CommentaryJUNE 2019 ARE WE ALONE IN THE UNIVERSE? EXTRATERRESTRIAL INTELLIGENCE MAY BE FAR MORE UNLIKELY THAN WE THINK by Ethan Siegel
MARVEL AND THE JEWS John Podhoretz
THE BONES Commentary OF BRISK Meir Y. Soloveichik
THE GILDED
JUNE 2019 : VOLUME 147 NUMBER 6 SWEATSHOP Rob Long $5.95 US : $7.00 CANADA $7.00 : US $5.95
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JUNE 2019 COVER.indd 2 5/13/19 3:57 PM EDITOR’S COMMENTARY The Human Miracle
JOHN PODHORETZ
UR EARTH WOULD BE so much better if it I think this notion has something to do with the didn’t have people, wouldn’t it? That notion— environmentalist downgrade of humanity over the past Owhat you might call a view of original sin ab- half century. Some of us can believe humanity is beyond sent possibility of redemption—is the hidden backbone salvation and the world would be better without it be- of radical environmentalism. Alan Weisman’s highly cause, after all, we are not all there is; somewhere else influential 2007 book,The World Without Us, offers an there is intelligent life, and it’s better than we are, and idyllic view of the natural healing that would cure the so our existence just isn’t that important in the cosmic earth of its unnatural deformities were humankind to scale of this. vanish. Its themes are echoed almost daily in the press But read Siegel’s article and you will see that the to this day. one-in-a-googleplex possibility that there is no other Weisman’s book was an echo of the idea espoused life is nowhere near as far-fetched as it might seem by Greenpeace founder Paul Watson, who once said, at first. He lays out the unimaginable complexity of “We, the human species, have become a viral epidemic the processes that made elementary life possible and to the earth...[the] AIDS of the earth.” how they were followed by its slow transmutation into Modern environmentalism situates human wick- higher forms. edness not in man’s behavior toward other men, as the As with all such explorations of the unfathom- Bible does, but in the misuse and mistreatment of natu- able, the ideas that rise from this inevitably bump up ral resources, and it thereby judges humankind. against the inexplicable. You can lay out the predicates We are bad. We should be punished. We shouldn’t for intelligent life, but there is no way to account for even be here. the development of consciousness. This is one of the But what if there is nothing but us? reasons why evolutionary fanatics have become so These thoughts were provoked by Ethan Siegel’s insistent on denying the inscrutability of conscious- lead article in this month’s issue. Siegel does not take up ness—because a person’s capacity for self-knowledge the larger moral or spiritual questions raised in “Are We simply cannot be explained away as a by-product of Alone in the Universe?” Rather, he martials probability evolution itself. theory and circumstantial evidence to suggest there is “What a piece of work is a man!” says Hamlet. a very real possibility that life—more precisely—intel- “How noble in reason, how infinite in faculty! In form ligent life does not exist anywhere else but here. and moving how express and admirable! In action how This would not have seemed shocking before we like an angel, in apprehension how like a god!” And then, began to learn as much as we have learned in the past being Hamlet, he lowers the boom: “And yet, to me, what hundred years about the cosmos and before we our- is this quintessence of dust? Man delights not me.” selves began our explorations beyond our atmosphere. Humankind may be the greatest miracle of the We have come to know so much about the sheer size not universe—and the very fact that it might be the miracle only of our galaxy but also about the universe itself that points to the divine as the source. God gave us free will, it has become axiomatic to anyone who thinks seriously and it is our perversity that we use it to suggest our about life beyond our earth that it simply must exist and existence isn’t a gift but a curse. Man delights not man. that we just haven’t been able to make contact yet. But he should.q
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Columns.indd 1 5/13/19 3:54 PM June 2019 Vol. 147 : No. 6
Articles
Ethan Are We Alone in the Universe? 17 Siegel Extraterrestrial intelligence may be far more unlikely than we think.
Jonathan The Gaza Conundrum 23 Schanzer Israel has many options, none good.
John Marvel and the Jews 27 Podhoretz Moviegoing past, present, and future.
Joseph The Achievement of Vasily Grossman 31 Epstein Was he the greatest writer of the past century?
Politics & Ideas
Sohrab A Voice of Reason 37 Ahmari The Right Side of History, by Ben Shapiro
Noah The Financial Frontier 39 Rothman The Case for Space, by Robert Zubrin
Wilfred DDs and PPs 42 Reilly The Privileged Poor, by Anthony Abraham Jack
Columns.indd 2 5/13/19 3:54 PM
Politics & Ideas
Brian America’s Regiment 45 Stewart Sacred Duty, by Tom Cotton
Naomi Huckleberry Spin 46 Schaefer Riley How to Raise a Boy, by Michael Reichert
Culture & Civilization
Terry The Sad Tale of Charlie Movie Star 49 Teachout Rock Hudson, never himself.
Judith Streaming Sacred 52 Shulevitz The achievement of Shtisel.
Monthly Commentaries
Editor’s Commentary Washington Commentary 1 John Podhoretz Matthew Continetti 9 The Human Miracle The Trump Hotel: A Safe Space
Reader Commentary Jewish Commentary
4 Letters Meir Y. Soloveichik 11 on the April issue The Bones of Brisk
Social Commentary Cultural Commentary 7 Christine Rosen Machines Like Me, Manila in the Claws of 15 How Feminism Breeds Marital Resentment Light, and Who Is Michael Ovitz?
Hollywood Commentary Rob Long 56 The Gilded Sweatshop
Commentary 3
Columns.indd 3 5/13/19 3:54 PM READER COMMENTARY Hate-Crime Hoaxers
To the Editor: shootings in 10 major police de- the mainstream media amplifies ATE-CRIME HOAXES, as partments in Texas, Florida, and BLM’s message. HWilfred Reilly makes clear, California, specifically to bolster According to the paradigm of are part of a larger movement to BLM’s point. When he concluded, “implicit bias,” you may think that portray America as irredeemably he called his findings “the most sur- you are not biased, and that you’ve bigoted, when, in fact, we are a re- prising result of my career.” As he never discriminated against any- markably open, generous, and wel- wrote: “On the most extreme use of one on the basis of ancestry, gen- coming nation (“Hate-Crime Hoax- force—officer-involved shootings— der, or sexual preference, and you es,” April). There are two examples we find no racial differences in can still be a bigot. Advocates of of false claims of American bigotry either the raw data or when con- this idea have constructed “Implic- that have become particularly effec- textual factors are taken into ac- it Association Tests” (IATs) that are tive and widespread. The first is that count.” In fact, Houston police shot now administered by computer to proffered by the Black Lives Matter at white suspects 24 percent more police officers, employees of private movement. The second is the idea, often than at black ones, although companies, college freshmen, and birthed by academics, of “implicit Fryer said that this difference was public-school students. bias.” not statistically significant. Wash- But the science behind the tests Could Black Lives Matter be the ington State University researcher is poor. Reproducibility of IATs is biggest “hate-crime hoax” of our Lois James found similar results: far below conventional standards era? Its founding principle is that “We tend to find that officers can in psychology. Moreover, the pre- American police are violent racists be more hesitant to shoot black dictive power of IAT scores for who deliberately and dispropor- suspects than white suspects,” he actual acts of bias in the real world tionately shoot innocent, unarmed wrote, “even when they implic- is nonexistent and sometimes even African-American men. But there itly associate black suspects with inverted. IATs are used to indoc- is no evidence of such a plague. increased threat.” None of this trinate large numbers of people, Roland G. Fryer, Jr. an econom- appears to matter to BLM, which including children, into falsely be- ics professor at Harvard, conduct- advances false claims of system- lieving that they are mean-spirit- ed a systematic review of police wide lethal police bigotry. And ed—and that the people around
4 June 2019
Columns.indd 4 5/13/19 3:54 PM them are mean-spirited. These examples work as cul- tural complements to individual hate-crime hoaxes. Both BLM and “implicit bias” have become insti- tutionalized, despite their false or flawed factual bases. Meanwhile, June 2019 Vol. 147 : No. 6 real issues go unaddressed, such as BLM’s likely role in the recent erosion of progress made by police in preventing murders of African John Podhoretz, Editor Americans by their fellow civilians. Abe Greenwald, Senior Editor Kevin Jon Williams Noah Rothman, Associate Editor Wynnewood, Pennsylvania Christine Rosen, Senior Writer � 1 Carol Moskot, Publisher Kejda Gjermani, Digital Publisher Wilfred Reilly writes: Leah Rahmani, Publishing Associate EVIN JON WILLIAMS makes � K a critical point: The largely Ilya Leyzerzon, Business Director media-created idea of an epidemic Stephanie Roberts, Business Manager of hate crimes is merely one com- � ponent of a larger, intentionally Terry Teachout, Critic-at-Large promoted narrative that argues � that the United States of 2019 is a Board of Directors hotbed of racial conflict and strife. Daniel R. Benson, Chairman I am not familiar enough with Paul J. Isaac, Michael J. Leffell, the major “implicit bias tests” to Jay P. Lefkowitz, Steven Price, comment at length on their use, Gary L. Rosenthal, Michael W. Schwartz although—as a published quanti- tative scientist—I tend to distrust any scholarly results that cannot be reliably replicated. Cover Photo: Jordan Siemens The claims of Black Lives Matter certainly are another aspect of this To send us a letter to the editor: [email protected] narrative of continuing oppression. We will edit letters for length and content. The movement’s primary conten- To make a tax-deductible donation: [email protected] tion—that very large numbers of For advertising inquiries: [email protected] innocent black people are killed For customer service: [email protected] annually by racist police—is simply false. In a typical year, such as 2015 or 2017, fewer than 1,200 people of all races are killed by police of- Commentary (ISSN 0010-2601) is published monthly (except for a combined July/ ficers. In 2015, exactly 258 of these August issue) by Commentary, Inc., a 501(c)(3) organization. Editorial and business offices: 561 Seventh Avenue, 16th Floor, New York, NY, 10018. Telephone: (212) 891-1400. Fax: (212) individuals were black, and only 891-6700. Customer Service: [email protected] or (212) 891-1400. about 100 of them were unarmed Subscriptions: One year $45, two years $79, three years $109, USA only. To subscribe please go persons of any race. If my figures to www.commentarymagazine.com/subscribe-digital-print. Periodicals postage paid at New York, NY, are correct, the total number of un- and additional mailing offices. Subscribers will receive electronic announcements of forthcoming issues. Single copy: U.S. is $5.95; Canada is $7.00. All back issues are available in electronic armed black people killed by white form at commentarymagazine.com. Postmaster: Send address changes to Commentary, P.O. Box cops was 17. 420235, Palm Coast, FL, 32142. Unsolicited manuscripts must be accompanied by a stamped, It is true that the percentage of self-addressed envelope. Letters intended for publication may be edited. Indexed in Reader’s Guide, blacks represented among police- Book Review Digest, and elsewhere. U.S. Newsstand Distribution by COMAG Marketing Group, 155 Village Blvd, Princeton, NJ, 08540. Printed in the USA. Commentary was established in shooting victims in my example 1945 by the American Jewish Committee, which was the magazine’s publisher through 2006 and continues to support its role as an independent journal of thought and opinion. Copyright © 2019 by Commentary, Inc.; all rights reserved under International and Pan American Copyright Conventions.
Columns.indd 5 5/13/19 3:54 PM (22.5 percent) is higher than the incidents of alleged white-on-mi- rently dominant narrative, we percentage of blacks in the Ameri- nority aggression (Trayvon Martin, should follow a slightly altered can population (13 to 14 percent). Covington Catholic, the recent beat- version of Ronald Reagan’s famous This apparent disparity, however, is ing in Dallas, etc.). advice: Before you trust, verify. easily explained by the fact that the When it comes to media claims black crime rate, violent-crime rate, about facts pertaining to the cur- 1 and arrest rate are all at least twice as high as the equivalent rates for whites. Adjusting for any of these variables completely closes the gap. As Mr. Williams notes, with all rele- vant variables adjusted for, Harvard scholar Roland Fryer has correctly The Western concluded that police officers are slightly less likely to shoot at black suspects than white ones. A final point about all of this is Endures rarely made. Even those who be- lieve that the initial overrepresen- To the Editor: right. Even Mel Brooks’s parody tation of black Americans among N TERRY TEACHOUT’S excel- of the Western, Blazing Saddles, victims of police shootings is due I lent article, he cogently de- tells the story of an outsider sent to partly to racism would logically scribes the formula for the on- right the wrongs of a beleaguered have to accept that three-fourths or going success of the Western genre community. And who can ever more of these shooting victims are (“The Code of the Western,” April). forget the plaintive cries of “Shane, white or Hispanic. Here is a quick Perhaps one of the reasons for the come back, Shane.” It’s interesting challenge: Without Googling, name endurance of this genre is its evo- to note that Beowulf comes from a one of them. Media coverage of cation of such a dramatic world. southern Sweden tribe and is sent police violence is truly, remarkably, In the Western, heroes and anti- by God to comfort the Danes. slanted. I estimate in my book Hate heroes do battle across a landscape In these fictional situations, the Crime Hoax that the 75-percent that is frightening and awesome. hero does not have to stick around majority of police shooting cases It’s a barren and bleak land inhab- and subject himself to local politics. involving whites receives 10 percent ited by threatening forces. In such He can depart with his heroism in- or less of all national mass-media movies, we often see that man’s tact. This aspect of the code of the coverage devoted to this issue. Mi- battle with his environment leads Western seemed to influence other chael Brown is a household name, to his alienation and an increased genres as well. Clint Eastwood’s but Dillon Taylor is not. awareness of a fate that awaits us Dirty Harry operates just outside This same pattern seems to all—our mortality. the political powers that be. He’s a extend to mainstream-media cover- One can trace this dynamic back maverick who cuts through the red age of interracial crime in general. to Beowulf and find it in the lost tape to get the job done. McMur- Serious interracial crime is actu- worlds of J.R.R. Tolkien. phy of Ken Kesey’s One Flew Over ally quite rare—85 percent of white The Western has something else the Cuckoo’s Nest has something of murder victims and 94 percent of in common with certain char- the western anti-hero about him. black victims are killed by members acterizations found in older lit- code of the west. This western, as of their own race—and is more than erature: The genre’s heroes are eloquently written about by Mr. 70 percent black-on-white, when vi- outsiders who manage to summon Teachout, is indeed an enduring olent crimes involving members of order from chaos. Think of the and influential genre. those two races do occur. However, Lone Ranger riding off, leaving the Jenene Stookesberry national media coverage of cross- townspeople to wonder who that Denver, Colorado racial acts of violence is incessant masked man was. He seemed to and focused very heavily on atypical come from the void to set things 1
6 Letters : June 2019
Columns.indd 6 5/13/19 4:10 PM SOCIAL COMMENTARY How Feminism Breeds Marital Resentment
CHRISTINE ROSEN
HE NEW YORK TIMES article should have enlightened, ideal modern family. been viewed as good news for the women it But feminist ideology has succeeded in persuad- T was describing: It described research that ing a great many people that marriage and child- found there was “no gender gap in the financial re- rearing is a zero-sum game that women always lose, wards for working extra-long hours. For the most part, which means someone or something must be to blame. women who work extreme hours get paid as much as In this case, it’s work itself. “New ways of organizing men who do.” work reproduce old forms of inequality,” the authors of A clear victory for equality—and yet the tone of the study, Youngjoo Cha and Kim Weeden, concluded. the April 26 story was far from positive. “Women Did Does it? Decades of research have shown that Everything Right. Then Work Got ‘Greedy,’” the head- while men and women who graduate with similar de- line stated. That’s because the researchers found that grees in fields such as law or business earn about the far fewer women want to work those punishing hours, same amount at first, a gap soon appears, usually once especially once they have children. “Twenty percent of women have children. The gap is explained by the fact fathers now work at least 50 hours a week,” the study that, on average, women choose to work fewer hours per noted, “and just 6 percent of mothers do.” Not surpris- week and take more time out of the workforce than men ingly, this divergence leads to differences in money do. As economists Marianne Bertrand, Claudia Goldin, earned and in the division of responsibilities at home. and Lawrence Katz found in a study comparing male and Something can be fair even if it’s not perfectly female MBAs, “some MBA mothers, especially those with equal, and the consequences of life choices such as the well-off spouses, slow down in the labor market within a ones the Times was describing are a good example. The few years following their first birth.” By contrast, women piece profiled one couple, both lawyers in New York who do not have children or who choose to focus on their with two young children, and the choices they’ve made career (and work the punishingly long hours that many as a family to structure their work and family lives elite careers demand) do as well as their male peers. to maximize their income. He works long hours and But since many women are making choices as a result earns a good salary; she cut back to work- that feminist-minded academics and the Times think ing a few days a week so she can be the lead parent at they shouldn’t, this reasonable trade-off for families home. They made this choice because the return on is taken as evidence of a broader patriarchal con- the investment of time for one parent working longer spiracy. Consider the ideological worldview baked hours was greater than two parents working fewer into economist Claudia Goldin’s observation to the hours. If their roles were reversed (which they are in Times: “To maximize the family’s income but still keep some families), feminists would be praising them as an the children alive, it’s logical for one parent to take an intensive job and the other to take a less demanding Christine Rosen is senior writer at Commentary. one. It just so happens that in most couples, if there’s
Commentary 7
Columns.indd 7 5/13/19 3:54 PM a woman and a man, the woman takes the back seat.” have reported a greater preference for being home Why is parenthood considered the “less inten- with their children, or for flexible or part-time work sive” job? Many people wouldn’t describe it thus, nor arrangements, than men. The suggestion that this is a would they consider raising their own children akin conspiracy by men against women only breeds resent- to taking a “back seat” in the family. In fact, given the ment on both sides: among women who think they clear advantage that children with involved parents are doing more than they should have to at home, and gain from that care, if it’s an option, what’s wrong with among men who understandably assume that work- a family deciding it works best for them? If the only ing really long hours is also a form of sacrifice for the “fair” outcome is for both partners family’s common good. to be able to maximize earnings, For decades, women It’s a testament to how thor- where does that leave the kids? oughly the feminist message of Goldin’s remark, like the neg- themselves have reported score-keeping and domestic resent- The Trump Hotel: ative tone of the Times story, gives a greater preference ment has taken hold that it’s viewed pride of place to paid work over the as misogynistic even to talk about contributions of unpaid labor in the for being home with these decisions in the language home—another evergreen source of their children, or for of trade-offs. Instead, we’re told feminist resentment. Americans need free child care, A Safe Space Lately, squabbling about the flexible or part-time generous paid leave, more flex- proper division of domestic respon- work arrangements, than ible work arrangements, and other sibilities (otherwise known as the men. The suggestion enticements to push more women Chore Wars) has intensified gender into the workforce. resentment on both sides, although that this is a conspiracy This ignores the fact that it’s you’re more likely to hear complaints by men against women not just men who benefit from the about it from women than men. It’s existing system. The spouses and why there’s a market for books with only breeds resentment children of men who work these long titles like It’s Not You, It’s the Dishes on both sides: among hours benefit from this choice both and why former First Lady Michelle women who think they financially and in terms of the kinds Obama was praised for publicly com- of lives they might actually want to plaining that her husband never are doing more than they lead. And by the way, the flexible ar- picks up his dirty socks. should have to at home, rangements everyone claims to want The most recent salvo is by aren’t actually feasible unless a criti- Darcy Lockman, who explored and among men who cal mass of employees in high-stakes “what ‘good’ Dads get away with” in understandably assume jobs proves willing to pull those all- the New York Times. Lockman, who nighters to prepare for a big case or has just published a book about that working really long travel on a moment’s notice to close the “myth of equal partnership,” hours is also a form of a deal. Their efforts make many busi- is upset that men, including her sacrifice for the family’s nesses profitable (and allow other own husband, have failed to pitch employees to make flexible arrange- in equally around the house. She common good. ments). Why shouldn’t the market denounces the “largely successful reward them with higher earnings? male resistance” to folding laundry and getting the The family profiled in the Times is a success children to bed. She paints a portrait of the modern story for feminism. Both partners are well educated man—and especially the self-described enlightened and able to earn high incomes, and they have the liberal man—as by turns oblivious, entitled, and de- luxury of choosing to forgo some income for flexibility. fensive about how little he does. “If anything is going What’s more, they have children who will benefit from to change,” she concludes, “men have to stop resisting.” the attention and responsive parenting of a primary Resisting what? It would seem that, if one per- caregiver at home. It’s a symbiotic relationship, not an son is working really long hours to earn money to sup- antagonistic one. port a family, it is fair for the other partner to take on And therein lies the trouble for feminism, which the burden of housekeeping and child care—as long as has always struggled with this contradiction. It claims that’s what she want to do. This kind of work-life bal- to speak for the needs of all women but can’t reckon ance should not be considered a “gendered” decision with the fact that all women don’t choose the path per se. It’s just that, for decades, women themselves feminism has mapped out for them. q
8 How Feminism Breeds Marital Resentment : June 2019
Columns.indd 8 5/13/19 3:54 PM WASHINGTON COMMENTARY The Trump Hotel: A Safe Space
MATTHEW CONTINETTI
N THE WEEKS after the 2016 election, as he background to life in the city. Its approval ratings were prepared his review of a steakhouse at the Trump higher than the president’s. The Forbes travel guide I International Hotel in Washington, D.C., the food gave it five stars. Condé Nast Traveler praised its ser- critic Tom Sietsema had trouble finding dinner dates. vice and amenities. Last October the economist Tyler “Never in my career,” he wrote, “have more people Cowen devoted a column to its omakase restaurant, turned down the promise of a free meal.” A “new Sushi Nakazawa. “I enjoyed some of the best service of acquaintance” told him it was “too soon” to enjoy my life,” he wrote, “with plenty of peace and quiet to a popover, dry-aged Kansas City Strip, and glass of contemplate President Donald Trump’s unpopularity Bordeaux at a property owned by the president-elect in the District, where he received only 4 percent of the of the United States. The acquaintance missed out. vote in 2016.” As I write, the Trump International is Sietsema enjoyed his experience. He gave BLT Prime the top-ranked D.C. hotel on TripAdvisor. “From the two-and-a-half stars, for a rating of “good/excellent.” minute you walk through the doors you are in ‘awe,’” Not so Emily Jane Fox of Vanity Fair. “Trump’s says one review. D.C. Hotel Is a Frightful Dump—and a Scary Meta- I wouldn’t say I feel awe when I walk through phor for the Trump Presidency,” read the headline of a the doors of the Trump hotel, but I do feel impressed. screed published on November 10, 2016. Fox couldn’t The sensation begins on Pennsylvania Avenue as you get over the sight of the president’s name, or the ap- approach the exterior of the Old Post Office, built parent hypocrisy of hotel rooms with bath towels at the close of the 19th century in the Romanesque made in India. Her thesis was overdrawn: “Trump’s Revival style, and lift your gaze to the pinnacle of its new hotel, like his campaign, is a big idea followed 31-story tower. Bellhops and doormen say hello as you by a lazy execution, a problem identified without any arrive at the entrance. Once inside, you cross a gal- way of getting to the solution.” She noticed the place lery to reach the atrium, with the Benjamin Bar and seemed empty, the work not quite finished. “Perhaps Lounge at one end and BLT Prime at the other. You this is because the hotel is new,” she wrote. Well, duh. take in the dramatic, wide-open space, with its blue- By 2018, opinions of the hotel resembled Si- and turquoise-velvet furniture, crystal chandeliers, etsema’s more closely than Fox’s. The Trump Inter- marble floors, and gold accents. As the exceedingly national, like its namesake, had become part of the polite staff directs you to a table for a $25 cocktail, you feel as if you have left Washington and ended up Matthew Continetti is the editor in chief of somewhere more exclusive. Which is, I suppose, the the Washington Free Beacon. desired effect.
