not my responsibility to check whether his employees are "legal." I understand that this is a complicated problem. I don't have the answers, but I feel this is an unfair accusation. LARRY SIMS West Grove, Pa. Ask Lou Dobbs if he intends to look into the matter of his using illegals. If he says no, he's proclaiming that he is unconcerned and above the law. If he says yes, he's admitting to his oversight and hypocrisy. H.K. PETERS JR. Granbury, Tex. Thanks to Isabel Macdonald for exposing Lou "hypocrite" Dobbs. Time and time again we see the loudest voice against something is neck deep in it! JEFF HANSON Rohnert Park, Calif. Isabel Macdonald refers to stable hands riding in vans with horses. Riding with horses in transfer trailers is against state laws everywhere, yet these trailers are called the Greyhound lines for stable workers. The good living quarters go to the horses; people don't do so hot. Inside the eight-by-nine-foot tack rooms I have seen as many as four children younger than 3, unattended, on filthy, straw-covered concrete flooring with an electric wall heater of a type not made in the past forty years. The showers are cold water, and women must be alert for rapists. Theft is not worth reporting. Only a few own vehicles. No schools know the children are here; no public health agency gives out inoculations. If your track worker papers are pulled at one racetrack, get on the Greyhound to another track and start over. Thousands would jump at the chance to work for the "American hypocrite." JOE BOYLE Rocklin, Calif. This article, and the TV debate it provoked, sheds no new light on what needs to happen to achieve immigration reform. It merely confirms the sad fact that the immigration debate remains confused, misrepresented and irreconcilable. TOM McMAHON ACORN—Not Resting in Peace Montclair, N.J. Eric Alterman's "Barbarians at the Gate" ["The Liberal Media," Oct. 25] mentions "the mainstream media's role in empowering this bizarre barrage of BS" that comes from the right-wing echo chamber. My book Seeds of Change: The Story of ACORN, America's Most Controversial Antipoverty Community Organizing Group shows that in this case, when the New York Times, CNN and the Washington Post empowered the Murdoch-led echo chamber, they aided and abetted the destruction of the country's most effective antipoverty group, ACORN. JOHN ATLAS How Do You Pronounce That, Anyway? Kensington, Md. Rarely do we see an opportunity to improve Calvin Trillin's deadline poems, but the one in the October 4 issue begs for a different final line. As published: It couldn't be plainer. It's just a no-brainer. The fat cats own Boehner. He's on a retainer. We suggest the following last line: Down to the last donor. ANDREA MEDICI, CARL EICHENWALD Correction & Emendation Re Christopher Hayes's "The Perriello Way" [Nov. 22]: Dick Armey is not affiliated with Americans for Prosperity; he is chairman of the board of FreedomWorks. We regret that in the heat of the election returns we got our corporate-backed right-wing front groups confused. Peter Dreier, in "The Fifty Most Influential Progressives of the Twentieth Century" [Oct. 4], states that Walter Reuther was an early opponent of the Vietnam War. Although his brother Victor said he was privately against the war, Reuther chose to support Johnson administration policies in Vietnam, if only because he saw LBJ as an ally on collective bargaining and domestic reform issues of vital concern to the UAW.
