In announcing his resignation last fall as drug czar, William Bennett asserted that the nation had turned the corner in the war on drugs. President Bush concurred. “We’re on the road to victory,” he declared. They may be the only …
New Yorkers are no strangers to crime. In 1832, returning from a particularly raucous July 4 celebration, Philip Hone complained bitterly about the decline of the city of which he had once been mayor: “Squibs [firecrackers] were thrown with a …
During the mid-to-late-1980s much of the American Southwest came to resemble the closing scenes of The Last Picture Show, with the prairie winds blowing dry leaves and tumbleweeds past the filmtown’s dilapidated stores and shuttered movie house. Along a fault …
It is obvious that feelings of decline are now widespread in a way that they were not in the past. Without exception, everyone that I have asked about whether America is in decline has said yes, regardless of his or …
After the smart bombs, America needs an intelligent agenda. For over a decade, Americans have heard that “big” government ruins everything. The public weal—everything save flag waving and arresting flag burners—is best left to private enterprise. Yet when the government …
Ever since Marx’s musings about the lumpenproletariat, the “underclass” has unnerved the left. Members of an underclass rarely behave in a manner leftists consider politically appropriate to their condition, let alone a manner that invites sympathy from a broader public. …
In my article in the Summer 1990 Dissent, I outlined what went wrong with the Nicaraguan revolution under Sandinista leadership. The article was written in March 1990. Events since then have confirmed the gist of what I said. One of …
I have been a subscriber to your journal for over a year and have found it enjoyable and stimulating. However, the Summer 1990 issue contained an unpleasant surprise: a highly questionable piece by Paul Berman about the Sandinista loss in …
A recurrent theme in three of the books under review is that the Palestinian intifada has made a peace settlement a goal of utmost urgency. The cycle of rebellion and repression is driving Israelis further to the right and Palestinians …
The term “scientific socialism” is an oxymoron. Science pertains to the study of what is, whereas socialism is a vision of what can or should be. To deny scientific status to socialism is not to denigrate its central importance. It …
In January 1988 Commentary magazine published an essay by a black professor of English at San Jose State University. “On Being Black and Middleclass” introduced Shelby Steele as a new interpreter of American race relations. Since then, Steele’s work has …
Can the mind confront a harder task than to imagine—truly, deeply to imagine—circumstances radically at variance with those of the immediate moment? Such an effort must be especially hard for intellectuals, who tend to impose theories drawn from the present …
Three middle-aged friends emerge from a movie cubicle in a postmodern pink stucco cinemadrome, where they have just seen the latest David Lynch film, Wild at Heart. Crossing the Culture Center, they confront twenty-three restaurants and food shops and, after …
The following interview with Alec Nove, the distinguished economist and author of The Economics of Feasible Socialism, was conducted by Dissent editor Irving Howe in late October 1990.—Eds. IH: It seems likely that there will be many changes and modifications …
We present here a slightly condensed version of a talk given by Bob Rae, leader of Canada’s New Democratic party (NDP) in Ontario and the new premier of that province. The text is taken from the Toronto Globe and Mail, …