Commentary 9
Columns.indd 9 5/13/19 3:54 PM The hotel is a great place for the newcomer to department. The Trump has to worry about the House become oriented to President Trump’s Washington. Oversight and Reform Committee. It’s where you can spot the various political celebri- Sometimes, though, Everson fails to distinguish ties, lobbyists, and oddballs who populate Trump’s between the real and pressing questions surround- world. The grandeur, gilt, theatricality, populism, fa- ing the hotel and the subjective attitudes of liberals milialism, and ethical ambiguity of the nation’s capital who condescend to it. He pores over Facebook and today are abundant. Instagram posts of hotel patrons, including dozens When he leased the Old Post Office from the of snapshots they take in the atrium with Trump al- General Services Administration in 2013, Trump lies like Rudy Giuliani. Who cares if a random dude was not only securing a property. He was building wanted a selfie with America’s Mayor? Everson hardly a set for the reality show he would begin producing could contain his sneer when an attendee at the Good in Washington four years later. It’s a site of conflict, Friday Prayer Breakfast at the hotel posted photos drama, beauty, and performance, artfully designed to of her event with the caption, “God is opening up evoke the nation’s past in ways that doors!!!” When a Washington Post complement our ostentatious pres- correspondent sarcastically tweets ent. The food’s good, too. To enter the Trump from the Benjamin Bar that she is To enter the Trump Inter- International D.C. is to “evaluating my life choices,” must national D.C. is to visit what Tom visit what Tom Wolfe the public be informed? This isn’t Wolfe called a status sphere, a self- reporting. It’s voyeurism. contained universe where individu- called a status sphere, a The liberal response to the als compete for recognition. In this self-contained universe Trump hotel is another reminder particular sphere, few if any of the of how difficult it is to disentangle rules that govern the Washington where individuals compete legitimate complaints about the establishment apply. The differences for recognition. In this president from aesthetic disap- between the Trump International particular sphere, few proval of him and his supporters. and other luxury hotels such as the When conversation turns to a Ritz, the Hay Adams, the Jefferson, if any of the rules that Trump property, one quickly de- and the Four Seasons are subtle but govern the Washington tects a whiff of snobbery in the air. real. They are apparent in the work of Why? In its open design, bright the hotel’s chronicler, Zach Everson, establishment apply. The lighting, and willingness to en- a freelance journalist whose newslet- differences between the tertain everyone—even that most ter, 1100 Pennsylvania, costs $5 per déclassé of Americans, the Trump month. Several times a week, Ever- Trump International and voter—the hotel is if anything son informs his readers of the Trump other luxury hotels such more democratic than its competi- International’s guests, conferences, as the Ritz and the Four tors. Provided you can afford it. and alleged conflicts of interest. I went to dinner there the If you’d like to know the lat- Seasons are subtle but real. other night. As I walked up the steps, est details on the court cases and I encountered Tom Cotton. When I congressional hearings involving Trump and his hotel, met my friends, I was informed that both the Club for including D.C. and Maryland’s lawsuit accusing the Growth and the Republican National Committee were president of violating the emoluments clause of the meeting at the hotel. Charlie Kirk greeted admirers in the Constitution by accepting business from foreign gov- lobby. Harlan Hill sat at the bar. Eric Bolling milled about ernments, 1100 Pennsylvania is for you. Everson also in casual wear. As we waited for our table at BLT Prime, does a good job tracking which groups hold meetings Ben Sasse strolled by. at the hotel, and whether they have business before I had entered a Republican safe space. The at- the government over which Trump presides when he mosphere was convivial, peaceful, and civil. And as isn’t tweeting. No other hotel in the D.C. metro area, I tucked in my napkin, and enjoyed tuna tartar and needless to say, raises such constitutional and politi- Dover sole, I had the pleasant, fleeting sensation that cal issues. The Ritz has to worry about the D.C. health all of this was normal.q
10 The Trump Hotel: A Safe Space : June 2019
Columns.indd 10 5/13/19 3:54 PM JEWISH COMMENTARY The Bones of Brisk
MEIR Y. SOLOVEICHIK
And He said unto me: ‘Son of man, can these bones live? ’ And I answered: ‘O Lord GOD, Thou alone knowest.’ —Ezekiel
N THE LAST DAY OF PASSOVER, the New Brisk is also outsized in Jewish influence in an- York Times published an article describing other way; it was where one of Israel’s greatest leaders, Ohow Tatyana Lakhay, a “cheerful fitness in- Menachem Begin, was born and raised. His father, structor in the Belarus city of Brest,” returned to her Ze’ev, was a leader of the Zionist movement in the apartment after a morning exercise class and saw “a city, and it was in that location that young Menachem ghoulish spectacle unfold on the building site below. found a hero of his own—the journalist, novelist, and Instead of the construction workers who for weeks activist Ze’ev Jabotinsky. “The first time I saw Jabotin- had been preparing the foundations for a new luxury sky was when he spoke at a conference in Brisk,” Begin apartment project, soldiers in masks and gloves were recalled. “I was 16 years old. My life had changed.” pulling human skeletons from the earth.” Over 1,200 Begin differed from Jabotinsky in that the latter knew skeletons in all were uncovered; they were Jews of the very little of Jewish liturgy and religious life. Speaking city who had been murdered by the Nazis. The bones to survivors of Brisk in 1972, Begin described the pride were moved to make way for the building. they shared in Brisk’s history of rabbinic scholarship. Brest, or Brest-Litovsk, was known as “Brisk” to “Who among us,” Begin asked, “did not see himself as Yiddish-speaking Jews, and it was, for centuries, one a kind of partner of Rav Yoshe Ber, or Rav Hayyim, as of the most notable Jewish cities of Europe. Its spiri- if we were at one with them all the days of our lives?” tual leaders were always famous rabbis; and from the Begin was forever grateful to have been raised in that mid-19th century until World War II, these rabbis were city: “Such was the youth that I knew, I have never members of the Soloveichik family. Indeed, in the Or- found any better in any other place, because better thodox world, the name “Soloveichik” and “Brisk” are than them does not exist.” almost interchangeable. My great-great-great grandfa- In 1941, when Begin was sitting in a Soviet prison ther, Rabbi Joseph Dov Soloveitchik (known as “Yoshe for Zionist activities, the Nazis entered Brisk. Begin’s Ber”), first arrived in Brisk in the middle of the 19th cen- mother, suffering pneumonia in the hospital, was im- tury and was succeeded by his son Rabbi Hayyim. The mediately killed, while his father perished in 1942 with latter pioneered a new method of analyzing the Talmud the larger community. Over 20,000 were murdered. In so influential that to this day, yeshivas all over the world his biography of Begin, Avi Shiloh, describes how, as study the pages of the ancient rabbis utilizing what is prime minister, Begin criticized West German Chan- known as the “Brisker method” of the Soloveichiks. cellor Helmut Schmidt for pandering to the Saudis to the detriment of Israel. When a member of the op- Meir Y. Soloveichik is the rabbi of Shearith position in the Knesset, Amnon Rubinstein, criticized Israel in New York City and the director of the Straus Begin for this, the prime minister responded: “Happily Center for Torah and Western Thought at Yeshiva Uni- for you, Professor Rubinstein, your mother and father versity. raised you in the land of Israel. My mother and father
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Columns.indd 11 5/13/19 3:54 PM never were in the land of Israel. They dreamt about Kippur of 1941, cut off from his parents, never to see the land of Israel, and I will not tell you their fate. Mr. them again. “Where,” he wondered, “would my old fa- Schmidt, who swore allegiance to the Fuehrer, was ther and mother be, and my brother and sister.” then in the eastern front, where a city called Brisk of Lithuania stood. Can I know for certain that he was not And as the brain had no answer, the fearful there?” Rubinstein, Shiloh reports, “fell silent in the heart replied with prayer. As I recited the face of Begin’s outpouring. What could he tell a prime words sanctified from generation to gen- minister who mourned his parents before everyone?” eration, as I prayed silently, I felt the impen- Begin once wrote an essay in which he asked etrable barriers that separated me and those himself whether, given the chance, he would ever visit I loved fall away. . . . The cell vanished, the his hometown, and he answered it thus: walls disappeared, and there appeared in all its splendor the great illuminated synagogue No. No. I will not allow myself to go back to [of Brisk] and my father’s humble dwelling, Brisk. Yet Brisk will always follow me and be lit up by love, purity, faith, and the eyes of a with me. Because the three main things I have loving mother. learnt were instilled in me in sorrow and also in joy that I have carried with me from my The synagogue of Begin’s memory is no more; it childhood home—with me during the nights is now the main movie theater of the city, its original of conflict and the days of joy. Here they are: walls surrounded by modern glass. Yet some of the 1. Love your fellow Jew. original structure could still be seen. We went down- 2. Do not fear the Gentiles. stairs, where moviegoers use the bathroom, to see and 3. Lucky is the man who carries the yoke of to touch the stone walls of the synagogue of my ances- his childhood with him. tors. I was reminded of something Begin said about the Western Wall during the time when the British Menachem Begin never did go to Brisk, but I just prevented Jews from sounding the shofar there on have. Knowing of my own family history and my rever- Yom Kippur. The stones of Jersualem’s walls, he said, ence for Begin, a dear friend had arranged for my fam- “are not silent; they whisper. They speak softly of the ily to travel with him and other friends to my family’s sanctuary that once stood here, of kings who knelt hometown. By happenstance or serendipity, the day here once in prayer, of prophets and seers who here after the New York Times story appeared, my family declaimed their message, of heroes who fell here, dy- and I boarded a plane and traveled to Eastern Europe. ing; this was the sanctuary, and this the country, which with its seers and kings and fighters was ours before II. the British were a nation.” The stones of the walls of Brisk’s synagogue whispered as well, of countless Jews We crossed the border from Poland to Belarus and ar- who had once prayed there, including a future prime rived late at night in Brisk. Welcomed by the Chabad minister of Israel, who would never return but would rabbi now heroically serving the Jews in the area, I always bear Brisk and its synagogue with him. led evening services, perhaps the first Soloveichik to We walked then to the construction site where do so in Brisk in over 70 years. The next day, the rabbi Tatyana Lakhav had seen the bones of Brisk. Peering walked me over to the space, now empty, where the through the gate, at the vast ditch, it was hard not to Soloveichik home had once stood, and then led us think of the biblical Prophet Ezekiel, famously shown to the large edifice that had once served as the city’s by God a valley filled with dry bones. Ezekiel is asked Great Synagogue. I felt as if I knew this place, for my by God whether these bones can live once more. “Thou grandfather had told me of it and of his own grand- alone knowest,” is the prophet’s reply. Bible and con- father, Rabbi Hayyim. A young Jewish Communist in temporary times merged as the valley of the dry bones Brisk was once caught by czarist police and sentenced of my landsmen stretched before me. to death right before Yom Kippur. Rav Hayyim, known The bones were no longer in this valley; the Jews not only for his genius but his compassion, held up Kol of Brisk had to make way for the condos of Brest. The Nidre services in the synagogue until the two collected skeletons were being stored in a chamber of the “Brest the funds to bribe the officials to spare the boy’s life. Fortress,” a structure famous in the Soviet Union, for it For Rabbi Hayyim, a life outweighed Yom Kippur itself. was where Trotsky had signed the Brest-Litovsk peace For Begin, the memory of this synagogue sus- treaty with Germany in 1917. Now it was serving as a tained him when he found himself in prison on Yom makeshift crypt for the Jews of my ancestral city until
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Columns.indd 12 5/13/19 3:54 PM the rabbi would be allowed to bury them. ing the ugly end of man, however terrifying Standing next to the chamber, I recited a unique the grave is, however nonsensical and absurd version of the mourning prayer, the Kaddish. It was everything appears, no matter how black unlike the standard Kaddish said by mourners in the one’s despair is and how nauseating an affair year following a loss. Rather, it was the version said at a life is, we declare and profess publicly and burial, the first recited following a death, and is known solemnly that we are not giving up, that we as the “renewal Kaddish” because it explicitly makes are not surrendering, that we will carry on reference to the resurrection: Glorified and Sanctified the work of our ancestors...that we will not be be His great Name. In the world which He will create satisfied with less than the full realization of anew, where He will revive the dead, construct His the ultimate goal—the establishment of God’s temple, deliver life, and rebuild the city of Jerusalem… kingdom, the resurrection of the dead, and in our lifetime and in our days and in the lifetime of eternal life for man. the entire House of Israel, speedily and soon, and let us This was the Kaddish I recited near those bones, say, Amen. the Kaddish for those yet to be bur- It was this Kaddish that I Our union as Jews is ied, but also for those who would said, praying for the resurrection never be buried. As we left the next to bones that were as yet un- not only with those still Fortress, my friend spoke to care- buried, God’s question resonating living; as Begin realized in takers lingering nearby, explaining in my mind: Can these bones live? prison, what abolishes the why we had come to say words We should believe they can— that they did not understand. They not only in ultimate resurrection, seemingly impenetrable looked at him, seeking to express but in another way as well. “I will barrier, what made the the horror of what was contained not go back to Brisk,” Begin said, within the makeshift crypt. “There “but Brisk will always go with me.” prison walls fall away, are so many bones,” they said. It Our union as Jews is not only with what united him with his was difficult to leave that site feel- those still living; as Begin realized parents, were the words ing anything but overcome by loss. in prison, what abolishes the seem- But for Rabbi Soloveitchik, the very ingly impenetrable barrier, what recited in that synagogue words I had uttered are intended to made the prison walls fall away, in Brisk, words ‘sanctified evoke exactly the opposite emotion. what united him with his parents, “What,” he writes, “is the Kaddish were the words recited in that syna- from generation to pronounced at the grave, if not an gogue in Brisk, words “sanctified generation,’ binding us ostentatious negation of despair?” from generation to generation,” binding us thereby to those who thereby to those who have III. have come before. come before. The same point was made by The negation of despair; rightly un- another child of Brisk—my great-uncle, Rabbi Joseph derstood, this felicitous phrase captures the essence of Soloveitchik, known as “the Rav.” In one eulogy, the Judaism itself. When the Rav passed away, my grandfa- Rav reflected that though death is often seen asa ther, in his eulogy, spoke to the thousands of students reminder of finitude, rightly understood it reminds his elder brother had taught who were now suddenly us of the opposite; that through our people we are im- bereft of a teacher. There he cited the Talmudic tale of mortal. Death, he writes, “teaches man to transcend the time when the Temple was burnt by the Babylo- his physical self and to identify with the timeless cov- nians. With the flame’s rising higher and higher, the enantal community.” The turning point, he writes, at young priests of Jerusalem clambered to the Temple’s which we transform “despair into intelligent sadness, roof and held the Temple’s keys aloft to God: “Be Thou and self-negation into self-affirmation, is to be found the guardian of the keys!” A heavenly hand emerged to in the recital of Kaddish at the grave:” take the keys, as the priests plunged into the inferno below. My grandfather insisted that the priests had Through the Kaddish we hurl defiance at acted in error. No matter the destruction, it is our obli- death and its fiendish conspiracy against gation not to despair, but to hold on to the keys of the man. When the mourner recites “glorified and past; for in the transmission of these keys we achieve sanctified by His Great Name,” he declares: No communion with those who have come before, and matter how powerful death is, notwithstand- those who will follow.