Nov 10, 2010 / Our Readers
Letters Letters
Do Mama Grizzlies Sit in the Woods? Redwood Valley, Calif. Interesting parenthetic phrase in Betsy Reed's "Sex and the GOP" [Oct. 18]: "If it were up to men, Palin might very well become president in 2012 (if it were up to white men, she'd be a shoo-in)." Yes, but had it been up to white women, John McCain and You-Know-Who would be our prez and veep right now, since white women favored that swell ticket roughly 54 to 46 percent. It's possible that white women think they have the most cultural capital to lose, as our perishing Republic struggles with equality across all social lines. It's certain that if women of color sit out this election, white heat will have burned President Obama's coattails. JONATHAN MIDDLEBROOK Santa Rosa, Calif. OK, OK—I don't so much object to the yucky story, but the girlie cartoons on the cover—c'mon, gimme a break. Being funny is one thing; we can use humor. Being sickening we don't need. MILLIE BARNET Minneapolis As a contributor to the Dump Bachmann blog (dumpbachmann.com), I would have preferred a story about Michele Bachmann's pardon letter for Petters Ponzi associate and top donor Frank Vennes Jr.; or her acceptance of $10,000 from the operator of the sham Navy Veterans Association charity; or her support for bizarre homophobic radio preacher Bradlee Dean and for a crackpot pod transport scheme. KEN AVIDOR Sexual Freedom vs. License Portland, Ore. The next time Katha Pollitt runs into a young feminist who is unable to articulate how and when stripping, prostitution and porn are troubling versus perfectly OK versus both, direct her to a feminist expert on the sacrosanctity of sexual freedom regardless of gender: Betty Dodson, Susie Bright, Gayle Rubin, Nina Hartley, Carol Queen, just to name a few ["Subject to Debate," Oct. 18]. Dan Savage is an indispensable source of knowledge and rational thinking about all things sex-related. Mistress Matisse is another articulate blogger and columnist. Her February 10, 2009, post on why she both is and is not a feminist should be required reading. And please, please, please direct that young feminist to organizations actually run by the women (and men) who strip, trick, star in or produce porn. You can't think about an issue without listening to the people most affected by that issue. Flip comments and vague thinking about sex work should be countered with concrete experience. To that end, $pread magazine, by and for sex workers, is an excellent resource. This all-volunteer publication could use more subscribers, and it is the most articulate resource I've read on the troubling/perfectly OK aspects of stripping, prostitution and porn. MARILYN CUBERLE Asses on the March Oakland Park, Fla. Ari Berman's "Herding Donkeys" [Oct. 18], on the battle between grassroots activists and Beltway insiders, makes for great reading, but his point of view suffers from the same Washington-centric attitudes he attributes to the Democratic Party. His characterization of Organizing for America as a purely top-down group, imposing a White House agenda on the grassroots, is unfair and misleading. In Broward County, Florida, the local OFA rallied the Democratic base in support of Congressman Ron Klein, gubernatorial candidate Alex Sink and Senate candidate Kendrick Meek, as well as for candidates for the state legislature. The county Democratic Party is notably absent, which goes to show that not all grassroots are the same. ROBERT MUNIZ Boulder Creek, Calif. Ari Berman absolutely nailed it! I worked in the Dean and Obama campaigns as a volunteer. I was in Iowa the night of the Dean "scream." I've worked in the DFA and OFA. I went to an OFA "listening tour" event, where the audience did all the listening. Friends at other events describe similar one-way formats. I worked for change in the Democratic Party when Dean was DNC chair. Berman is right about why so many activists are so frustrated. I thank him for speaking for us. CHRIS FINNIE Longmont, Colo. Ari Berman's "Herding Donkeys" is a wakeup call. Is President Obama's separation from the people who put him in the White House through all their hard work and outreach his choice, or has he been maneuvered into that insular position? Thomas Geoghegan's "Ten Things Dems Could Do to Win" [Sept. 27] inspired me to send a copy to Obama. Yet as I mailed it, I knew he would never see it. Barack Obama the candidate appeared open, honest and approachable; President Obama seems cut off, isolated and shielded from his grassroots. How did that happen and why? And what can we do to turn this around? R.E. JOYCE Altruism of the Fittest? Rohnert Park, Calif. As a professor of mathematics, I rarely see anything in The Nation about my field. So it was a delightful surprise to