A Talk with Günter Grass  

MH: Let me raise a question, Günter—partly in terms of your critique of some aspects of the West German Ostpolitik—about the question of detente and of freedom in the Soviet Union. The three of us obviously are in favor of …



Letters  

Editor: David Spitz has clearly researched B. F. Skinner, if making reference to some of his writings is a reflection of that, but it is equally clear that he has simply missed Skinner’s point all along the way. Of those …



Letters  

The New Conservatives Editor: Although you were kind enough to invite me to do so, I have no wish to comment in detail on Rose Coser’s review of my book, The New Chastity; some sorts of criticism are discussable, but …



The Ethical Problems of Brain Manipulation  

Gaylin: The Institute has convened this conference to introduce the ethical and value issues into the technical discussions of psychosurgery and electrical brain stimulation. We would like to find out from those of you involved in these fields four kinds …



Letters  

More on Working-Class Authoritarianism Editor: A letter by S. M. Lipset in the Winter 1973 Dissent mentions some work of mine. He says that he “never understood what relevance Hamilton’s research on the correlates of opinion on war has to my …



Letters  

Working-Class Authoritarianism Editor: I must confess that I become annoyed at the not infrequent efforts to refute my writings on “working-class authoritarianism” which attempt to do so by setting up a straw-man target in the form of propositions which either …



Letters  

Communists & the Miners Editor: Theodore Draper, whose self-esteem has risen with the passing years as he continues to receive the adulation of those whose criterion for scholarship is anti-Communism with footnotes, ridicules my assertion that the Trade Union Unity …



Letters  

Editor: Having recently read Andrew M. Greeley’s “‘A Most Distressful Nation”‘ [DISSENT, October 1971], and being a Massachusetts Irishman by birth and also being, among other things, a student and scholar of Irish literature and Irish history, I’d like to …



Letters  

Anti-Zionism Editor: As a new reader of Dissent I am interested in the inclusion of Walter Laqueur’s article (December 1971), “Zionism, the Marxist Critique, and the Left” in a journal “devoted to radical ideas and the values of socialism and democracy.” …



Short Subjects  

The Killings at Attica What, after all, can one tell the readers of Dissent about the ghastly events at Attica? That prison conditions are shameful throughout the country, driving convicts to desperation? That the authorities in these, as in other institutions, …



Short Subjects  

Rock Festival As Rip-Off At the Louisiana Rock Festival this summer, everything went wrong. About 100,000 young people turned up, in search of music, companionship, fresh air, and other things. What they found was an ill-organized racket. Some of the promised …



Letters  

On The Confession Editor: It seems to me that Erazim Kohak’s article on The Confession [April Dissent] missed the point of the film and does a grave disservice to the search for truth. He does state the real point of the …



Short Subjects  

Behind the Revolt in East Pakistan Apart from basic differences in language, tradition, culture, and even the manner in which their common Islamic religion is practiced, the Urdu-speaking West Pakistanis and the Bengali-speaking East ex-Pakistanis have stood in an unhealthy …



Short Shots  

The Snobbism Of Charles Reich The latest intellectual fad, certain to last almost six months, is The Greening of America by Professor Charles Reich of Yale University. It is an eyes-wide paean to Consciousness III, that superior state of love …



Letters  

Israel and Vietnam Editor: The threat to Israel’s survival compels democratic socialists to reconsider their attitude toward American foreign policy in the face of unabated Communist expansionism in the Near East as well as Southeast Asia. One such effort is …