Commentary 13
Columns.indd 13 5/13/19 3:54 PM I had heard this eulogy at 15 years of age; in revive the dead…in our lifetime, speedily, and soon, Brisk, my grandfather’s words came hurtling back and let us say Amen. My great-uncle was correct: from the faded mists of memory. Leaving Brisk, we However nonsensical and absurd everything might journeyed to Warsaw and visited its vast Jewish cem- appear, in Kaddish we declare and profess publicly etery. There lies buried Rabbi Hayyim, founder of the and solemnly “that we are not giving up, that we are Brisker method, who had died in that region while not surrendering, that we will carry on the work of our seeking medical treatment. His grave, as well as that ancestors.” We had been to Brisk; and whether or not of another ancestor of mine, Rabbi Naftali Zvi Berlin, we returned, we knew that Brisk will forever be with is kept in a locked structure; upon entering the cem- us. Could those bones live? At that moment, I felt very etery, I was handed the key to his tomb. On the fob, in much that they did. Polish letters, five letters were boldly printed: BRYSK. In 1948, the British departed Palestine, in no small Given all that we had seen in Brisk the day before, I part due to the efforts of the son of Brisk who had led a felt as if heaven itself had handed me keys that God revolt against them. As described by Dominque Lapierre himself had previously held. and Larry Collins in their book O Jerusalem, on the way We walked as a family toward the tomb, and out of Jerusalem, one British captain handed the key to with the key we opened it up, and stood near the grave. Jerusalem’s Zion Gate to the senior rabbi in the Old City’s In advance of the trip, I had studied, over Passover, Jewish Quarter, the first time in 2,000 years that such parts of the Talmud with my children, so that they and a key had been in Jewish hands. Trembling, the rabbi I could perform the liturgy known as the siyyum, the replied, “I accept this key in the name of my people.” celebration of the completion of a Talmudic tractate. The tale reminds us of what a privilege it is to be a Jew In the siyyum liturgy, we thank God for the privilege in this age when the keys to the land of Israel have been of being a Jew, and we pray “that the Torah should not returned to us by God, and parts of the prayer known as depart from my mouth, and of my children and my the “renewal Kaddish” have been fulfilled: Jerusalem has children’s children, from now until forever.” We stood been rebuilt in our lifetime. there, at the grave of my grandfather’s grandfather, But the Temple is still not here, and the dead and prayed for the future of my children’s children. have not yet physically risen. Jews are still hated and And here a new resonance emerged. The “renewal are still murdered for being Jews. The very New York Kaddish,” with its invocation of the resurrection, is re- Times that can report on the horrors of the Holocaust cited at only two moments in Jewish life: at the burial in Brisk can publish, at the same time, an anti-Semitic of the dead, and at the recital of a siyyum. This signi- cartoon that would have made Hitler proud. In the face fies that the two are linked, that in the transmission of of this hate, we Jews have the ultimate obligation: to the Torah we proclaim the “negation of despair,” and cling tightly to the keys of the past, to Judaism, to the the immortality of the Jewish people. faith that, rightly understood, has always stood for the And thus we recited this Kaddish, words made negation of despair. This we will do, until the world is holy, as Begin had put it, from generation to genera- created anew, the blood of our martyrs avenged, and tion: Glorified and Sanctified be His great Name. In death itself defeated. May this occur in our lifetime and the world which He will create anew, where He will of all Israel—speedily and soon, and let us say, Amen.q
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Columns.indd 14 5/13/19 3:54 PM CULTURAL COMMENTARY
A COMPENDIUM OF THINGS THAT INTERESTED US THIS MONTH
Machines Like Me IF YOU saw Spike Jonze’s 2013 movie Her, which starred Joaquin Phoenix as an affection-starved young man who falls in love with his computer’s operating system (voiced by Scar- lett Johansson at her sultry best), you already understand the type of longing that Ian McEwan explores in his new novel, Machines Like Me. The novel offers a more morally complex rendering of that longing, one that prompts useful questions about our own embrace of artificial various subplots drawing on real ing that many of the humanoid ro- intelligence. historical events, such as war in the bots find a way to activate their own The story is set in an alternative Falklands, emerge. But the central kill switches, effectively committing British past (1982) with technol- focus is the question of moral rea- suicide. Why? At one point in the ogy and artificial intelligence far soning. Is it purely a human tool, story, Charlie looks into Adam’s eyes superior to our own, and centers on or can we design and upload it to and wonders whether Adam can un- the relationship between an unsuc- human-like creatures? derstand the meaning of loyalty and cessful man named Charlie and his Readers who want straightfor- sacrifice, of wonder and nostalgia. expensively rendered humanoid ward science fiction might be disap- Does a robot have some form of companion, Adam. The humanoid pointed by McEwan’s focus on the consciousness and a conscience dif- can reason, have sex, and causes a moral dilemmas the robot Adam ferent from his own? Or does it, as lot of trouble between Charlie and poses to the humans that surround the fictionalized Turing observes his love interest, Miranda. Histori- him. But it is the illumination of those here, fail to understand us “because cal figures like scientist Alan Tur- dilemmas that makes Machines Like we couldn’t understand ourselves?” ing make cameo appearances, and Me worth reading. We learn in pass- —Christine Rosen
Manila in the Claws of Light THE TITLE Manila in the Claws of Light, available for streaming on the Criterion Channel, is an awk- ward translation from the original Tagalog (Maynila, Sa Mga Uko Ng Liwanag). It’s sometimes re- ferred to as “Manila in the Claws of Neon” or “Manila in the Claws of Darkness”—and either of those
ILLUSTRATIONS BY ROSE WONG ROSE BY ILLUSTRATIONS unofficial titles conveys a better
Commentary 15
Columns.indd 15 5/13/19 3:54 PM sense of this remarkable movie, by Lino Brocka, about wickedness in a brutal city, the Manila of the 1970s. Julio, a young man from the provinces, comes to Manila to find his beloved girlfriend, Ligaya, who stopped writing home a few weeks after her arrival in the big city. He seems to have tracked her down to the apartment of a wealthy Chinese man, but he doesn’t know how she ended up there, and he can’t get in. In the meantime, Julio, portrayed with painful sincerity by Rafael Roco Jr., is struggling to survive. He works inhumane construction gigs, sponges off newfound friends, and Who Is Michael Ovitz? ness, Creative Artists Agency, into a eventually winds up in the city’s THE AGENT Michael Ovitz was a behemoth, he chose to play the role gay hustling scene. very powerful man in Hollywood. of a calm, dark, terrifying power Manila in the Claws of Light shares Then he went to work at Disney player. That was and is not the real much with both John Schlesinger’s for a friend named Michael Eisner Ovitz, says Ovitz in Who Is Michael Midnight Cowboy and Martin Scors- who had figured out that cutting Ovitz? He wants us to know he was ese’s Taxi Driver (which it predates). Ovitz off at the knees would be the playing a role, that he is actually There is an enveloping sense of des- best way to show Hollywood that quite shy, thoughtful, measured—a peration and sleaze (even if Julio’s he, Eisner, was the industry’s top lover of art, a believer in talent, a story moves toward its tragic end dog. Ovitz spent 20 years building surrogate father to many, a kind- on a current of love and bravery). up a terrifying reputation, and it hearted person. And then, in the And all three films exist in the same took only a few months for him to course of the book, he proceeds to aesthetic universe. Brocka, who died be publicly humiliated and brought settle scores in the most astound- in 1991, deftly gave his movie a down low. After two decades of ing ways, trash reputations, tell shadowy and almost wet look, as relative obscurity, Ovitz has re- tales out of school, and in every way if the city is glazed in the sweat of turned to the public stage with one make it clear that he is exactly the night terrors. Manila in the Claws of the strangest memoirs ever pub- Michael Ovitz people thought he of Light deserves recognition as a lished—a book utterly fascinating was. His rage, bitterness, and soul- classic 1970s film. Scorsese himself in its strangeness. Who Is Michael lessness have produced surprising is responsible for its restoration and Ovitz? is intended, on the surface, dividends here, as they have con- preservation, having included it in to be an Augustinian confession tributed inestimably to one of the his World Cinema Project for the about its author’s own glaring most interesting books ever writ- Criterion Collection. weaknesses. Ovitz wants the world ten about Hollywood. — Abe Greenwald to know that as he built his busi- — John Podhoretz
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Columns.indd 16 5/13/19 3:54 PM ARE WE ALONE IN THE UNIVERSE? EXTRATERRESTRIAL INTELLIGENCE MAY BE FAR MORE UNLIKELY THAN WE THINK by Ethan Siegel
HERE IS a common belief among astrophysicists and other scientists that studying the universe has revealed our own planet as something less than special. The reason- ing is as follows: Earth, long assumed to be stationary and unmoving, is just one of many planets orbiting our sun. Our sun is nothing more than a regular, nondescript star, one of hundreds of billions found within the Milky Way. The Milky Way itself is T just one of an estimated 2 trillion galaxies strewn across the expanse of our observ- Ethan Siegel is a theoretical astrophysicist and the author of two books: Treknology and Beyond The Galaxy. He writes the blog Starts With A Bang.
SIEGEL.indd 17 5/13/19 3:55 PM able universe. As our own insignificant home, Earth, is tentially habitable world beyond our planet. And even teeming with life, including intelligent and technologi- if life does arise elsewhere, it may be the case that it cally innovative human beings, wouldn’t it be reason- frequently fails to thrive. Maybe it’s the case that even able to infer that whatever is common here is plentiful successful life only rarely becomes complex, differenti- throughout the universe? ated, or intelligent as we understand those terms. Or, According to this default assumption, the quite possibly, it’s exceedingly rare that even intel- same ingredients found here—elements, molecules, ligent life becomes technologically advanced. In all of and various favorable conditions—can be found space, as far as intelligent life goes, perhaps humanity practically everywhere we look. The same physi- is truly alone. cal rules that apply here are no different elsewhere in the universe. Given all the stars, planets, and HE FIRST scientific estimate con- chances for life that surely exist within our galaxy cerning the number of intelligent, and beyond, we’ve mostly stopped asking whether spacefaring, communicative extra- life exists beyond Earth. Instead, we now ask how terrestrials came from the Ameri- common it may be. can astronomer Frank Drake. His But for all this impressive theorizing, the best ev- method of constructing estimates idence hasn’t matched expectations. Despite decades for the number of intelligent extra- of searching, we haven’t detected even a single robust terrestrial civilizations—developed in 1961—gave rise signal that indicates the presence of intelligent aliens. T to what’s now known as the Drake equation.
ALL TOLD, WE EXPECT THERE ARE NEARLY 1022 POTENTIALLY HABITABLE, EARTH-LIKE PLANETS CONTAINING THE RIGHT CONDITIONS AND INGREDIENTS FOR LIFE. MORE THAN A BILLION SUCH CANDIDATE PLANETS EXIST IN OUR MILKY WAY ALONE.
This conundrum is commonly known as the Fermi Although his estimates—and even his framing of paradox, after the famed physicist Enrico Fermi. It the problem—are outdated today, we no longer rely on goes like this: If the ingredients for life are everywhere, the degree of guesswork we once did. In the decades and there are astronomically large numbers of stars since Drake first set about his task, we’ve surveyed and planets where it’s possible for life to have arisen, the vast abyss of the distant universe and discovered then we’d expect many instances in which intelligent many important things. We’ve learned the size of the aliens rose to prominence well before the advent of hu- observable universe and the duration of time since the man life on Earth. Such beings should have had plenty hot Big Bang. We know that there are at least 2 trillion of time either to have colonized the galaxy or designed visible galaxies. We now understand star formation, a broadcasting system that would be unmistakable stellar populations, and how stars burn through their as a sign of intelligent life. Yet we haven’t discovered fuel and die. We know that over the entire cosmic his- a shred of credible evidence favoring the existence of tory of the observable universe, there have been ap- intelligent extraterrestrials. proximately 1024 unique stars. If the universe is teeming with life, then where That’s our starting point for estimating the num- is everybody? ber of chances that the universe must have produced While we certainly owe it to ourselves to look for Earth-like life. their presence with all the resources we can muster, If we assume that life like us requires a planet we must confront the possibility that perhaps we’ve like ours, we need a star that’s Sun-like in nature and got it all wrong about just how common life in the a planet with a rocky surface and thin atmosphere or- universe is. Perhaps the ingredients and conditions biting that star. But that’s just the beginning. We also on Earth don’t inevitably lead to life arising on a po- need that planet’s size and mass to be similar to those
18 Are We Alone in the Universe? : June 2019
SIEGEL.indd 18 5/13/19 3:56 PM of Earth. Additionally, this Earth-like planet must or- three hurdles represents the last major unknown in bit its Sun-like star at a distance that allows for liquid determining how common, or rare, intelligent extra- water to exist on the planet’s surface. And the planet terrestrials actually might be. It’s an unknown that must have a sufficient number of certain atoms and has long been neglected by those who hope that the molecules—the raw materials of life. discovery of alien life is just around the corner. Thus, Over the past few decades, advances in exo- a closer examination of each is necessary if we’re to be planet sciences, buoyed by the deluge of data from realistic about the chances of finding other beings like NASA’s Kepler mission, have enabled us to estimate all ourselves. of these cosmic unknowns. Approximately 20 percent of all the stars out there are Sun-like, as opposed to red FROM NONLIFE TO LIFE. The ingredients for life dwarfs (which tidally lock their planets and likely strip really are ubiquitous in a galaxy like the Milky Way. their atmospheres away) or the hot, blue stars whose Organic compounds, including sugars, amino acids, stellar lifetimes are too short. At least 80 percent of molecules with carbon-containing rings, and even eth- stars have planets or planetary systems around them, yl formate—the molecule that gives raspberries their and approximately 10 to 20 percent of those planets smell—are found throughout space. They appear ev- are Earth-like in size and mass. Well over 90 percent erywhere from interstellar gas clouds to the outskirts of them have enough of the necessary heavy ele- of young star systems. These chemical precursors to ments—created in earlier generations of stars—for life life are found throughout our solar system, showing to have possibly arisen. And finally, approximately 20 up in lunar and Martian samples. Even analyzed me- to 25 percent of the star systems we know of appear to teorites that have fallen to Earth have been found to have at least one planet in their star’s so-called habit- contain the 20 amino acids essential to life processes able zone, which is the right location for an Earth-like (and more than 60 additional amino acids with no planet to possess liquid water on its surface. known biological applications). All told, we expect there are nearly 1022 poten- But flour, sugar, butter, and eggs are not the tially habitable, Earth-like planets containing the right same as a cake. Similarly, there’s a big difference conditions and ingredients for life. More than a billion between the raw ingredients for life and life itself. Or- such candidate planets exist in our Milky Way alone. ganic molecules may be everywhere, but what about But purchasing a large number of lottery tick- actual life? To qualify as a living organism, these four ets is no guarantee of winning the jackpot. The odds criteria must be met: depend on the overall probabilities of victory. Even though an enormous number of chances for the advent 1. Life must have a metabolism, harvesting of intelligent, spacefaring life within our observable energy, resources, or both from its exter- universe exists, there are still three big sequential nal environment, to be used for its own hurdles to overcome. self-sustaining purposes. First, life must arise from nonlife. The raw ingre- 2. Life must react to external stimuli out- dients associated with organic processes must actually side of its own existence, and alter its become what we recognize as life, through a vague, behavior in response. speculative process called abiogenesis. 3. Life must permit some sort of growth, Second, once life arises, it must not only survive adaptation, or the ability to evolve from and thrive for billions of years but also develop fea- its present form into a different one. tures such as multicellularity and specialized organs 4. Life must be able to reproduce, creating and functions. It must become complex and differenti- viable offspring that arise from a process ated, and evolve to have the quality we recognize as entirely internal to itself. intelligence. Third, this intelligent life must then achieve Proteins, despite having a metabolism and the technological advancement, either gaining the ability capability of reproduction, are not alive, as they nei- to announce its presence to the universe, to hear and ther respond to stimuli nor alter their behavior. Snow- respond to other intelligent broadcasts, or to venture flakes and other crystals, on the other hand, can grow beyond its home world and explore interstellar desti- and reproduce, but they have no metabolism. Even nations. viruses can reproduce only by infecting a successfully In all the universe, Earth is our only example of living cell and are not considered alive as a result. a planet where any one of these three steps have oc- These four qualities have never been found, to- curred. The ease—or difficulty—of getting over these gether, on any world other than Earth.