find "The Group" [Oct. 11], an elegant article by Miriam Markowitz about an important topic in my field. Thanks! RICK LUTTMANN Northridge, Calif. Miriam Markowitz employs the inductive and deductive logic of science involving either/or choices: either evolution is controlled by the competition of natural selection or altruism is an equally important component of evolution. Although classical science requires either/or choices, atomic physicist Niels Bohr urged the use of the concept of the complementary to consider not only the relationship of protons and electrons but also many other scientific relationships, especially in psychology. I have developed the logic of complementary systems dynamics to consider evolutionary processes. In Evolution and Reason—Beyond Darwin (1993), I propose that evolution is guided by the complementary processes of competition and cooperation (symbiosis). The use of complementary systems dynamics in evolution theory considers the following: mutation and selection are two concepts that may appear to be mutually exclusive, need different criteria to judge their essence, are a whole, function together in dynamic equilibrium, interact in reciprocal moments of time. Mutation and natural selection appear to be mutually exclusive because they traditionally have been separated into the disciplines microbiology–genetics and paleontology–evolution. The criteria for judging mutations lie in chemical, physical and microscopic analysis of organisms, while the criteria for judging selection lie in analysis of bone/fossil placement in environmental strata. Mutation and selection constitute a whole in the concept of evolution. Mutation requires selection and selection requires mutation. The two dynamic processes interact at many levels in reciprocal time frames. Another example of complements: although many male species compete for females, females must cooperate with the "winning" male to produce offspring if selection is to be among the most fit individuals. Thus, this is a modification of Darwinism and inclusion of the many ideas of authors regarding the importance of cooperation, symbiosis and altruism. The logic of complementary systems dynamics places a new and broader emphasis on evolution theory. DOROTHY KURTH BOBERG Very Crafty Angola, Ind. My interest was piqued and neurons pleasingly synapsed by Barry Schwabsky's "Good-Enough Objects" [Oct. 11], a critical discourse of crafts. As for Schwabsky's closing wish for "someone to put just enough order into them to shake things up but not enough to nail them down," I think the irritatingly concise yet honorably staunch "DIY" has shown its value. RUBEN RYAN Portland, Ore. There it is again! The ubiquitous word "handicraft," courtesy of a quote in "Good-Enough Objects." It makes serious craft work sound like just a nice pastime making things for the home from pre-assembled kits. Can we all please drop the devaluing diminutive "i" and use the simpler and more dignified word "handcraft"? CLEO REILLY Above the Fruited Plain Abiquiu, N.M. I kept reading Charles Petersen's meditation on the human ebb and flow across the Great Plains ["Unsettled," Oct. 4], expecting to find some discussion of the impact of the Homestead Act of 1862 on the native populations. Midway through, he quotes a lament by Romantic painter Charles Russell—"the Indians and the buffalo have gone"—as if this were an incidental passing of nature. This is his only (indirect) acknowledgment that the Great Plains had quite recently been Indian territory and not simply open range for cattle. His discussion of ecological history is framed by the impact of cattle ranching and agriculture on an environment suited for neither, ignoring the longer period of human habitation by various native cultures. Although the settlers flocking to stake their claims to farmland did not bear the "degrading legacy of slavery, sharecropping, grinding poverty and soil depletion that has overlaid the rural South," they were occupiers of lands newly available after military defeat. Sitting Bull was the last major plains leader to surrender, in 1881. This is the kind of historical amnesia that keeps our shared history segregated and incomplete. SABRA MOORE Keeping Hope Alive Highland, N.Y. My profound thanks to E.L. Doctorow for his "A Calamity of Heart" [Aug. 30/Sept. 6]. He described in the most beautiful prose what I've been feeling since those disgusting Supremes elected Bush president in 2000. Doctorow gives me hope for a better future. JOSEPH F. DiBLANCA Correction Alyssa Katz's "Who's Afraid of Progressive Power?" [Nov. 1] says New Yorkers for Growth is led by state GOP chief Ed Cox. Cox left NYG in August 2009 and had no affiliation with the group when Andrew Cuomo got the WFP endorsement.