Commentary 19
SIEGEL.indd 19 5/13/19 3:56 PM Earth likely possessed copious levels of raw, years of life on Earth, such life was single-celled and organic ingredients from its inception. In laboratory prokaryotic (lacking a cell nucleus or other internal experiments that attempt to mimic the atmosphere of organelles), and only reproduced by copying itself and Earth’s early days, those precursors have been exposed dividing. It is said that the only source of genetic varia- to external energy and have given off protein frag- tion came via random mutation, which is an extremely ments, lipid layers, and individual nucleotides. It’s not slow pathway for evolution. In a stable environment, so difficult to imagine that life could spontaneously, where the organisms that are currently successful face under the right conditions, emerge from these molecu- few challenges to their survival, there are no pressures lar progenitors. that favor the selection of a novel organism that might It clearly did on Earth. And we have some sense rise to prominence. of when it happened. While the first microbial fos- The journey from simple life to complex life sils we have date back some 3.5 billion years, there requires a changing planet. When there’s a change in are graphite inclusions found in metamorphosed resource availability, competition, or the survivability rocks that date back to 3.8 billion years ago. Certain of the environment, species can easily go extinct. Many carbon-based crystals, discovered in zircon deposits, a successful organism that thrived for millions of push the suspected origin of life on Earth back to years on Earth was destroyed by a changing climate, more than 4.3 billion years ago: nearly as old as the a volcanic eruption, an asteroid strike, or even its own Earth itself. metabolic waste products. Whenever an organism can But if we can approximate when Earth’s earliest no longer occupy an ecological niche, it leaves open organisms first arose, we still don’t know much about the possibility for new life-forms to rise to promi- where it happened. Was it in the oceanic tidepools that nence. While we expect similar processes all across the formed along the edges of continents, triggered by universe, all of our inferences flow solely from Earth’s sunlight and shadow, evaporation and fluid flow, and biological history. gradients of water activity? Was it near the volcani- Consider the following example from our own cally energetic, hydrothermal vents at the bottom of planet. On Earth, organisms have been taking advan- the oceans? Or was it in hydrothermal fields, where tage of photosynthesis for more than 3 billion years. freshwater and volcanic hotspots on continental land In photosynthesis, light of a particular wavelength came together in the presence of minerals and organic strikes a molecule and excites it, and the Sun’s energy molecules? gets put to biological use. Hydrogen, sulfur, and nu- Not only don’t we know the answer, we don’t merous acids initially provided the electrons that early know whether life arose just once or many times. We photosynthetic organisms used in their life processes. don’t know whether an organism arising in one envi- Hundreds of millions of years later, the cyanobac- ronment outcompeted all the others, or whether it was teria (or blue-green algae) arose, using the oxygen the ancestor of everything that’s ever lived. We don’t molecules in water as electron donors. Unlike other know whether the conditions that gave rise to life re- photosynthetic organisms, the cyanobacteria produce quired a rare confluence of circumstances or whether molecular oxygen as a waste product. they happened easily. After hundreds of millions of years, that oxygen While many scientists are optimistic that it may accumulated in the atmosphere. It reacted with early be easy to create a simplified form of life, we’ve never Earth’s methane, producing carbon dioxide and water, successfully done so, nor have we witnessed it hap- which greatly reduced our planet’s greenhouse ef- pening. We have yet to detect any life-form that didn’t fect. Thus the cyanobacteria’s success translated into originate on Earth. And as far back as we’re capable disaster for the planet, causing a mass extinction as of tracing it, all life on Earth goes back to a single, the planet froze over entirely. Simultaneously, the cor- universal common ancestor. Life might be common rosive, toxic oxygen killed off most of the other, non- in the universe, but until we detect a second example oxygen-using life-forms. where life arose from non-life, we cannot know. Thus, Yet this disaster was enormously beneficial for we must accept that we might be all alone in the galaxy, accelerating evolution. The cyanobacteria thrived, and, perhaps, beyond. while other organisms—facing selection pressures and changing environments—evolved in myriad di- FROM LIFE TO COMPLEX LIFE. For life to achieve rections. Separated organelles arose inside cells, and multicellularity, complexity, and the differentiation creatures accumulated larger numbers of genes and required for intelligence, it must persist and thrive new combinations of abilities. The organisms that for billions of years. For perhaps the first 2 billion were more resilient to change survived, passing on
20 Are We Alone in the Universe? : June 2019
SIEGEL.indd 20 5/13/19 3:56 PM their genes to a new generation. These eukaryotes it’s important to remember that, given all of the time (cells containing separated, independent internal that Earth has had complex, differentiated life, only structures) developed specialized internal systems 0.00002 percent of our history is marked by our being that functioned independently of others. Eventually, a technologically advanced civilization. Perhaps that multicellularity enabled further differentiation, and says something about the difficulty of reaching such sexual reproduction allowed offspring to express vast- a milestone. ly different traits from those of their parents. Nearly It’s only by engaging in these recent endeavors 4 billion years passed between life’s first moments on that have we begun to ask why we haven’t found the Earth to the Cambrian explosion, when complex, dif- signatures of other, similar civilizations. We assume, ferentiated life became dominant. given so many chances, that someone may have If we located an alien planet and found starfish, reached this level of sophistication prior to us. Without sharks, crustaceans, and insects, we’d be delighted. evidence, however, we mustn’t assume that anyone But is such a world common? On this front, else has been as successful, or as fortunate, as we have. we only know that Earth has been a cosmic success We also have no idea how far we’ll advance or story; we have no idea what the probabilities are of how long we’ll last. We could drive ourselves to extinc- simple life surviving, thriving, and evolving to pro- tion rapidly in any number of ways. Alternatively, we duce something akin to our vast array of animals. It could survive and thrive—overcoming the squabbles could be almost inevitable, given an Earth-like world, plaguing humanity today—thousands or millions of or it could come down to an ultra-rare confluence of years into the future. While we’ve made it this far, it be-
IS IT AN INEVITABILITY THAT OUR DEVELOPMENT OF AUTOMATION AND ARTIFICIAL INTELLIGENCE WILL ENGINEER OUR OWN DEMISE? WILL THAT TRANSFORMATION REPLACE US WITH ARTIFICIAL LIFE-FORMS THAT HAVE NO CONCERN FOR OUR LOFTIEST DREAMS AND AMBITIONS?
circumstances—including DNA absorption, the rise hooves us to ask some uncomfortable questions about of eukaryotes, multicellularity, and sexual reproduc- the odds of our survival and how they apply to possible tion—that led to our world’s winning the biological life-forms beyond our planet. If intelligent species lottery. Without a sample size greater than ourselves, arise, how often or how frequently will they annihilate we cannot know the odds. themselves through a disaster like nuclear war? How often will intelligent aliens behave like the cyano- FROM ADVANCED LIFE TO ADVANCED TECH- bacteria, consuming resources well past the point of NOLOGY. This final step is shrouded in the highest sustainability and poisoning their own environment to levels of uncertainty. If we judged our own planet the point of uninhabitability? What are the odds that by the criteria that we demand of extraterrestrial a species-threatening pandemic arises, and what are technology—that aliens either communicate or travel the probabilities of surviving such an event? Is it an across interstellar distances—then Earth has been inevitability that our development of automation and technologically advanced for less than a single century. artificial intelligence will engineer our own demise? We’ve certainly achieved some remarkable things in Will that transformation replace us with artificial life- that time. These include sending radio signals out forms that have no concern for our loftiest dreams and into the universe, broadcasting our presence to the ambitions? Will our civilization collapse before we’re stars; launching space probes and crewed missions ever truly capable of contacting alien life? And do theo- beyond our own planet, and even (in the case of the retical alien civilizations face the same challenges? Voyager, Pioneer, and New Horizons spacecrafts) out The odds may or may not be in favor of interstel- of the solar system; and monitoring the skies for other lar contact, as one catastrophic failure could bring our forms of intelligence out there in the universe. But story—or the story of other beings—to an end. Even
Commentary 21
SIEGEL.indd 21 5/13/19 3:56 PM with more than a billion candidate Earth-like planets When we ask the big question—“Where is every- in our Milky Way, and 1022 within the observable uni- body?” —it’s worth keeping a great many possibilities verse, we cannot give a realistic estimate for how many in mind. Aliens might be plentiful, but perhaps we’re intelligent alien civilizations should be out there today. not listening properly. Aliens might be plentiful, but In the absence of evidence, all we have is specu- they might self-destruct too quickly to maintain a lation. technologically advanced state. Aliens might be plen- tiful, but they may choose to remain isolated. Aliens OR NEARLY 60 YEARS, humanity might be plentiful, but they might purposely choose to has earnestly searched for life beyond exclude Earth and its inhabitants from their commu- Earth. We’ve attempted to quantify the nications. Aliens might be plentiful, but the problems odds of there being life elsewhere in of interstellar transmission or travel might be too dif- the universe, and, more specifically, of ficult to overcome. intelligent, spacefaring extraterrestri- But there’s another valid possibility that we must als. Yet, for all of our efforts, we have yet keep in mind, as well: Aliens may not be there at all. to produce a meaningful estimate that’s anything more The probability of the three vital leaps, as described F than guesswork. We do not know if there are millions of above, is enormously uncertain. If even one of these extraterrestrial civilizations thriving throughout the gal- three steps is too cosmically improbable, it may well be axy, or whether in all the visible universe, there’s only us. that in all the universe, there’s only us. q
22 Are We Alone in the Universe? : June 2019
SIEGEL.indd 22 5/13/19 3:56 PM The Gaza Conundrum Israel has many options, none good By Jonathan Schanzer
N MAY 14, 2018, at the exact mo- children to skip school and rush the border. Militants ment that Israel was celebrating then fired at Israel from behind these human shields. the opening of the new U.S. Em- Unable to disperse the crowd with tear gas or other bassy in Jerusalem, I sat across crowd-control methods, the Israel Defense Force (IDF) the desk from a senior Israeli of- began to open fire. ficial in Tel Aviv. He was in a foul My interlocutor let out a heavy sigh. “We don’t mood. He looked as if he hadn’t have creative solutions for this right now,” he said. slept much. He rubbed his eyes, scratched his stubble, It’s one year later. The weekly Gaza protests have and blurtedO suddenly, “Gaza is a problem from hell.” continued, with casualties and chaos mounting. Every Amid all the embassy fanfare, Israeli officials few months a conflagration erupts. The most recent were beginning to realize the Gaza border protests that one saw Palestinian terror groups firing more than 700 had erupted on March 30, celebrated on social media rockets into Israel. Four Israelis were murdered. The as the “Great March of Return,” would not soon end. Israeli response was predictably tough but measured, And the Israelis were finding them increasingly diffi- including the destruction of terrorist hideouts and cult to handle. even some targeted assassinations. Israel is equipped to fight a wide range of wars, Within days, a cease-fire was reached. But it but not against the so-called weapons of the weak. Ga- won’t last. It can’t. Every Gaza escalation brings Israel zans were sending flaming balloons across the border back to the same place, setting the stage yet again for into Israeli territory. The terrorist group Hamas, ac- more conflict. The frustration in Israel is palpable. As cording to an Israeli military spokesman, was paying one Jerusalem bureaucrat told me on the eve of last month’s elections, “What good is having the strongest Jonathan Schanzer is senior vice president at military in the region if we can’t get rid of an annoy- Foundation for Defense of Democracies. ance like Hamas?”
Commentary 23
Schanzer.indd 23 5/13/19 3:57 PM Hamas simply doesn’t rank high enough on Israel’s list of threats to justify a larger conflict. This has allowed Hamas to live to fight another day, time and again.
Israelis of all political persuasions now say it’s citizens. IDF brass rightly notes that the system grants time for change. But they are likely to learn that there officials time and space to make rational decisions aren’t good alternatives to what is widely viewed as about war. And those decisions, given the low casualty an unsustainable status quo. A major Gaza offensive numbers, have often meant that Israel could respond could backfire and hasten a conflict with Iran. It could in a limited and proportional fashion. In fact, the Is- trigger poisonous partisan debates in Washington. It raelis have never sought a larger conflict because they could even force Israel to do something it wants to see Hamas as a tactical threat, not an existential one. avoid at all costs: re-occupy Gaza. Hamas simply doesn’t rank high enough on the list As it turns out, the problem from hell has rungs. of threats to justify the kind of war that would be re- quired. This has allowed Hamas to live to fight another OR ISRAEL, GAZA HAS BEEN a consistent day, time and again. challenge, but never quite a strategic threat, Some argue that Israel now has a false sense of F since the 1948–1949 War of Independence. security about the dangers of Gaza rockets. It’s not Back then, it was Egyptian-backed fedayeen carry- false. Israel has largely inoculated itself from the rock- ing out attacks in Israel. Gaza was later the scene of et threat, along with every other security challenge pitched battles in the 1967 Six-Day War. There was a Hamas has thrown at them, for that matter. time after the Israeli conquest of the territory when In truth, Hamas has the false sense of security. Israelis could enter Gaza and engage in commerce. But The group has undeniably tried to overwhelm Iron in December 1987 that came to a halt; Gaza was where Dome, but it has failed repeatedly. Hostilities have the first intifada erupted. thus settled into a predictable pattern. Hamas now Hamas has been firing mortars and rockets into fires deadly projectiles into civilian areas without the Israel from Gaza since the breakdown of the peace consequences of significant deaths or retaliation. process in 2001. Israel made the problem inadver- After last weekend, however, the naturally cau- tently worse when it vacated the Gaza Strip in 2005; tious Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu is finding it disengagement ended Israeli occupation but granted more difficult to show restraint. The public fears that Hamas more operational freedom. That problem be- Israel has lost deterrence. If it truly had deterrence, it came acute in 2007 when the group wrested control would have been clear to Israel’s foes in Gaza that de- of Gaza from the Palestinian Authority in a brutal ploying Iron Dome just once would unleash a torren- civil war. Hamas soon began to import more weap- tial response. Instead, Israel has repeatedly absorbed ons and develop new capabilities. Israel and Hamas blows and responded in a measured fashion. It’s pos- have engaged in significant conflict a half dozen times sible that Israel did so this time to ensure calm during since then, with many other minor skirmishes. While the forthcoming Eurovision song contest and Israeli Hamas has developed commando tunnels and other Independence Day. Yet there is always a reason for the capabilities, rockets remain the group’s weapon of IDF not to escalate. And Israelis are growing restless. choice. For Israel, necessity bred invention. In 2011, the ITH THE ISRAELI PUBLIC now stirring, Israelis rolled out one of the most remarkable military the IDF is warily eyeing the major conflict accomplishments of the 21st century: Iron Dome. The W it has forestalled for a dozen years: a vi- system makes crucial split-second decisions. It either cious battle against a well-trained and well-armed shoots short-range rockets out of the sky when they non-state actor. It is also warily eyeing Iran. hurtle toward population centers, or it allows rockets Gaza is widely recognized as Palestinian territo- destined to hit unpopulated areas to simply remain on ry. But it’s also Iranian. It was Iran that helped Hamas course. The success rate for these combined functions conquer Gaza in 2007. It was Iran that continued to is somewhere between 85 and 90 percent. keep “Hamastan” solvent until the rupture between Even as Hamas attacks have dramatically in- the Shiite regime in Tehran and the Sunni Hamas over creased in volume, Iron Dome has protected Israel’s Syrian policy in 2012. Iranian funding since has been
24 The Gaza Conundrum : June 2019
Schanzer.indd 24 5/13/19 3:57 PM The next conflict could be cast as a politically binary one, where American politicians framed their views on Israeli security as either a pro-Trump or anti-Trump position.
restored, but it has not returned to its previous levels, abstention in the matter of an anti-Israel resolution primarily due to crippling U.S. sanctions on the regime at the United Nations. This president, by contrast, in Tehran. But ties today are once again strong. has offered unyielding support in key areas, includ- The missile barrage in May was almost certainly ing self-defense, the U.S. Embassy move, recognition precipitated by Iran. It began with a sniper attack by of sovereignty in the Golan Heights, and more. Mean- the Palestinian Islamic Jihad (PIJ), a terrorist faction while, a vociferous gaggle of progressives in the House heavily influenced by Iran. Senior Israeli officials be- of Representatives is voicing anti-Israel sentiments in lieve that the attack was likely ordered by Iran to dis- an unprecedented fashion. And while pro-Israel cen- rupt Egyptian cease-fire mediation between Hamas trist Democrats have not wavered, they are warning and Israel. Trump not to indulge Netanyahu’s more incendiary Should Israel elect to eject Hamas from the Gaza policy possibilities, like annexing parts of the West Strip, an Iranian response would loom large. The Israe- Bank. Republicans have exploited these fissures, with lis should expect Hamas to fight fiercely, to empty its Trump leading the call for Jewish voters to end their arsenal, and to get help from Iranian advisers and Ira- longstanding support for Democrats and join the GOP. nian proxies like PIJ and Harakat al-Sabirin. Iran will If it came down to conflict, pro-Israel Democrats not surrender this territory without a fight. and Republicans alike would rally their support. They There is also a scenario in which Iran deploys its understand the gravity, even the necessity, of a war in Lebanese proxy, Hezbollah, to preserve Iran’s interests. Gaza. But critics would cast Israel as the aggressor, Hezbollah has an estimated 150,000 rockets in its arse- and one that was in league with Trump to boot. The nal, including a growing number of precision-guided next conflict could thus easily be cast as a politically munitions (PGM). Should Iran choose to activate He- binary one, where American politicians framed their zbollah amid a Gaza war, a two-front conflict would views on Israeli security as either a pro-Trump or anti- make the May barrage look like a minor nuisance. Trump position. The dozens of former and current Israeli officials HILE THREATS MOUNT, time may be I’ve talked to over the past three years all believe that running out on the political cover Israel bipartisanship has been Israel’s single greatest asset W needs for the Gaza war it doesn’t want in Washington over the years. Yet they don’t truly un- but may need to wage nonetheless. Israeli leaders are derstand the way hyper-partisanship has overtaken working under the assumption that President Donald Washington. They do not grasp how the debates sur- Trump alone (or more specifically, his administration) rounding Donald Trump, fair or not, have divided our would give the IDF the green light to fight the long nation. Nor do they appreciate how Netanyahu’s close overdue war against Hamas, or even against Iran and ties with Trump can be wielded by both sides in ways its other proxies. that would hurt Israel at an urgent time of need. For the Israelis, placing their trust in Trump means taking two risks. The first is that they may owe et us say that Israel was able to navigate the a great debt that Trump could demand in the form of morass of American politics, gain bipartisan peace-process concessions. However, from the little we L support for a war in Gaza, and then successful- know of Trump’s “Deal of the Century,” Jared Kushner ly dislodge Hamas. Israel would then have to grapple and Jason Greenblatt are not likely to squeeze the Is- with another big issue: what comes next. raelis terribly hard, if at all. The IDF’s Coordinator of Government Activi- The second risk, the far greater danger, is that ties in the Territories (COGAT) currently facilitates Israel would allow itself to become a political football. the entry of thousands of truckloads of goods to enter It’s not hard to understand how this could hap- the Gaza Strip every day, even as a military blockade pen. The Obama administration gave the Israelis remains in place to block dual-use materials and so- headaches like the Iran nuclear deal, support for the phisticated weaponry from the Gaza Strip. In other Muslim Brotherhood during the Arab Spring, and its words, Israel has two policies. One is to isolate Hamas,
Commentary 25
Schanzer.indd 25 5/13/19 3:57 PM The Israelis and the Egyptians have endeavored to reshape the political landscape in Gaza. This is the first and best choice from Israel’s perspective. But so far, they have failed.
and the other is to allow services to be rendered to the who went into exile in the UAE after the Hamas mili- Gazan people. tary takeover in 2007. But we know little about Dah- Israel, for the sake of calm, has even engaged lan’s ability to organize politically, or whether Gaza with the Turks and the Qataris, despite both countries’ would reject his transplanted leadership after so many avowed anti-Zionism and support for Hamas. It has years away, like an artificial heart. permitted them to provide funds and other assistance The obvious alternative to all of this is re-occu- to the coastal enclave. Gaza’s suffering continues, how- pation. This would be deeply unpopular in Israel. It’s ever, because Hamas continues to divert funds for unthinkable to many. Of course, the Israelis controlled commando tunnels, rockets, and other tools of war. Gaza from 1967 until 2005. The Israelis never coordi- And under Hamas rule, there is not much political nated their departure with Palestinian counterparts, space to challenge these policies. Anti-Israel sentiment and it looked as if they were pulling out under fire is the only permissible form of protest. This has only from Hamas rockets and other attacks. This percep- served to further radicalize a population that has for tion contributed in part to the Hamas electoral victory years been fed a steady diet of hate. in 2006. That election led to the political standoff that The Israelis since 2007, along with the Egyptians gave way to the civil war in which Hamas overtook the since 2013, have endeavored to reshape the political Gaza Strip in 2007. landscape in Gaza. This is the first and best choice Fourteen years after the Gaza withdrawal, the from Israel’s perspective. But so far, they have failed. rockets are still falling. Twelve years after Hamas took The viable alternatives to Hamas are the sclerotic power, the group remains entrenched. Eight years af- Palestinian Authority, radical Salafi groups, and Iran- ter the deployment of Iron Dome, the Israelis are ar- backed PIJ. There could be others, such as the support- guably safer, but they are back where they’ve always ers of Mohammed Dahlan, the former Gaza strongman been: on the Gaza border, mulling their next move.q
26 The Gaza Conundrum : June 2019
Schanzer.indd 26 5/13/19 3:57 PM Marvel and the Jews Moviegoing past, present, and future By John Podhoretz
CENTURY AGO, the movies remains entirely unchallenged. In 2017, the world’s launched mass culture. Charlie most popular programs were said to have been the CBS Chaplin’s biographer Peter Ack- crime drama NCIS and the CBS sitcom The Big Bang royd has observed Chaplin be- Theory, with the cable shows The Walking Dead and came the world’s first global ce- Game of Thrones close by. lebrity during World War I—the Americans may be full of anxiety about the ero- first person to be known across sion of our national standing and power, but there is the world by face. This fame was due to the international no sign of that erosion when it comes to global mass export Aof his two-reel comedies made in Hollywood. culture. A century after the man in tramp garb all but One hundred years later, mass culture continues invented celebrity, the most popular cultural figures in to be an almost exclusively American (or English- the world today are a dozen Americans in very differ- language) product. Consider this: The most successful ent sorts of garb—costumes that were first sketched movie ever made in another tongue is a Chinese film half a century ago by royalty-denied, day-laboring called Wolf Warrior 2, released in 2018. You’ve never schleps, mostly Jewish, working for slave wages in the heard of it, and for good reason. Wolf Warrior 2 ranks slapdash midtown Manhattan offices of a penny-ante 65th on the all-time chart; three other recent Chinese publishing company called Marvel Comics. movies come in at 113th, 147th, and 154th. Aside from Like so much of 20th-century pop culture, the these four, every one of the 250 most popular films in comics business was the creation and handiwork of history was either made by Americans, released by first-generation and immigrant Jewish businessmen, an American company, or distributed by Americans writers, and artists whose outside-inside position across the planet. The same is true of television. The in America gave them a peculiar and useful vantage age of streaming might mean that Americans are now point. As a character in Michael Chabon’s novel The watching more foreign programming than ever before, Amazing Adventures of Kavalier and Clay notes: but worldwide, the dominance of American television “They’re all Jewish, superheroes. Superman, you don’t think he’s Jewish? Coming over from the old country, John Podhoretz is the editor of Commentary. changing his name like that. Clark Kent, only a Jew
Commentary 27
Podhoretz.indd 27 5/13/19 3:57 PM would pick a name like that for himself.” The Jews who 9/11. It was at that point, in 2002 and with the release of made the comics told contemporary folktales about the first Spider-Man movie, that the intellectual prop- powerful people often forced by circumstance to pre- erty created by Marvel’s Jews became the source mate- tend to be relatively powerless even as they contested rial for the 21st century’s most popular entertainments. with external evils that wished above all else to destroy Two Marvel movies released in the past year, them and the society around them—the very society Avengers: Infinity War and its continuation Aveng- that these stiff-necked people sitting in the culture’s ers: Endgame, released since April 2018 have earned cheap seats felt hard-done-by. more than $5 billion at the worldwide box office. At The creators of Superman, Jerry Siegel and Joe some point very soon, Endgame alone will become the Shuster, were kids from Cleveland who sold their in- most successful motion picture ever made. Add to that tellectual property for $130 to a company called DC $5 billion the earnings of three other Marvel movies run by two immigrants named Jack Liebowitz and released since spring 2018—Ant-Man and the Wasp, Harry Donenfeld. DC’s chief rival was a company that Black Panther, and Captain Marvel—and you get a would eventually be called Marvel; it was the property worldwide gross of $8.3 billion in a mere 15 months. of one Martin (né Moe) Goodman, who brought his Now take all 22 movies Marvel has made since nephew Stanley Lieber on board to help out. Lieber 2008’s Iron Man launched what is known as the “Mar- eventually changed his name to Stan Lee and became vel Cinematic Universe.” Global total: $21 billion and the public face of the business—and, in his own prose counting. In a few months, we will see the release of contributions to the comic books he wrote and edited, Spider-Man: Far From Home, which is all but guaran- introduced the self-mocking jokey tone of the Borscht teed to make somewhere between $1.5 and $2 billion. Belt to boys across America and helped form their un- The next five years will see the release of at least eight derstanding of what humor was. more MCU movies, and there’s no reason to believe Just as Izzy Baline wrote “White Christmas” after they will do any less well. changing his name to Irving Berlin and foreign-born Historically, serialized fare loses its popular fol- Hollywood chieftains like Szmul Gelbfisz (later Sam lowing over time either because it declines in quality or Goldwyn) and Carl Laemmle helped create the ideal invokes audience fatigue. But this year Marvel centered of America for Americans, the all-but-unknown and films around new characters in MCU films 19 and 21 mostly Jewish writers and editors of comics gave meta- (Black Panther and Captain Marvel), and both proved phorical power to American adolescent anxieties about to be gigantic hits as well. There has never been a tele- strength and weakness and public exposure. It turned vision show whose audience was larger in its 11th year out those anxieties had a great deal in common with the than in any year previous. In the annals of literature, existential terrors that erupted across the world after only the Harry Potter novels (and films) retained their
Iron Man’s Tony Stark, irresponsible genius inventor.
Podhoretz.indd 28 5/13/19 3:57 PM MCU superheroes together again in Avengers: Endgame
audiences or saw them grow over time, but J.K. Rowling This, it turned out, was the Marvel secret sauce: wrote only seven books in all (from which eight films finding performers who could make these characters were made).* There is no analogue for this kind of cul- funny and interesting and surprising, all the while tural success, in the movies or anywhere else. fitting them into storylines and genres straight out of Marvel’s unprecedented streak is due in part to classic Hollywood. Captain America: The First Avenger excellence. These MCU movies have been made on a is a World War II battle film. Captain America: Win- lavish scale, no expense spared. They are gorgeous, ter Soldier is a paranoid Washington thriller out of and they don’t have a unified look or feel; each film the 1970s. Ant-Man is a heist picture. Black Panther has a signature of its own. The MCU has been guided is James Bond. Spider-Man: Homecoming is a John since 2007 by a producer named Kevin Feige, who was Hughes high-school flick. 33 when he began. The first movie he supervised was It took Feige and Co. a few tries to get this. The 2008’s Iron Man, which broke new ground for the second MCU film, The Incredible Hulk, was dull and superhero genre by finding an entirely new tone. It ab- self-serious, and the third, Iron Man 2, was a classic jured the knowing campiness of the Superman movies ill-conceived sequel that suggested the original was a of the 1970s, the macabre silliness of the Batman mov- fluke. But then cameThor , which was largely ponder- ies of the late 1980s and early 1990s, and the political ous but was centered on a heretofore unknown behe- preachiness of the X-Men movies of the early 2000s. moth of an actor named Chris Hemsworth who turned Iron Man took a standard superhero story but did not out to have miraculous comic timing. In coming make knowing fun of it, the way so many predecessor years, Hemsworth would be followed by other relative films did. And it merged that story with the themes unknowns like Chris Evans (Captain America), Tom and spirit of a classic screwball comedy from the 1930s Holland (Spider-Man), and Chris Pratt (Star Lord), about rich people who really enjoy being rich. Most im- whose magnetism, star power, and comic chops were portant, it gave its star, the ex-miscreant ex-con Robert so dazzling their triumphant performances in these Downey Jr., a chance to build an amusing, eccentric, roles have marked Feige as perhaps the greatest cast- winning character out of the irresponsible genius in- ing supervisor in movie history. ventor Tony Stark. Marvel Comics had outraced DC comics in the early 1960s by connecting all its characters and comic * The James Bond films have remained reliable box-office per- books and allowing them to cross in and out of one- formers over the past 56 years; it is the longest-lived series in film another’s stories. In 2005, an executive named David history. But there have been only 25 of them in all that time, and in the United States, the most popular, adjusting for inflation, Maisel sold Marvel chieftains Isaac Perlmutter and Avi remains Thunderball, from 1965. Arad (as with the earlier Marvel years, seven more in
Commentary 29
Podhoretz.indd 29 5/13/19 3:57 PM actors and actresses, all of whom had been introduced in the previous 21 films. It was likely the most thor- oughgoing concentration of star performers in one place in the history of any medium. The care with which the uni- verse had been constructed and maintained paid off in an emotional knockout of an ending—the very reason Endgame will soon set the all-time box-office record, if it hasn’t already by the time Chris Pratt and crew in Guardians of the Galaxy 2. you are reading this.*
the room and they could have had a minyan) on a novel OR DECADES NOW, moviemakers and movie idea. He could arrange financing with Merrill Lynch so critics and film aficionados (including me) have that Marvel could cease depending on other studios and F been lamenting the decline of cinema. No longer produce its own movies, which would allow them to do people go to the movie theater to be part of the follow the comic-book pattern and be linked together. general cultural conversation the way they did in the “Finding synergies” was the pop-business-book 1970s and 1980s, especially once television shook off the term of the moment, and in most places, it was just a shackles of the idea that it did best by airing the “least euphemism for eliminating jobs. But Marvel Studios objectionable programming” it could find and instead would exploit its synergies with Marvel Comics in a began to compete aggressively for audiences by produc- new way. Actors were signed to long-term contracts ing shows of higher quality and more controversial sub- with the explicit idea of having them appear in mul- ject matter. Brian Raftery’s interesting new book, Best. tiple movies in both starring and supporting roles. It Movie. Year. Ever., claims 1999 as the last twelvemonth turned out that when they would pop up in support, in which Hollywood gave ambitious filmmakers the characters like Iron Man would bring to their smaller freedom to make original and unexpected big-budget parts all the positive feeling they earned from their films. The market for such fare has all but vanished, and lead turns—and would, in turn, create new momen- as the actor John Cho tells Raftery, “if The Matrix and tum for their next starring roles. Being John Malkovich were being pitched today, they’d So when Feige brought together the lead char- be pitched as television shows.” acters and almost all the lead performers from all Did the superhero picture kill off Hollywood? the previous films in The Avengers in 2012, the result No. If the Marvel Cinematic Universe had never come wasn’t only an explosion of star power but the blissful along, the people who have bought $22 billion worth of ignition of audience goodwill to an almost exponential tickets to these movies would not have been standing degree. What has followed, as the MCU has thickened in line to see whatever might have followed in the wake with characters and incidents, is that each new film of Being John Malkovich. They might not have gone to has benefited from and built on the emotional impact the movies at all. of its predecessors. The addition of new superheroes Just as the Harry Potter novels almost single- from subsequent fare like Guardians of the Galaxy (the handedly reclaimed the pleasures of reading for youth best of all the MCU pictures), Black Panther, Ant-Man, across the world who were all but expected to sink into and Captain Marvel created a near-embarrassment of what was once called post-literacy, maybe the Marvel riches. In 2018, Avengers: Infinity Warconcluded not in movies have kept moviegoing alive as a communal activ- triumph, as had the original Avengers, but with half the ity—if not for another century, then maybe long enough characters evanescing into dust at the hands of an inter- for another bunch of Jews to think up something else.q galactic Malthusian named Thanos. The climactic battle between good and evil in Avengers: Endgame takes * It’s worth noting that the all-time figure is a worldwide number. Inside the United States, Avengers: Endgame isn’t yet in the top place with all the characters restored to life and fighting 25; the all-time champ remains Gone With the Wind. Its total of against Thanos—featuring no fewer than 36 separate $1.8 billion (adjusted for inflation) will never be equaled.
30 Marvel and the Jews : June 2019
Podhoretz.indd 30 5/13/19 3:57 PM The Achievement of Vasily Grossman Was he the greatest writer of the past century? By Joseph Epstein
“Well, comrade Mostovskoy,” said Sofya, “so much for your 20th century. So much for its humanity and culture… All I see is unprecedented atrocities.” —Stalingrad, Vasily Grossman
N A CONVERSATION sometime in the mid- face with greater intensity than anyone else and came 1970s, Saul Bellow remarked to me on the away the most impressive of all literary witnesses of crucial difference between European and the malevolence of totalitarianism. Judged by the cen- American writers of his generation. Writers trality, the significance, of his subject and his aesthetic in Europe have looked the devil in the eye, grasp of it in powerful novels and penetrating essays, he said, while in America writers have to Grossman may have been the most important writer make do with irony, comedy, and anything of the past century. else that comes to hand. The devil, of course, was to- Vasily Grossman had the misfortune of being talitarianism,I in particular fascism and Communism, born in Russia, a country that, under the czars as un- which promised its adherents heaven and brought der the comissars, has traditionally treated its people them unmitigated hell. as if they were a conquered nation. “There was only The European writers Bellow had in mind were one thing Russia hadn’t seen during these thousand Arthur Koestler, George Orwell, Albert Camus, Alek- years,” thinks a character in Grossman’s novel Ev- sandr Solzhenitsyn, Stefan Zweig, André Malraux, erything Flows—”freedom.” Another character in the Boris Pasternak, and others. Vasily Grossman (1905– same novel remarks: “Happiness doesn’t seem to be 1964), a writer Bellow surely did not know about at our fate in this world.” In 2014, the actor Leonid Bro- the time we spoke, perhaps stared that devil in the nevoy, whose father had been sent off to the Gulag, described the Soviet experiment as “an absurd horror Joseph Epstein is the author, most recently, of film stretching over 70 years.” Government-organized Charm: The Elusive Enchantment (Lyons Press). famine, hideous show trials, brutal gulags, mass mur-
Commentary 31
Epstein.indd 31 5/13/19 3:58 PM Grossman somehow evaded the fate of death by execution that befell those two other immensely talented Jewish writers, Isaac Babel and Osip Mandelstam.
der, life in the Soviet Union made the plagues that fell as the bucolic romances of the 18th century.”What upon Egypt seem a week in the Catskills. Socialist Realism actually meant was that no art was Grossman was also a Jew, who under the Czars allowed that did not support, defend, extol the Soviet were for the most part kept segregated in the Pale of Union, which of course meant no art of any indepen- Settlement and victimized by pogroms (there were dence, complexity, ultimate worth was permitted pub- more than 1,200 pogroms in the Ukraine alone). Un- lication. der Stalin, Jews were systematically hunted down In his introduction to Life and Fate and his af- after the false Doctors’ Plot of 1952–53, in which Rus- terword to Stalingrad, the translator Robert Chan- sians were told that a group of mostly Jewish doctors dler offers an admittedly partial account of the fiery supposedly plotted to assassinate the dictator. Gross- hoops through which Grossman had to jump to get man somehow evaded the fate of death by execution his work published. The editors of the Soviet journal that befell those two other immensely talented Jewish Novy Mir made so many radical editorial suggestions writers, Isaac Babel and Osip Mandelstam. But his to render Stalingrad“safe”—including cutting some mother was murdered by the Nazis in Berdichev in characters, adding others, altering the occupations of 1941 in Ukraine, where some 62,000 Jews were mas- still others—that the original manuscript underwent sacred. six heavy revisions and was set in type no fewer than Like Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn, Vasily Grossman three times before finally being run in serialization was trained as an engineer, in his case a chemical engi- in a much-altered version. About the no less compli- neer. During World War II, owing to near-sightedness cated editorial maze through which Grossman’s Life and poor health, he failed to qualify for the military and Fate was put, it is more than enough to say that but served primarily as a journalist covering all the its author failed to live long enough to see it in print. major battles of the war for Red Star and other Soviet He died in 1964. publications. Grossman arrived with the Soviet troops Grossman’s book was arrested instead of its at Treblinka, the death camp, and was among the first, author; Grossman spoke of Life and Fate as being in a devasting essay called “The Hell of Treblinka” “imprisoned.” The novel in fact wasn’t published in (1944), to reveal the deadly mechanics of Hitler’s Final the Soviet Union until the late 1980s, and even today Solution. As a journalist, he was also at Stalingrad, the Grossman is apparently not all that well known in his great battle that marked the beginning of the end for native land. Imagine the utter frustration, leading to the Nazis. the deep depression that Grossman suffered, of having Grossman is best known for his two connected written a masterpiece of world literature and never and hefty novels—together, in their New York Review getting to see it in print! editions, they weigh in at a combined 1,830 pages. In Vasily Grossman and the Soviet Century, Al- These are Stalingrad and Life and Fate. His unfinished exandra Popoff, a Russian journalist who has written novel Everything Flows (1961), written toward the end books about Countess Tolstoy and about Tolstoy’s dis- of his life, is a root-and-branch attack on Soviet Com- ciple Vladimir Chertkov, has turned out an excellent munism as told through the lucubrations of a man, biography of Grossman. Hers is a biography that offers one Ivan Grigoryevich, who had spent nearly 30 years no striking psychological portrait of its subject or radi- in the Gulag. cal reading of his works. Instead it is what I think of as The story of the publication of Grossman’s a Dragnet, or Jack Webb, biography—“Just the facts, books under Soviet Communism could be the source Ma’am”—the accretion of which is no small accomplish- of an impressively complex novel of its own. Gross- ment about a life lived almost entirely in the murky and man wrote his Stalingrad while Stalin was still alive, heavily censored atmosphere of the Soviet Union. and thus under the artistically crushing restraints of Socialist Realism, which Maxim Gorky defined as “the ROSSMAN, Popoff recounts, was “descended ability to see the present in terms of the future” and from well-to-do merchants,” a fact that needs which Grossman later said was as “convention-ridden G to be qualified, as she also notes, by the fact
32 The Achievement of Vasily Grossman : June 2019
Epstein.indd 32 5/13/19 3:58 PM In the Soviet Union, with its strict censorship, the decision to become a writer, always a risky venture, had the further disadvantage of being fraught with danger.