Nov 3, 2010 / Our Readers
Letters Letters
Russ Feingold: KO-ing the Money Power Las Vegas John Nichols's cover story "Russ Feingold, the Senate's True Maverick" [Oct. 11], on Feingold's fight for re-election, aroused numerous emotions in me: § Sadness that too many Americans—and Wisconsinites—do not recognize a great public servant when they see one. § Anger that while Feingold acts in the best tradition of the Wisconsin Progressives, his opponent's camp acts in the tradition that produced another senator, Joe McCarthy. § Amazement that even Nichols suggests only that John McCain's "independence" was mere "attentiveness to the media," when it's clear that McCain never was a maverick. § Hope that, just as my senator, Harry Reid, who has done so much to advance the president's agenda and gotten so little credit, shows signs of overcoming his hateful opponent, Feingold can do the same. MICHAEL GREEN His Silver Tongue Has Turned to Tin... Philadelphia If there is one matter that seems beyond dispute, it's that President Obama has failed to use his silver tongue to the advantage of his program and his party. He should have started, on January 21, 2009, to weave a Democratic narrative: who we are, what we've done in the past, what we stand for. If he had done that, framed the issues to our advantage, it would have been much more difficult for the other side to get credence for its distortions. Now the Republicans are telling the stories, and their versions are prevailing. Look how Obama turned things around with his speech on race; why doesn't he use his verbal gifts on other issues? There is nothing—not money, not the GOP, not Congress—to prevent him from speaking out loud and clear. As one of your readers said ["Letters," Oct. 11], "We must fight the right by shouting out what the left has won for us all." Yes! TRACY KOSMAN Waiting for Superman—or Mr. Chips? New York City As a teacher for thirty-four years, I was interested to read "Grading Waiting for Superman" by Dana Goldstein [Oct. 11]. She cites the Finnish school system as the best in the world. Ask any teacher what he or she would want if given one thing, and the answer is: reduced class size. Even bad teachers improve with smaller classes. So I looked up statistics on Finnish schools. The ratio of teachers to students in elementary grades is 15:1, lower in high school. The answer to the question, "What should we do first?" is clear: reduce class size. The Finns do it. Why can't we? DAVID FISCHWEICHER Baltimore As a Baltimore Public Schools teacher, I thank you for Dana Goldstein's excellent review. Waiting for Superman is just another example of how teachers are being brutalized in the media in an effort to destroy the teachers unions. I would argue only with Goldstein's focus on the need for union organizing to appeal to the energetic, enthusiastic young teachers who pour into our schools from Teach for America. Most of these teachers stay for only a few years before they get on with their life (TFA is often dubbed Teach for Awhile), so this is hardly the way to build a long-term teaching force. DAVID KANDEL Oviedo, Fla. Recently I watched the networks relentlessly pushing Waiting for Superman, along with a crisis mentality about the state of education in this country. I was reminded of Naomi Klein's book The Shock Doctrine: The Rise of Disaster Capitalism. CNN's John Roberts commented, "America's schools are in desperate need of a rescue." But do not despair. There is no shortage of free-market education profiteers poised to capitalize on this media-induced crisis and "rescue" the schools. EUGENE B. PICKLER
Oct 27, 2010 / Our Readers
Name Your Prog Prince (-cess)! Name Your Prog Prince (-cess)!
Peter Dreier's "The Fifty Most Influential Progressives of the Twentieth Century" [Oct. 4] drew a tremendous response. We received close to 1,000 nominations from readers, naming their favorites who hadn't made the cut. Howard Zinn, Noam Chomsky and Dorothy Day were top picks; other choices may surprise you. Read the full "Nation Readers' Top Ten List," which Dreier has annotated with profiles highlighting their invaluable contributions, at thenation.com/community. Help us start a new list for the twenty-first century. Holliston, Mass. As a history teacher, I found Peter Dreier's list fabulous! So many radical men and women made a more democratic America. They showed "true grit," love of our country and their belief in economic and social justice. All were considered radical or dangerous in their day, and yet we easily accept their views now. A great list. TINA LEARDI Newton, Mass. I scanned your pages for the name of Howard Zinn and was astonished that it was not included. His People's History brought new insights to countless students and workers; he was a civil rights and antiwar activist; his "war is never justified" message still resonates; he was an ally of the Berrigans, Daniel Ellsberg, workers, organizers and prisoners. I imagined his response: such lists are foolish and, worse, a distraction. The Nation's descent to a "top ten" list may be au courant, but it's discouraging. JIM MILLER Ludlow, Mass. Your list was a great learning experience. There were many names I was not aware of and enjoyed finding out about. As an educator, I found it rewarding: there are so many true heroes for students to learn about. One person I think warrants consideration is Howard Zinn, a man who changed how we teach history: hero worship is out; everyday people are in. KEVIN M. BROWN Royal Oak, Mich. You made glancing references to Howard Zinn and Studs Terkel but left them off your list. You may have thought them not influential enough, but the FBI felt otherwise. I propose a rule of thumb here: anybody rated high on the FBI list should probably show up on your list. They've more than paid their dues. That having been said, your list is very, very good. CATHERINE SHEAP San Francisco Your list would have neared perfection with the remarkable Fannie Lou Hamer (1917–77) on it. As a female African-American sharecropper in the most brutally Jim Crow state, Mississippi, she faced obstacles arguably greater than all on your list. In addition to her courageous voting rights activism, Hamer served notably in the women's rights, economic justice and antiwar movements. Her many achievements were accomplished in a short lifetime and despite suffering disabilities from a 1963 beating by Mississippi police. HOWARD WILLIAMS New York City Leaving Noam Chomsky off the list is analogous to leaving Michael Jordan off a list of The Fifty Best Basketball Players of the Century. No human being has contributed more to progressive discourse, or fought more for human rights here and around the world, than Chomsky. DAVID SCOTT MAYNARD Atlanta Imagine my dismay when I found that what purported to be a serious consideration of twentieth-century activists rendered black women nearly invisible. Am I to believe that Dorothy Height, Fannie Lou Hamer, Coretta Scott King, Rosa Parks, Johnnetta Cole and Bernice Johnson Reagon are not any part of this discussion? MARK A. SANDERS New York City Two people I think you left out are Grace Paley and Eve Ensler. Paley was an activist and author who fought tirelessly for progressive causes all her life. Wherever there was a demonstration for peace and justice, Grace was there! Eve Ensler, author of The Vagina Monologues, has devoted her life to stopping violence, envisioning a world where women and girls are free to thrive rather than merely survive. EVELYN TRIANTAFILLOU Pittsburgh I have some reservations about Margaret Sanger. Everything you say is true—she was the most important proponent of the birth control movement, which indeed helped liberate women—but her push for birth control was in part informed by her belief in eugenics. This makes the label "progressive" somewhat dubious. MARK COLVIN Portland, Me. Apart from Martin Luther King Jr. and Bill Moyers, The Nation appears blind to progressives in the faith community. Michael Harrington, who left the Catholic Church, is deserving, but his mentor, Dorothy Day, is more so. She mothered the Catholic pacifism that bloomed in the protests, initiated by the Berrigan brothers, that marked the beginning of the end of the Vietnam War and generated the US Catholic bishops' 1983 pastoral. She celebrated the dignity of poverty, which spawned hundreds of Catholic Worker houses, and her jaundiced view of capitalism foreshadowed and influenced the 1986 bishops' pastoral. WILLIAM H. SLAVICK Polson, Mont. I'm disappointed that you neglected to place Myles Horton on the list. And if you don't know who Myles was, shame on you! PETER DANIELS Stowe, Ohio The omission of Walter Francis White is a serious error. He transformed the NAACP into the world's most important civil rights organization, advised the American UN delegation and worked tirelessly for people of color all over the world. Fifty? He belongs on anyone's top ten. ROBERT L. ZANGRANDO Sandisfield, Mass. Where is Jim Farmer, founder of the civil rights movement? First sit-in at a segregated Chicago restaurant in 1942 (MLK was 13). Founded CORE that same year. And that's not the half of it. VAL COLEMAN You should include Susan B. Anthony and Elizabeth Cady Stanton, as the most influential early suffragists, and Alice Paul and Lucy Burns, as the leaders of that movement when women finally got the vote. DENISE DI STEPHAN New York City Leonard Bernstein threw parties that raised the consciousness and conscience of people not known to be progressive. Smeared by Tom Wolfe as "radical chic," his efforts delivered millions of dollars to civil rights, antiwar and other causes. MANFRED KIRCHHEIMER Los Angeles Congratulations on a wonderful article. I would have included Carey McWilliams—but that's me. EMIL REISMAN
Oct 20, 2010 / Our Readers
Letters to the Editor Letters to the Editor