that Jews, however well-to-do, were “first among to go off and fight with her old regiment. Great sym- non-equals in the Russian Empire.” His parents were pathy is shown for the Jewish family, and the details divorced soon after his birth in 1905, though they re- in the story are nicely done, yet the moral of the story mained friendly. His mother was a cultivated woman, is clear: The state comes first, yes, even over mother- educated in Europe and fluent in French, a subject hood. One likes to think that the older Vasily Gross- she taught. She took her son to live in Switzerland man would have despised this story. between the ages of five and seven, where, as Popoff “In the Town of Berdichev” marked Grossman’s writes, he was “introduced to Western values, includ- arrival as a Soviet writer. It paved the way for him to ing the respect for individual rights and freedoms he publish two rather negligible early novels. He was later believed essential.” Grossman himself read the given a much-desired apartment in Moscow. Never a French writers, the classics, Kipling and Conan Doyle, member of the Party, he was a member in good stand- and was a great admirer of Tolstoy and Chekhov. “Al- ing of the Union of Soviet Writers. Grossman in those though Grossman lived all his adult life in a totalitar- days was not cynically playing the system—he claimed ian Soviet state,” Popoff writes, “he had the mentality at the time that he owed everything to the Soviet gov- of a man from the free world.”Friends early noticed ernment—but neither was he fighting it. the qualities in him of attentiveness and detachment, One of the low points in his career came in 1953 a combination suggesting a future novelist. with his agreeing, along with 56 other prominent Grossman set out in life to be a scientist but fair- Soviet Jews, to sign a document that denounced the ly early sensed that he could not do first-class work in Jewish physicians who supposedly led the Doctors’ science. Social questions began to absorb him, and by Plot. Grossman later came greatly to regret it, and 23 he decided that his true vocation was for literature. in Life and Fate he assigns the character Viktor Sh- How literary talent comes to fruition remains one of trum, who signs a similar document, “a feeling of ir- the mysteries of the arts. Musical talent and skill at vi- reparable guilt and impurity” for his having done so. sual art tend to show up early and appear to be, as they Grossman’s upbringing was secular; Jewishness did doubtless are, gifts from God. But literary talent is an not loom large in his early life. Popoff remarks that acquisition that often comes only later in life—Joseph he had nevertheless read the Bible and “was deeply Conrad published his first novel, Almayer’s Folly, at influenced by the Jewish belief in the need for com- 39—if it isn’t earlier set adrift by discouragement. In passion, in the need to love life and resist death to the the Soviet Union, with its strict censorship, the deci- last minute, in the need and obligation to remember sion to become a writer, always a risky venture, had the past and honor the dead, and in the need to bear the further disadvantage of being fraught with danger. witness.” Only in the Soviet Union, it used to be said, do they Many of these qualities are at the heart of Stalin- truly take writers seriously; only there did they take grad. The book is chiefly about the effects of the Ger- them seriously enough to kill them. man invasion on the citizens at all levels of Soviet life, Writing against the grain of Socialist Realism and of the attack on Stalingrad—“a battle,” as Gross- was not yet a problem for the young Vasily Grossman. man writes, “more grinding, more relentless than If he was never an ideologue, he nonetheless respect- Thermopylae or even the siege of Troy. . . the city on ed the idealism of the early Communists. (His father the Volga where the world’s fate was being decided.” In was a Menshevik.) In a 1934 story, “In the Town of Life and Fate, Grossman wrote that “every epoch has Berdichev,” he wrote of a female commissar who finds its own capital city, a city that embodies its will and herself pregnant, and during her lying-in lives with a soul. For several months during the Second World War poor Jewish family, the Magazaniks, until the birth of this city was Stalingrad.” her child. Once born, the child awakens deep, previ- Stalingrad qualifies nicely as one of Henry ously unexpected maternal feelings in her. But when James’s “loose and baggy monsters,” those novels the Poles attack the town of Berdichev, she leaves her without the aesthetic form that for James was essen- child behind—permanently, we are given to believe— tial. The novel has no fewer than 151 characters, not
Commentary 33
Epstein.indd 33 5/13/19 3:58 PM Grossman worked in collaboration with Ilya Ehenberg on a volume called The Complete Black Book of Russian Jewry, a book that was not allowed publication in Stalin’s Soviet Union.
counting those who appear only once. These run from Soviet scientists to German generals to Russian peas- QUESTION THAT ARISES is whether Stal- ants to Stalin and Hitler, who put in appearances, the ingrad is meant to stand as the first half of former in a full-length portrait. (“It was indeed during A a diology, with Life and Fate its second half. these hours of ugly, troubled sleep that Hitler was clos- The books’ translator Robert Chandler is moderately est to being human.”) New characters are introduced confident that Grossman intended the two books as as late as page 868. Domestic scenes are played out, a single work. Certainly, Life and Fate can be read on characters intricately described (General Yeromenko its own, and before reading Stalingrad, which is the “was massive yet stooping; his build did not make order in which I read them. Yet the latter volume en- it easy for tailors”), and observations on human na- hances the former by providing what in film scripts is ture offered: “Love has meaning only when it inspires called backstory to a novel that already has something people to sacrifice—otherwise it is just base passion.” akin to classic status among its coterie of devoted Grossman’s account of the battle of Stalingrad, its con- readers, among whom I have long been one. fusions, its arbitrary destruction, its deadliness—27 Tzevtan Todorov, the Bulgarian critic, wrote of million Russians and 4 million Germans are said to the Vasily Grossman of the 1950s, the author of Life have perished there—is no less compelling than Tol- and Fate and Everthing Flows, that he “is the only stoy’s account of the battle of Borodino in War and example, or at least the most significant, of an estab- Peace. lished and leading Soviet writer changing his spots ‘Human suffering,” Grossman writes. “Will it completely. The slave in him died, and a free man be remembered in centuries to come? The stones of arose.” This is an oversimplification, but it is true that buildings endure and the glory of generals endures, the Grossman of the 1950s was a different writer from but human suffering does not. Tears and whispers, a the Grossman of the 1930s and ’40s. Nitika Khrush- cry of pain and despair, the last sighs and groans of chev’s famous “Secret Speech” of 1956, setting out the dying—all this disappears along with the smoke some of the sins of Stalin and suggesting a “thaw” in and dust blown across the steppe by the wind.” In the realm of Soviet culture, was doubtless partially re- Stalingrad Grossman set himself to record the human sponsible for the change in Grossman. But one won- suffering brought on by Hitler’s war. Apart from that ders if his own Jewishness didn’t even more influence visited upon the Jews, no people endured more suffer- the change, however gradual. ing during World War II than the Russians. Through In covering the war as a journalist, Grossman the build-up of detail—of depredations, devastation, also learned about the slaughter of Jews in Ukraine. death—Grossman succeeds in his self-appointed task Along with his article on the inhuman ghastliness at of enshrining suffering and its brutally high cost for Treblinka, which was put in evidence at the Nurem- ordinary people. berg Trials, Grossman saw Babi Yar, the ravine in It is a splendid, an important, book, possibly a Kiev where nearly 100,000 Jews were executed and great book, but not, alas, a great novel. Stalingrad is dumped into mass graves in 1941. He knew that many too diffuse to have the special power, the concentra- Ukrainians had been complicit in the slaughter of Jews tion and intensification, that only fiction carries. At during the Shoah. Add to this his mother’s murder at its end, too many loose ends have not been ravelled, Berdichev. During these years Grossman worked in significant characters go unaccounted for, themes collaboration with Ilya Ehenberg on a volume called are set out but left inadequately unexplored. Much of The Complete Black Book of Russian Jewry, a book that this may well be owing to the endless editing and re- was not allowed publication in Stalin’s Soviet Union. lentless revisions that beset the book by its Soviet ed- Stalin, himself an anti-Semite, had famously declared, itor-censors. One is nonetheless pleased to have read “Do not divide the dead,” by which he meant that em- Stalingrad, not alone for its bringing one of the great phasizing the mass murder of Jews was prohibited. battles of history down to personal cases, but for its Grossman had come a long way, and the evi- testimony on behalf of the brave dead. dence of what he learned along that way is plain in
34 The Achievement of Vasily Grossman : June 2019
Epstein.indd 34 5/13/19 3:58 PM The miseries of Stalinism and the grave mistakes of Stalin himself in his direction of the war, which are generally given a pass in Stalingrad, are not ignored in Life and Fate.
the advanced artistry and political candor of Life and morovna Shaposhnikova, a laboratory chemist, her Fate. Among the most stirring pages in Life and Fate three daughters, their husbands, and their children. are those about anon-Jewish Soviet physician, Sofya One of the husbands, Viktor Pavlovich Shtrum, is a Osipovna Levinton, who chooses not to save her own theoretical physicist whose views in many respects re- life so that she can comfort a child, David, a small Jew- semble those of Grossman. Shtrum not only signs the ish boy, in the gas chambers of Treblinka and feels document blaming colleagues that he much regrets; herself thereby his mother in the moments before her he holds a grudge against his wife, Lyudmila, whose own death—an episode that might be taken as the very demands prevented him from saving his mother from reversal, and thereby a repudiation, of “In the Town of the Holocaust. “Good men and bad men alike are ca- Berdichev.” pable of weakness,” Grossman writes. “The difference The miseries of Stalinism and the grave mistakes is simply that a bad man will be proud all his life of of Stalin himself in his direction of the war, which are one good deed—while an honest man is hardly aware generally given a pass in Stalingrad, are not ignored of his good acts, but remembers a single bad act for in Life and Fate. The novel opens on a number of brief years on end.” chapters in which an old Bolshevik, Mikhail Sidorov- Many of the characters who appear in Stalin- ich Mostovskoy, begins to lose his faith in “the cause grad are more fully developed, richer, somehow more of Lenin.” A figure of wisdom and much looked up to memorable in Life and Fate. If in its form Life and in Stalingrad, Mostovskoy, now in a German prisoner Fate tends to imitate War and Peace—the only book camp, “was unable to recover his former sense of clar- Grossman claimed to have read during the battle of ity and completeness. . . . ‘I must be getting old,’ he said Stalingrad—the tone of the novel is closer to that of to himself.” In Life and Fate, true believers often have Chekhov, and many of its chapters, as Robert Chan- their belief shaken. dler suggests, read as if they were Chekhovian short Life and Fate offers several brilliant pages on stories. Life and Fate is a novel that fully engages its anti-Semitism, Soviet and worldwide. “Anti-Semi- readers with the lives of its characters while revealing tism,” Grossman writes, “is also an expression of a the life of an entire society—the kind of work other- lack of talent, an inability to win a contest on equal wise known as a masterpiece. terms—in science, in commerce, in craftsmanship or in painting. States look to the imaginary intrigues of O ONE WOULD CALL Everything Flows, World Jewry for explanations of their own failure.” Grossman’s final novel, a masterpiece, but, He sets out the different levels of anti-Semitism and N more than anything he had written earlier, it notes that “historical epochs, unsuccessful and reac- fully reveals his views about the Soviet Union. In this tionary governments, and individuals hoping to bet- unfinished work, Grossman wrote, perhaps aware he ter their lot all turn to anti-Semitism as a last resort, was dying of stomach cancer, without filter. Stalin, so in an attempt to escape an inevitable doom.” In this central a figure in the life of all Russians of Grossman’s novel, too, Grossman offers a brilliant portrait of Ad- generation, is revealed as what he was, “a European olf Eichmann, which one wishes Hannah Arendt had Marxist and an Asian Despot.” At Stalin’s death, “the read, as it might have prevented her from writing her death day of the earthly Russian god, the pockmarked wretched book portraying Eichmann as a mere banal cobbler’s son from the town of Gori,” many villagers bureaucrat. “breathed a sigh of relief,” in the camps he had created Told from the point of view of several different many millions rejoiced. “Stalin Had Died,” Grossman characters, with several plots and subplots, Life and writes. “In this death lay an element of sudden and Fate is not readily summarized. Life under the two to- spontaneous freedom that was infinitely alien to the talitarianisms—Communist and fascist—is explored nature of the Stalinist State.” in the novel as is the connection between the two as Vladimir Ilyich Ulyanov, the sacrosanct Lenin, enemies of humanity. What holds the novel together fares little better in the pages of Everything Flows. is the material about the family of Alexandra Vladi- The notion that the purity of Lenin’s revolution hav-
Commentary 35
Epstein.indd 35 5/13/19 3:58 PM Grossman asks toward the end of Everything Flows: ‘When will we see the day of a free, human, Russian soul? When will this day dawn? Or will it never dawn?’