Ten Things? How About Twenty! Thirty! Salem, Ore. Re Thomas Geoghegan's "Ten Things Dems Could Do to Win" [Sept. 27], an eleventh aim: confronting that elephant in the room that feeds on Wall Street and banks too fat to fail—uncontrolled military spending on weapons we don't need, troops yet stationed in WWII venues and two US-provoked, unwinnable wars. T.R. MELTON Albuquerque Here are my additions to the list: 11. Thank the progressive base—stop insulting us. 12. Lead, don't follow—that's what majorities are for. 13. Sell your agenda, explain why it's good for me, using ten words or less per item. 14. Stop using words like "resonate"—try "We care about you" or "The GOP lies." 15. Support public financing of elections. NANCY WOODARD St. Louis I'd add to the list: make election day a national holiday. I bet the increase in the number of folks of little means who'd vote would be huge. They're part of our base. DANNY KOHL Warren, N.J. First, we need to tame the military-industrial gorilla, since half our red ink flows to war. Second, suing corporate officers who loot their firms might knock out Citizens United far faster than the hard slog to a constitutional amendment, but employees who sue need financing and protection from retaliation. Finally, tell us how to end the filibuster. JOHN RABY Montpelier, Vt. Thanks for explicitly advising us to "read, or reread, Marx for what is still the most thoroughgoing critique of capitalism." There is no ending the capitalist menace without Marxist analysis and strategy. CARL MARTIN KIPPsters—Way Kool Houston Pedro Noguera's "Schools vs. Slogans" [Sept. 27] mentions the relationship between KIPP (Knowledge Is Power Program), the organization I co-founded, and Teach for America (TFA). I have great respect for Professor Noguera, but I must clarify a point concerning the role of Teach for America teachers at KIPP. Noguera states that KIPP "will hire Teach for America fellows only as assistants until they have proven their effectiveness in the classroom." In fact, TFA corps members are hired at KIPP as full-fledged lead teachers, not assistants. Here in Houston, where I am superintendent of eighteen KIPP schools, our TFA members are doing a fantastic job of helping us close the achievement gap. For example, one of our teachers at KIPP Houston, Remington Wiley, is an alum of KIPP and TFA. After completing fifth through eighth grade at KIPP Academy, she went on to Deerfield Academy and Spelman College before joining TFA and coming back to KIPP. We gave her the same responsibilities as any teacher, and she is an incredibly valuable faculty member. Nationwide, the vast majority of KIPP schools have TFA teachers, and 60 percent of our school leaders got their start in TFA. These folks contribute greatly to helping all our KIPPsters climb the mountain to and through college. MIKE FEINBERG DNA=Do Not Apply New York City Re "Freshmen Specimen" [Sept. 27]: In presenting the risks involved in personalized genetic testing, Patricia Williams overlooks what may be the most troublesome recent development in the field: overregulation by public health authorities that prevents people from voluntarily analyzing their own DNA. What happened at Berkeley could not happen in New York, because the state health department has determined that direct-to-consumer marketing of DNA tests is medical intervention and requires prior authorization from a physician. The state has sent cease-and-desist letters to companies like 23andMe and Navigenics, essentially denying such services to many New Yorkers. Mandating medical counseling before you can learn whether you have an increased genetic predisposition to male-pattern baldness or gout may increase the power of doctors, such as myself, but the result is substantially increased cost and decreased access for the lay public. Professor Williams is right to highlight the abuses engaged in by some direct-to-consumer genomics companies. An "above average risk" for breast cancer is obviously not the same thing as "the high risk of pretty much getting it." But the solution to these concerns is to prevent such abuse, not to shut down the industry. Many people have legitimate reasons for wanting to know the details of their genetic code—whether to inform their lifestyle choices or simply to contribute additional data to the collective pool of knowledge, so the direct-to-consumer tests become more accurate. Surely, if my genetic makeup is one of the most important aspects of my identity, as Williams writes, I have a right to know what my DNA says and to use that knowledge as I see fit. JACOB M. APPEL, MD, JD The Mount Sinai Hospital Rigoberta Menchú Redux Paris Re Greg Grandin's "It Was Heaven That They Burned" [Sept. 27]: I rejected Grandin's preface for a new English-language edition of I, Rigoberta Menchú because he and the publisher, Verso, tried to impose it on me as a fait accompli. It was already in press when, by accident, the foreign-rights editor at Gallimard asked Verso to seek my approval. I have had too much experience with macho-Leninism to put up with this kind of behavior. I was also reacting to certain kinds of US academics