ing been distorted by the monstrosities of Stalin is cell he reads the pages of a fellow prisoner, a strange, roundly rejected. “The murder of millions of innocent half-saintly figure named Ikonnikov, thought to be and loyal people masqueraded as cast-iron logic” all slightly unhinged, who has written about the role of had its origin in Lenin. “The destruction of Russian kindness in the human condition. life carried out by Lenin was on a vast scale.” Gross- “This kindness, this stupid kindness, is what man writes, “Lenin destroyed the way of life of the is most truly human in a human being,” writes Ikon- landowners, Lenin destroyed factory owners and mer- nikov. “It is what sets man apart, the highest achieve- chants.” Stalin stepped in and with his brutal collec- ment of his soul. No, it says, life is not evil.” Ikonnikov tivization finished off the peasants. But it was “Lenin’s goes on to note that “kindness is powerful only while obsession with revolution, his fanatical faith in the it is powerless”—the point here being that religions, truth of Marxism and absolute intolerance of anyone when in power, lose their goodness in attempting to who disagreed with him, [that] led him to further maintain and protect that power. For Ikonnikov, “the hugely the development of the Russia he hated with powerlessness of kindness, of senseless kindness, is all his fanatical soul.” the secret of [human] immortality. It can never be Lenin and Stalin are for Grossman among his- conquered.” Ikonnikov concludes: tory’s great enemies of freedom, and it was his belief that “there is no end in the world for the sake of which Human history is not the battle of good strug- it is permissible to sacrifice human freedom.” The gling to overcome evil. It is the battle fought only progress Grossman recognized was in the realm by a great evil struggling to crush a small ker- of freedom. He even implicitly criticizes Tolstoy and nel of human kindness. But if what is human Dostoevsky when he writes that “the mystique of the in human beings has not been destroyed even Russian soul is simply the result of a thousand years now, then evil will never conquer. of slavery.” Grossman asks toward the end of Every- thing Flows: “When will we see the day of a free, hu- Mostovskoy, the life-long committed Bolshevik, man, Russian soul? When will this day dawn? Or will thinks these the observations of a mad man. Yet they it never dawn?” leave him confused and depressed. They have quite Grossman did not entirely despair, for he felt the reverse effect on Grossman’s readers. We think that not even Stalin—who presided over a state that of the act of Sofya Osipovna Levinton in comforting was the enemy of freedom, that overcame freedom in the child in the gas chambers. We think of the six- every sphere of life—was able, in spite of all the mil- year-old girl who comforts an 82-year-old man on his lions he killed, to do away with freedom entirely. Or way to the firing squad in Grossman’s story “The Old with human kindness. Teacher,” and of scores of other acts of kindness that In Life and Fate the old Bolshevik Mikhail Mo- play through the pages of Grossman’s fiction. Only a stovskoy is interrogated by a Gestapo agent who ex- certain kind of writer can bring such truth home to plains to him all that the Nazis learned from Lenin his readers through the vividly persuasive examples and Stalin and the similarity of their two regimes. Mo- enacted by his characters—only a great writer, which stovskoy is disgusted at the thought, but back in his is what Vasily Grossman was.q
36 The Achievement of Vasily Grossman : June 2019
Epstein.indd 36 5/13/19 3:58 PM Politics & Ideas
A Voice of Reason
The Right Side of History: astute champion of the West at a our societies from their deepest How Reason and Moral Purpose time when she badly needs them. roots. Those are the Mosaic law Made the West Great Shapiro’s conception of the West and its universalization by Jesus of By Ben Shapiro is different from that of others who Nazareth, and Greek philosophy, Broadside, 256 pages in recent years have taken up her with its confidence in the power of cause. For those writers—think human reason to understand the Reviewed by Sohrab Ahmari Steven Pinker and the like—the natural and moral worlds. West sprang up, abruptly and mi- Shapiro resolved to write the HE RIGHT SIDE of raculously, with the advent of En- book after he got a terrifying dose History heralds the lightenment skepticism, scientific of our modern disorders in early arrival of a serious rationalism, and modern capital- 2016, when a group of conserva- Jewish intellectual. ism. In Shapiro’s view, however, at tive students invited him to give a Having cut his teeth the heart of that “West” is a “mech- speech at California State Universi- asT an Internet pugilist in the An- anistic, materialist vision of human ty at Los Angeles. It took dozens of drew Breitbart mold, Ben Shapiro beings and the universe.” armed, uniformed police officers, emerges with this, his seventh He decisively rejects that vision. plus Shapiro’s own private security book, as a thinker of depth, a writer Indeed, he traces many of today’s team, to get the author safely in of crisp prose, and a worthy and moral and political disorders to and out of the college venue, so it. As he sees it, we are descend- ravenous and violent was the mob Sohrab Ahmari is the op-ed ing into racial tribalism and wild that sought to silence him. editor of the New York Post and the utopian politics, “moral subjectiv- The CSU riot was just the author of the Catholic memoir From ism,” and corrosive individualism, beginning. “At the University of Fire, by Water. because we have willfully severed Wisconsin,” he recalls, “my speech
Commentary 37
Politics&Ideas.indd 37 5/13/19 4:00 PM was nearly shut down by protesters calls “the most important verse in who flooded the front of the stage. The uni- human history.” At Penn State, protesters gathered i Set aside the metaphysical ve- outside my speech and pounded on versal, racity of these teachings, which the doors. At DePaul University, the transcendent Shapiro and I accept and many administration threatened to ar- others don’t: Judaism’s account of rest me if I came to campus.” God of God and man and the relationship At universities, it was left-wing between the two was unquestion- radicals and their enablers among Abraham, ably a “force for progress,” as the university administrators who gave Isaac, and Jacob author insists. The advent of Jesus, Shapiro the most grief. Online, Shapiro is quick to add, “success- meanwhile, he became a target of heralded the fully spread the fundamental prin- the racist and anti-Semitic alt-right revolution of ciples of Judaism, as emended by movement, which flooded his Twit- Christianity, to billions of human ter feed “with images straight from dignity that beings on the planet.” the pages of Der Stürmer.” (Shapiro made possible Shapiro’s treatment of Christi- was the top recipient of online anity is especially refreshing. Un- abuse from the alt-right, per the all our notions like too many American Jewish Anti-Defamation League.) of rights and intellectuals—who, as Ruth Wisse Identity leftism slandered the has noted in these pages, define Judeo-Christian tradition as rac- egalitarian their sense of Jewishness negative- ist, sexist, colonialist, and so forth, political order. ly, against a Gentile worldview and while the alt-right reveled in rac- life-world that they find by turns ism and anti-Semitism and sought oppressive and ridiculous—Shap- to excise the West’s Jewish and iro warmly welcomes Christianity’s Christian patrimony, with its uni- Indeed, as Shapiro shows, the universalizing dimension. More versalistic claims about the dignity light that still illumines our way of than that, he lauds the Nazarene of the human person, created in the life, despite restless efforts to snuff it faith’s inherent openness to phi- divine image, born with freedom out, shone first from the God of the losophy, which the early Church and moral responsibility. Bible upon Jewish faces. The univer- absorbed from the Hellenic milieu What depths of confusion, un- sal, transcendent God of Abraham, that surrounded it. happiness, and malice the twin Isaac, and Jacob heralded the revolu- And still more: Shapiro defends movements—identity leftism and tion of dignity that made possible all the Catholic Church against the the racist alt-right—represented! our notions of rights and egalitarian Enlightenment worshipers who Against this bleak backdrop, the political order. In a chaotic world paint her as an obscurantist insti- main task facing his (and my) populated by many local gods, most tution bent on nothing but wring- generation, Shapiro concluded, is of them as cruel and capricious as ing submission out of heretics at a kind of moral archaeology: recov- their followers, the God of Israel the wrack: “Popular history main- ering what was lost and carefully appeared “as a prime mover,” who tains that [the medieval] period gluing shattered pieces together. governed the world according to a represented the ‘Dark Ages.’ But He’s right. “predictable set of rules discernible that’s simply inaccurate. Progress All was not, in fact, darkness until by the human mind.” continued as Christianity spread.” about, oh, 2009 or so. This may not When this “God intervenes in The medieval Church, he notes, come as news to those who know the world, it is to better the lot was responsible for “virtually all their way around the Bible and the of mankind, or to teach lessons.” literacy.” Its leaders fought slav- Western canon and world history, Chief among those lessons is the ery, preserved the liberal arts of but it’s a salutary message and one equal dignity of humankind before Greco-Roman antiquity, practiced worth repeating emphatically, as God, evidenced by the fact that “proto-capitalism,” and most nota- Shapiro does, in an age when diversi- divine law binds both Israel and bly achieved, with the scholastics ty hustlers tell students that Western the strangers who sojourn among and Thomas Aquinas especially, civ is “Eurocentric, Caucasoid, and Israel, and by the declaration of that full fusion of faith and reason thus oppressive” (per one college Genesis 1:27—“in the image of God that made the West. manifesto quoted by the author). he created him”—which Shapiro Shapiro, to be clear, appreciates
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Politics&Ideas.indd 38 5/13/19 4:00 PM the achievements of the post-En- lightenment period, not least reli- gious freedom. His point, rather, is that the relatively decent order The Financial that the Enlightenment worship- pers fret about wouldn’t have been possible without biblical faith. To the extent that the radical Enlight- Frontier enment shut out faith from the realm of public reason, it narrowed the scope of reason and thus set The Case for Space: for the benefit of science or interna- the stage for the undoing of its own How the Revolution in tional comity. It will be to lay claim best aims. To borrow a metaphor Spaceflight Opens Up a Future to the abundant resources orbiting from John Paul II: Closing off one of Limitless Possibility the sun and to exploit them for lung (faith) adversely affected the By Robert Zubrin money. functioning of the other (reason). Prometheus Books, 405 pages Robert Zubrin is a man of sci- Thus, insisting on reason, rea- ence. He has dedicated his life to son, reason alone—and reason nar- Reviewed by Noah Rothman making the case for manned space rowly defined as the Pinkers of the exploration in the terms the gov- world do—won’t save us. HE GREAT explorers ernment bureaucracies care about To see why the West became did not embark on most: cost-effectiveness and return the West, we must climb Sinai their best-known vo- on investment. Today, at the dawn and Calvary once more. Shapiro yages in pursuit of of the age of private space explora- argues that postmodern society’s glory alone. They did tion, Zubrin is uniquely positioned refusal to make that ascent—that notT set sail into the unknown to to crystalize the value of space for is, to credit biblical faith’s seminal advance the sum of human knowl- commercial entities, and he has role in liberating man from sundry edge or to restore the bonds of hu- done just that in The Case for Space. pagan abominations and the es- man fraternity that politics had Zubrin’s new book treats space not sential inequality and randomness torn asunder. They went in pursuit just as a frontier ripe for conquest of pagan life—owes to the fact that of profit. or a venue in which mankind’s we can no longer imagine how Henry Hudson. Ferdinand Ma- common aspirations can overcome abominable, unequal, and random gellan. Marco Polo. Christopher Earth’s petty tribal politics. The pagan life was. Or perhaps it’s be- Columbus. All launched their mis- solar system, in Zubrin’s telling, is cause postmodern secularism has, sions to distant lands to discover a marketplace. in fact, re-paganized the West, lucrative trade routes, and their In December 2017, Elon Musk’s a chilling possibility the author expeditions were commissioned by SpaceX became the first private explores in the book’s fascinating well-heeled sponsors who were en- enterprise to launch a payload into closing chapters. gaged in intense competition with orbit on a reused rocket. SpaceX Shapiro, then, succeeds mar- their peers. Many of the world’s has since begun to routinize the velously as archaeologist. The in- greatest cities were first founded as process of launching a one-stage tellectual history he recounts is remote colonial trading posts. Sin- rocket and successfully returning necessarily brisk and in places over- gapore, Syracuse, Quebec, and New them via boosters to a landing pad. simplified, as he concedes—under- York City; all were once far-flung Already this year, Musk’s firm sent standable in a book that spans and sparsely populated outposts a massive commercial satellite into millennia of philosophy and rev- established only to exploit and orbit on the Falcon Heavy—a triple- elation. And there is more than a export local resources. When hu- booster rocket capable of sending hint of Whig historiography in his manity begins to regularly venture manned vehicles into orbit—and account. Even so, readers, particu- beyond Earth’s orbit, it will not be successfully returned two of those larly young readers, will find in The boosters to Earth. Right Side of History a potent Noah Rothman is associate Musk isn’t the only entrepreneur antidote to the poisonous lie that editor of Commentary and the au- in the private space-exploration their civilizational inheritance is a thor of Unjust: Social Justice and the business. Jeff Bezos’s Blue Origin, source of shame.q Unmaking of America (Regnery). Sir Richard Branson’s Virgin Galac-
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Politics&Ideas.indd 39 5/13/19 4:00 PM tic, Northrop Grumman’s Orbital, mospheric sojourns attainable for and several other firms are engaged The first those of more modest means. The in the race to commercialize space. i demand for the orbital hospitality But Musk’s venture has made the taste of sector is already proven. Zubrin most progress toward that end by notes that several firms are accept- developing a reusable launch ve- space for most ing reservations on spec and habi- hicle, thus driving down the costs civilians will tations modules have even been associated with achieving escape tested in space. Orbital hotels will velocity. For now, this company’s come from the pave the way for orbital research- objectives are to resupply the inter- development and-development facilities, which national space station and launch can offer exclusive features unique commercial satellites, and there is of reusable to their terrestrial alternatives in- not yet enough competition in this orbital-class cluding total secrecy and isolation, sector to make low Earth orbit a fi- reduced gravity, and near vacuum nancially viable field of commercial passenger conditions. The overhead costs on application. But the demand for ac- vehicles that products developed or produced cess to space is rising, and necessity in space at current launch costs will compel innovation and make will be able to are substantial but not prohibi- costs competitive. deliver people tive. “Let’s say that the end use for Americans will soon be forced the product was a drug or com- to think about space very differ- from one side of puter chip selling retail for $200 ently from how they’ve thought the Earth to the for a hundred-gram unit,” Zubrin about it in the past. Zubrin astutely writes. “In that case, four hundred observes that Earth orbit is fast other in under thousand units would have to be becoming a theater of war. Amer- sold per year.” That’s a lot, but it is ica’s reliance on satellites for com- an hour. hardly beyond the realm of imagi- munications, reconnaissance, and nation. navigation provides its adversaries of the Earth to the other in under There are, however, technical with a relatively cheap means of an hour. The two-stage reusable limits to what commercial space achieving military parity. Knock boosters in use now by private flight can accomplish. Interplan- out America’s satellites, and the firms are already capable of deliv- etary expeditions will be the prov- U.S. military might soon become ering a passenger-filled cabin into ince of governments in the near far less intimidating. It’s impos- orbit. Taking costs and overhead term, but getting there and staying sible to say how many weapons are into account, Zubrin calculates there are only the first steps in currently stationed in orbit since that a one-way trip would likely mankind’s quest to conquer the so many orbital platforms are clas- run about $20,000. That’s roughly solar system. The next step will sified as “dual use,” meaning they the cost of a first-class ticket from be making the expeditions profit- can be transformed into kill ve- New York City to Sydney, Australia. able, and that will be left to private hicles at a moment’s notice. But all Along with speed, passengers will enterprise. “dual use” vehicles can do is kami- have the added benefit of expe- Citing John and Ruth Lewis’s kaze themselves into another satel- riencing zero gravity and a killer 1987 book Space Resources, Zu- lite, and that’s insufficient. The U.S. view—all while generating millions brin notes that there is plenty of will have to station anti-satellite in gross revenue for the carrier. bounty out there for the taking. fighter vehicles in space, both to You can see why firms like XCOR The main asteroid belt is replete deter adversaries from attacking Aerospace and Virgin Orbit are with millions of tons of nickel, U.S. platforms and to protect the already in the commercial orbital cobalt, and platinum. These and orbital industries that are already transportation business, and com- other strategic metals in the belt in development. petition will eventually drive ticket have profound industrial applica- The first taste of space for most prices down. tions, some of which—like fuel-cell civilians will come from the devel- Space tourism is still a novelty technology—are in their infancy. opment of reusable orbital-class that only the wealthy can afford. As those technologies mature, the passenger vehicles that will be able But reusable boosters and orbital demand for these minerals will be to deliver people from one side vehicles will soon make exo-at- difficult to satisfy with terrestrial
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Politics&Ideas.indd 40 5/13/19 4:00 PM supplies alone. Here, too, Zubrin won’t provide us the magnet that notes that commercial enterprises The will draw us into space,” Zubrin have already incorporated, with i concedes, “but mastery of space will the mission of exploiting these early give us helium-3.” resources, and Congress would be well served by granting mining colonists in the UBRIN MODESTLY ob- rights to groups that survey these solar system serves that the limits of bodies just as it issued speculative will experience Z human knowledge prevent land rights to territories in the us from making accurate predic- American West. These rights would the same drives tions about the kinds of resources be enforceable through the imposi- spacefaring humans will exploit, tion of tariffs on U.S. imports made and limitations because we are still discovering with materials exploited by patent that typified the and developing new resources on violators, and legislation like this Earth. Two centuries ago, few would light a fire under the effort early American would recognize silicon and alu- to exploit the resources in the belt. experience, minum ore as anything other than Carbonaceous materials, pre- rocks and dirt. Crude oil, he notes, cious metals, and silicates are in which a was valueless until we discovered abundant on Jupiter’s less irradi- labor shortage its potential. Natural gas was a ated moons Ganymede and Calisto, waste product that we burned off and their proximity to the largest necessitated before it became the “bridge fuel” gravity booster in our solar sys- radical to a cleaner energy future, render- tem will increase their strategic ing the United States a net energy value as necessary waypoints on technological exporter. Before the millennium, the trip to and from the Jovian the potential yields from exploiting system. Saturn’s moon Titan has innovations. oil shale were almost entirely theo- hundreds of times more liquid retical and cost-prohibitive. The hydrocarbons than all the known worth approximately $10 million. early colonists in the solar system gas and oil reserves on Earth, and To realize the value of helium-3, will experience the same drives and its thick atmosphere facilitates you still need a reliable fusion reac- limitations that typified the early the efficient conversion of thermal tor. And that’s not in the realm of American experience, in which a energy from fission or fusion reac- science fiction. labor shortage necessitated radi- tors to electricity. Perhaps the most Progress toward reliable fusion cal technological innovations. And valuable resource in space that is reaction made great strides until like the American experience, the all but nonexistent on Earth is he- the 1980s, when the Cold War ended commercial marketplace will flour- lium-3, a non-radioactive isotope and the competitive impulses fuel- ish in space along with the market- that is superior in creating a fusion ing innovation dried up. Research place for ideas. reaction with tritium than dirtier was consolidated into one inter- Atomized spacefaring communi- deuterium. national project, the International ties will be far removed from the Helium-3 is scarce but harvest- Thermonuclear Experimental Re- institutions that exert social and able on the moon, and it is abundant actor, which has spent decades try- legal pressure on nonconformists in the outer solar system—it will ing to innovate by committee, argu- at home. They will develop new soon become extremely valuable. “A ing over where to locate its facilities methods of social organization. kilogram of gold, at today’s prices, and dedicating itself to achieving Experimentation will beget more is worth about $40,000,” Zubrin thermonuclear ignition at the most experimentation, and the intense notes. “A kilogram of helium-3,” he leisurely pace. Fortunately, private competition to attract immigrants adds, “if burned in a fusion reac- enterprise has again stepped in will yield societal transformations. tor using a 60 percent efficiency where governments have failed, “Perhaps some will be republican, [magnetohydrodynamic] conver- and Zubrin notes that commercial others anarchist,” Zubrin specu- sion system, would produce one and research facilities are racing lates. “Some aristocratic, others hundred million kilowatt-hours of toward the development of net egalitarian. Some religious, others electricity.” So, conservatively, a energy-generating tokamak reac- rationalist.” And so on. Like the far- kilogram of helium-3 would be tors in the next decade. “Helium-3 flung trading posts that are today’s