who think they own the truth about Latin America and who play up a few aspects that suit their agenda, dismissing everything that does not fit. Unfortunately, imperial arrogance is not only a privilege of the right. ELIZABETH BURGOS Middlebury, Vt. Greg Grandin claims to champion crucial details, but he blows past any detail that complicates his search for heroes and villains. What he describes as my "accusations" and "conjectures" are based on research that he has yet to refute. We can be sure that Rigoberta Menchú's father's land battle was with his K'iche' Maya in-laws because of their many warring petitions in government archives. Conceivably Vicente Menchú led a secret double life as a founder of the Committee for Campesino Unity. But after he died alongside five members of CUC at the Spanish Embassy, CUC's obituaries for its five martyrs did not include him. Contrary to Grandin, two years later Rigoberta Menchú was agnostic on the source of the embassy fire because its sole survivor, the Spanish ambassador, attributed the fire to the protesters' Molotov cocktails. Grandin says Guatemalan guerrillas had no tradition of tactical suicide, but cyanide pills were standard on risky operations, as Daniel Wilkinson describes in his book Silence on the Mountain. "Recent research has proved Stoll's thesis about Guatemala's revolution to be mostly wrong"—OK, where is it? As an ex-staffer of the Commission for Historical Clarification (CEH), Grandin is accustomed to quote 1999 CEH findings he apparently wrote himself while skipping CEH findings that echo my description of peasant neutralism. Certainly there was social support for the guerrillas in some areas—you can read about it in my books—but little or none in others. It was anthropologist Carol Smith who documented that the 1970s were a period of modest material gains for many indigenous Guatemalans, not the deepening exploitation that a guerrilla narrative demands. The guerrilla romance Grandin wishes to revive was in deep trouble, not just in Guatemala but all over Latin America, before I got into the act. I'm surprised Grandin considers me such an influential opponent because the book that he will have to refute is Utopia Unarmed by Jorge Castañeda. DAVID STOLL Grandin Replies Brooklyn, N.Y. Elizabeth Burgos accuses me of presuming to "own the truth" regarding Rigoberta Menchú's memoir. But she literally does: in August 1982, Burgos, acting in Menchú's name, signed a contract with Gallimard making her the sole legal author of the book, discharging the publisher "from rights due" Menchú. Until 1993 Burgos shared the book's revenues with Menchú but then instructed Gallimard, according to a company representative, to stop paying Menchú and remit all future royalties to herself. Around this time the book began to take off as an international bestseller, so the proceeds from then on were considerable. I have always thought defenses of Menchú based on her vulnerable position as an indigenous woman came up short. Yet Burgos's arrangement is perverse: Menchú, having barely escaped unimaginable terror, got the opprobrium while Burgos, nestled comfortably between the Seine and the Luxembourg Gardens, got the cash. Neither Verso nor I tried to "impose" my preface on Burgos, because neither of us knew she had exclusive power to vet all editions, in all languages. To justify this injustice, Burgos tends to present herself as Menchú's primary interlocutor in the creation of the memoir. I suspect that what rankles Burgos is that my essay, though generous to her interviewing method, reveals that the book was a collective endeavor, with others, notably Guatemalan historian Arturo Taracena, involved in its interviews, transcriptions and editing. David Stoll accuses me of writing the CEH report. He is wrong. I left the CEH before it moved from the research to the writing stage. Its full report can be read at http://shr.aaas.org/guatemala/ceh/mds/spanish. Readers can decide if it supports Stoll's interpretation of the causes of the Guatemalan genocide. The truth commission was largely staffed by UN and other human rights careerists who had no particular sympathy for left-wing politics, yet they had no problem understanding that racism and poverty were the cause of the genocide and not, as Stoll insists through his deconstruction of Menchú's memoir, tit-for-tat reprisals between the military and the guerrillas. As to the cyanide pills guerrillas supposedly kept, surely Stoll can distinguish between taking one's life to avoid torture and what he accuses Menchú's father of: participating in an act of mass murder to create revolutionary martyrs—not to mention that civilians who died in the Spanish Embassy were not guerrillas. Stoll shouldn't be so modest. He is influential enough. I've taught students who call Menchú a liar, and they cite Stoll as evidence. Even writers of minor reputations can make names for themselves by tearing others down. GREG GRANDIN
Oct 13, 2010 / Our Readers and Greg Grandin