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Politics&Ideas.indd 41 5/13/19 4:00 PM greatest metropolises, those societ- ingly dismantles the notions that ing the resource-rich outer solar ies that maximize human potential cosmic rays, human isolation, pro- system to the inner planets. But will flourish. Those that do not longed exposure to low gravity, and private enterprise will find the will wither. But the most valuable alien microbes are terrifying bar- return on investment from early resource at their disposal will be riers to exploring the solar system. expeditions to Mars decidedly lim- freedom. He is, however, equally disdainful ited. Governments still have an im- Ultimately, mankind will be of NASA’s hidebound commitment portant role to play in the opening drawn to conquer the solar system to constituency maintenance. He of this new frontier. out of an instinct for self-preser- argues that the space agency has These are, however, minor ob- vation. Humans inherited an evo- subordinated the mission-driven jections to what is overall an lutionary adaptation that compels objective of space exploration to the important narrative. The Case for them to expand their viable habitat. needs of its vendors. That’s doubt- Space is an argument for a para- Scholars have long speculated that lessly true, but NASA remains a digmatic shift among policymak- the existence of a frontier yields critical vehicle for the exploration ers. It demands that they acquaint psychological advantages. People do of space, in part, because pivotal themselves with the realities of not thrive in stagnation. But Zubrin places like Mars have such limited the marketplace that are already doesn’t define survival in only ab- near-term commercial value. at work creating mankind’s future stract terms. Americans are condi- Just as New York City is not in the solar system. The age of pri- tioned on a diet of film and television known for the beaver pelts it was vate space exploration is upon us. productions that speculate about founded to deliver to market but It is driven as much by mankind’s the ease with which an asteroid on the financial services and cultural instinctual desire to seek out new a collision course with Earth could commodities it developed along frontiers as it is by his desire to be diverted or destroyed, but such the way, Mars will one day become profit from them. Robert Zubrin is a prospect is currently beyond our a wealthy and innovative hub link- leading the way.q technological capabilities. You can’t simply blow an asteroid up with a multi-megaton hydrogen bomb; it would likely reassemble itself with its own gravity. And you can’t nudge it off course without doing so years— DDs and PPs even tens or hundreds of years—be- fore impact, when the object is still in deep space and out of reach. Only The Privileged Poor Jack argues that lower-income stu- human crews equipped with ad- By Anthony Abraham Jack dents, like “students of color,” in vanced technology and demolitions Harvard University Press, 288 pages elite American universities are of- expertise could do the job right. ten analyzed as though they were a Ultimately, The Case for Space Reviewed by Wilfred Reilly unitary, cohesive block—but that makes an argument that scientific doing so ignores high levels of di- minds may regard with hostility ITHIN aca- versity within these groups. Spe- because the book is, in part, disdain- demia, not cifically, Jack contends that poor ful of the pieties that devotees of all poor peo- students in top colleges fall into pop science revere. But even Zubrin ple are cre- two distinct groups. There are the cannot abandon the dream entirely. ated equal. Doubly Disadvantaged (DD), who Substantial portions of his book are That, W in a sentence, is the theme of attended struggling high schools dedicated to making the case for Anthony Abraham Jack’s engaging in their disadvantaged big-city interstellar exploration, stellar igni- short book The Privileged Poor. neighborhoods or rural towns be- tion, terraforming, and colonizing fore matriculating to Harvard or the universe with life, projects that Wilfred Reilly is assistant Michigan. And there are the Privi- are neither technologically viable professor of political sciences in the leged Poor (PP), who received “up- nor commercially attractive. College of Public Service and Leader- ward mobility” scholarships to se- Zubrin is rightly disdainful of ship Studies at Kentucky State Uni- lect boarding or day schools prior the phobias that have kept men versity and the author of Hate Crime to college. earthbound for so long. He convinc- Hoax (Regnery). Jack points out that the PP are
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Politics&Ideas.indd 42 5/13/19 4:00 PM a sizable group; remarkably, 50 this environment than is race (or percent of lower-income minor- Children region, religion, etc.). “The wealth- ity students who attend “highly i ier you are,” he writes bluntly, “the selective” U.S. universities gradu- of the more likely you are to feel you be- ated from selective prep schools. long at an elite college.” Well-to-do He argues convincingly that these 1 percent are students of all races who agreed to students do better in college than 77 times more be interviewed seemed to feel that “DD” students. In contrast to the Renowned University was “made DD, the PP tend not to be “fazed likely to ‘go for people like them.” Many opined by the campus culture or their Ivy’ than are that the place “feels like home.” wealthier peers.” After two to four Indeed, the primary advantage years of socialization in elite prep students from Jack’s Privileged Poor possess is schools, they usually feel academi- working-class pre-college acclimation to elite en- cally and socially prepared for uni- vironments. Affluent and even PP versity. Talking with Jack, many families making black students, when asked what describe their freshman year at the $30,000 per they found unfamiliar or unset- institution he labels “Renowned tling about social life at Renowned, University” (Yale?) as “fifth year” year. At a typical often struggled to “understand the or a predictable “next step.” elite school such premise of the question.” DD stu- That said, life as a member of dents of all colors found it all too the Privileged Poor is not always as Amherst easy to answer. a walk in the park. The shock of College, Jack Although he does not engage an unwelcome call from home— these questions at length, Jack’s about, for example, a relative’s fall- notes, almost all book also raises concerns about ing victim to gang violence—cer- the utility of ongoing race-based tainly can serve as an unwelcome students of all affirmative action. These questions reminder of the real world outside races are rich. exist on several levels. On the one the ivory tower. However, such hand, if almost all undergradu- calls do not occur on most days. For ates at Research 1 universities are most members of the PP, culture terms, and that the representa- upper-middle-class or plain rich, shock occurred in high school, so tion of the rich within them seems what sense does it make to privi- college seems essentially familiar. to be increasing. He notes that a lege the sons of black dentists over After making this argument, Jack mere 14 percent of undergradu- those of white dentists (or Asian discusses collegiate living condi- ates in the top tier of colleges come bus drivers) entirely on the basis tions for poor students and makes from the bottom half of the USA’s of race? What empirically measur- a number of suggestions—leaving economic distribution, while 63 able hardships are students in the public cafeterias open during holi- percent come from the nation’s top first group overcoming? days, providing non-humiliating quartile. Near the true top of the On the other hand—and this work-study jobs for students, hav- economic pyramid, wealth dispari- is a tougher one—people of good ing faculty explain the purpose and ties in college attendance become will must also ask whether it importance of office hours—that still more pronounced. Children makes sense to admit unprepared would make college life easier for of the 1 percent are 77 times more students into educational environ- both DD and PP students. likely to “go Ivy” than are students ments where they are very likely While its primary focus is one from working-class families mak- not to succeed. While Jack focuses argument about the performance ing $30,000 per year. At a typical on lack of social capital as the rea- of different student cohorts, Jack’s elite school such as Amherst Col- son for the struggles of students in book is notable in that, skillfully lege, Jack notes, almost all stu- his DD cohort—and this doubtless and almost in passing, it engages dents of all races are rich. plays some role—a simpler expla- with many of the noteworthy and Refreshingly, as an African- nation might be found in their underreported realities of con- American author (and I speak as test scores. Documents released in temporary academic life. First, he one myself), Jack openly admits connection with a recent lawsuit points out that elite colleges are that social class is a much greater brought against Harvard Univer- remarkably segregated in income predictor of success and comfort in sity (where Jack teaches) by Asian-
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Politics&Ideas.indd 43 5/13/19 4:00 PM American students indicate that simply admitting academically the university begins intense re- Rather and socially unprepared students cruitment of black, Hispanic, and i and essentially watching them fail, Native American students if they than the massively endowed universi- posted any one SAT score higher ties and other NGOs could fund than 1100. In contrast, whites simply admitting scholarships to prep schools, char- needed a 1310 to be recruited, and academically ter academies, science camps, and Asian men a 1380. As a result of the like for poor and minority stu- policies like these, the SAT test- and socially dents. These students would then score gap between white and Asian unprepared have years to acclimate themselves students and non-Asian minority to upper-middle-class American students at top colleges has been students and culture, while bringing their test roughly 300 points for the past watching them scores up to par with those for oth- decade. The question arises: Does er applicants. Harvard alone could it make any sense to pull varsity fail, the massively fund 50,000 different $20,000 athletes with 1120 SAT scores away endowed scholarships to solid prep schools from Howard University or South- annually, using only the interest on ern Illinois’s honors program in universities its $39.2 billion endowment and order to let them make Yale look and NGOs collection of investments. more diverse while ensuring they I myself am inclined to propose bring up the rear of the academic could fund an even more radical solution for pack there? scholarships America’s colleges and universi- At least in touching on ques- ties: Just let in the applicants with tions like these, Jack’s book also for poor and the best test scores and grades. In- helps illuminate a relationship I terestingly, this policy—especially had never previously thought of minority if a 50- to 100-point boost were giv- in any depth: the link between students. en to the scores of students from affirmative admissions of all vari- truly disadvantaged areas—would eties and campus “social justice” dramatically increase the racial, activism. In case after case, inten- out of place at Renowned, with and especially economic, diversity tionally or not, Jack illustrates the an angry “Alice” at one point tell- of the campus. Almost overnight, connection between DD students’ ing “Patrice:” “You’re Latina, but tens of thousands more Asian feeling unprepared to compete and you’re elite. Look at the way you Americans, Eastern European im- their coming to see college life as a dress and speak…shut up.” migrants, Nigerians and West Indi- series of “microaggressions.” To some extent, such behav- ans, and Midwestern poor whites A student Jacks calls Jose ex- ior is not particularly surprising. would be able to attend Ivy League plicitly describes himself as coming When people who are themselves and Big Ten institutions. Ironically, to seek refuge from a challenging quite competitive and intelligent the thing most likely to end the class schedule and unfamiliar envi- are placed in one of the very few cloistered rich-guy culture of elite ronment among other students of environments where they are un- colleges might be the complete color: “In a class with more people likely to succeed academically or abandonment of today’s needlessly of color, that I can relate to…I feel socially, it makes sense that they clunky legacies-plus-affirmative- comfortable.” Another student, who might begin looking for other ways action admissions systems. later adjusted to Renowned, de- to stand out. If one of those hap- Jack’s book is well written, con- scribed her only period of isolation pens to be using a “unique minor- cise, and an interesting summary as having occurred not due to racial ity perspective” to constantly bash of an underreported trend in high- factors but rather when she felt she Old Siwash as racist and sexist, er education. It also touches tan- “wasn’t as bright as everyone else.” then so be it. gentially on many questions about In several moving passages, Interestingly, if affirmative ac- what to do with American higher Jack even describes the criticism tion is to continue, an expansion of ed, some of which the author him- of high-performing or culturally the “Privileged Poor” model would self may not even have intended to acclimated minority students by almost certainly be the fairest way bring up, but all of which are well other people of color who felt more to move it forward. Rather than worth exploring.q
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Politics&Ideas.indd 44 5/13/19 4:00 PM fessionalism. This has become the principal mission of the Old Guard, which is best known today for per- America’s forming the Changing of the Guard at the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier and supervising the horse-drawn caisson in prominent military-honor Regiment funerals. The cemetery at Arlington, founded by the victorious Union to bury its dead, is now the resting Sacred Duty: A Soldier’s Tour at record on the battlefield. Given place of more than 400,000 soldiers. Arlington National Cemetery the Founders’ aversion to standing And that number grows with each By Tom Cotton armies (Washington and Hamilton passing year. William Morrow, 320 pages were prominent exceptions), its lon- As a former Old Guard soldier gevity has an interesting backstory. himself, Cotton is well qualified to Reviewed by Brian Stewart After the Continental Army dealt write about the warriors who stand a lethal blow to the British garrison watch in quiet dignity over the 624 N APRIL, Israel brought at Yorktown in 1781, the Continen- acres of “our nation’s most sacred home the remains of Sargent tal Congress disbanded the armed shrine.” Between combat tours in Zachary Baumel, a soldier forces—“the kind of rash military Iraq and Afghanistan, Cotton carried who perished in Lebanon in drawdown after a conflict,” Cot- the flag-draped remains of his fallen 1982. After 37 years tracking ton observes, “that happens all too comrades off of airplanes at Dover I Baumel’s remains to Syria and nego- often across our history.” Swiftly Air Force Base, and he helped lay tiating their recovery through Rus- recognizing the fallacy of the Anti- them to rest in Arlington’s Section sia, the Israeli government laid him Federalists’ opposition to a military 60—“the noblest acre in America.” to rest at the Mount Herzl military establishment, Congress hastened to From this hallowed experience with cemetery in Jerusalem. retain a small but permanent cadre an incomparable military unit, Cot- For Senator Tom Cotton, the of professional soldiers, or “regu- ton attempts to discern the spirit of extraordinary measures taken on lars.” The First American Regiment, the country that produced it—de- behalf of soldiers who rally to the flag as the Old Guard was originally cent, idealistic, and strong. His inti- and do not return from the breach known, was born. mate study conveys an appropriately is not simply a de rigueur tradition. In Sacred Duty, the story of awed appreciation for those who In Sacred Duty: A Soldier’s Tour at “America’s regiment,” as it’s affec- have borne the sting of battle and Arlington National Cemetery, the tionately dubbed, is told in two parts. the burden of its aftermath. It also junior senator from Arkansas has It opens with a concise history of the examines the prestige accrued to the written an encomium to the martial Old Guard—from its modest begin- United States by the band of “citi- virtues as embodied by his former nings as a frontier force pacifying zen soldiers” down the generations unit, the storied 3rd U.S. Infantry “Injun country” and thrashing Santa and—since the abolition of conscrip- Regiment—the Old Guard. In the Anna’s army in decisive assaults en tion in 1973—the “1 percent” who process, Cotton echoes Plato’s view route to Mexico City, through the answer their country’s call today. that the ritual of honoring those who early campaigns of the Civil War, to More than once, Sacred Duty make the ultimate sacrifice has as its deployment to the Philippines in calls attention to the “strategic mes- much to do with advising the living the Spanish-American War. saging” of armed-forces ceremonies as it does with praising the dead. But it’s the Old Guard’s cer- performed for select foreign digni- The Old Guard is the official emonial role, played since 1948 at taries. Cotton poignantly records ceremonial outfit of the U.S. Army Arlington National Cemetery, that the May 2018 arrival ceremony at charged with presiding over the fu- sustains Cotton’s rich narrative. Sta- the Pentagon for the ministers of nerals of soldiers. Commissioned in tioned at nearby Fort Myer, Virginia, defense from Sweden and Finland— 1784, it’s America’s oldest active-duty the all-volunteer unit is equipped to small, relatively weak, non-NATO regiment and has a distinguished conduct more than 20 funerals per allies that are nonetheless worthy day. These services are carried out by of Washington’s finest tributes. This Brian Stewart is a writer and specially trained soldiers culled from gesture of magnanimity and respect, policy analyst based in New York. the ranks on account of their pro- emblematic of what historian Thom-
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Politics&Ideas.indd 45 5/13/19 4:00 PM as Madden calls America’s “empire cal class. Although a war record has ernment depends on the perpetua- of trust,” is part of the reason that traditionally been regarded as a tion of political institutions that in Americans have long enjoyed a repu- major advantage for rising Ameri- turn depend on the nurturing of cer- tation as imperfect but reliable allies. can politicians, fewer and fewer can tain virtues in individual Americans Cotton also offers a wealth of in- lay claim to one anymore. Veterans and the country as a whole. On the teresting historical and procedural of the United States military have evidence of our continuing political detail. We learn, among other things, constituted a dwindling fraction of degeneration, those virtues—includ- that: A presidential wreath ceremo- Congress since the end of the Viet- ing what Theodore Roosevelt called ny requires more than 500 personnel nam War, and the 2012 contest the “stern and virile virtues”—are (half of which are provided by the between President Obama and Mitt attenuating at a brisk pace. Cotton’s Old Guard); the Tomb of the Un- Romney was the first presidential account of the noble regiment estab- known Soldier contains the remains election since World War II without lished at the dawn of our nation and of three comrades-in-arms “known a military veteran on the ballot. Of still standing sentry over those who but to God”; three different varieties course, in 2016 the exception repeat- gave “the last, full measure of devo- of military funerals occur, depend- ed itself—and it looks likely to do so tion” to the republic is a welcome ing mostly on the decedent’s rank; again in 2020. reminder that those virtues still ex- a senior sergeant’s sword, which is America’s form of republican gov- ist somewhere in America.q straight and designed for thrusting, is distinct from an officer’s saber, which is curved and designed for slashing (an homage to 19th-century warfare, when officers were often mounted). Huckleberry Those familiar with the author’s pugnacious political style will not be astonished to find that this book is written in the distinct vernacular of Spin the U.S. military, employed by com- missioned and noncommissioned officers alike: Soldiers who are fit How to Raise a Boy: as well as an optional early-morn- for duty are “squared-away,” getting The Power of Connection ing Latin class—is a throwback to “bloused up” means putting the to Build Good Men an era when such institutions were belt over a ceremonial uniform, and By Michael Reichert expected to turn all kinds of boys troops deployed in foreign theaters TarcherPerigee, 336 pages into a certain kind of men. are “downrange.” Michael Reichert does not miss Cotton fondly notes the presence Reviewed by this kind of institution or the tradi- of chaplains at Arlington but doesn’t Naomi Schaefer Riley tional way of raising boys it repre- dwell on the potentially fraught is- sents. In his new book How to Raise sue. While James Madison lamented T AN OPEN HOUSE a Boy, Reichert writes that “there is the hiring of a chaplain by the First I attended last fall a real opportunity to get boyhood Congress as well as by the armed for an all-boys school right—perhaps for the first time.” forces, Cotton offers no dissent to in a New York sub- If we “listen” to boys, he writes, the practice of ministers in uniform urb, the headmaster they will “point the way to a more being paid out of the public treasury. toldA the assembled audience: supportive, healthier, and more hu- This shouldn’t come as much of a “Here, we know how to educate man boyhood.” surprise. The reader is served notice boys.” The school—which requires It seems just a little presumptu- at the outset that Sacred Duty is students to wear coats and ties, of- ous to suggest that we have raised rigorously apolitical, including on fers a double period of PE every day half of people wrong for all of hu- matters more pressing than ecclesi- man history and that only now astical authority in the ranks. Naomi Schaefer Riley is a are we enlightened enough to fix To read Sacred Duty is to be resident fellow at the American En- it—even for the founding director struck by the chasm that has opened terprise Institute and a senior fellow of something called the Center for between the military and the politi- at the Independent Women’s Forum. the Study of Boys’ and Girls’ Lives
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Politics&Ideas.indd 46 5/13/19 4:00 PM at the University of Pennsylvania. bother because he “did not need to Reichert is correct that some- Will it teach him how to behave but rather thing is going wrong with Ameri- i support him while he struggled to can boys today. What are the surprise regulate himself.” symptoms of today’s unhealthy, readers to find You don’t know what it’s like to inhuman boyhood? In the worlds be a boy these days, Reichert tells of both work and education, boys that boys are readers in a tone rather like that are falling behind. They make more likely to of a whiny teenager who wants his up a shrinking proportion of col- parents to get off his back: “Often lege graduates. According to recent get into fights or we think that advice—‘What I did numbers from the Bureau of Labor at your age…’ —is the best way for Statistics, “nearly 36 percent of carry weapons? boys to improve their own judge- women born in the years 1980–84 Are we to take ment, without being realistic about had earned a bachelor’s degree by how different the times and chal- age 31, compared with 28 percent it as a sign of a lenges are.” of men.” And things look even more contemporary Boys need to be hugged and sup- bleak for men in the workforce. ported. We need to encourage them According to research by scholars crisis that they to share their emotions and let such as Nicholas Eberstadt, the em- are more likely them cry more often, says Reichert. ployment ratio is worse today than But while this expert suggests that it was at the tail end of the Great to risk injury? boys are becoming tougher, more Depression, with more than 7 mil- stoic, and even more violent, the lion able-bodied men now sitting evidence suggests otherwise. around playing video games in- For example, violent crime in stead of doing anything productive. in fact not a manifestation of America has plummeted in recent Reichert’s list of symptoms looks their nature but an adaptation to decades. Reichert describes instanc- different. He writes: “In addition cultures that require boys to be es of schoolyard brawls and other to compulsive risk taking, inatten- emotionally stoic, aggressive, and kinds of hazing among boys. But bul- tion, and conduct problems, boys competitive if they are to be per- lying has gone down, too. According lag behind girls in the social and ceived and accepted as ‘real boys.’” to a report from the National Center behavioral skills that facilitate suc- So, for instance, Reichert blames for Education Statistics, 21 percent cess in schools…. Boys are far more a decision by the Federal Com- of students ages 12 to 18 reported likely than girls to act in ways that munications Commission to “ease being bullied in the school year increase the risk of disease, injury, advertising regulations in 1984” 2014–15. That’s down from a rate and death to themselves and others: for an “uptick in play fighting.” of 32 percent in 2007. Even those They carry weapons more often, He writes: “Following the change, numbers, if they were broken down, engage in physical fights more of- there was a flood of advertising would probably reveal that the ex- ten, wear seat belts less often, drive targeted at boys, built around spe- posure to violent incidents and the drunk more frequently, have more cial products such as a pumped-up threats of bodily harm are limited to unprotected sex, and use alcohol or G.I. Joe and images of violence that a small subset of the boy population. drugs more often before sex.” help make the sale.” Reichert cites And it’s not in middle-class suburbs Will it surprise readers to find research suggesting that the more where pointing a finger at a girl will that boys are more likely to get into boys see violence, the more violent get you suspended. fights or carry weapons? Are we to they become. Reichert interviews a wide take it as a sign of a contemporary The first step to changing boys, crosssection of boys in his work, crisis that they are more likely to he advises, is to stop being so judg- but it is hard to take seriously the risk injury? These are the observa- mental. We need to do a lot of lis- idea that a “talented tennis player, tions of a man who attributes the tening. Reichert describes the time at the height of fierce college characteristics of boys to nurture that he spends with one boy at the recruiting…heartsick by how his rather than nature. Reichert cites request of the young man’s mother: mother became more interested in a Stanford psychologist who ex- “There were many times when his success on the court than how plains: “What is often perceived his behavior might have earned a he was feeling” is suffering from and described as natural to boys is reprimand.” But Reichert didn’t the same crisis as a boy trying to
Commentary 47
Politics&Ideas.indd 47 5/13/19 4:00 PM start a fight with a rival gang mem- high school, less likely to use drugs, relationship that “Will showed few ber inside of a courthouse with a and so on. signs of chivalry or of believing he pair of nunchakus he had tucked Moreover, the idea that having needed to protect his ‘weaker part- into his pants. a father as a mentor is potentially ner.’” Heaven forbid. But if Reichert were to acknowl- dangerous because it supports the Exactly what this new vision of edge that there is a much more ex- “perpetuation of traditional ideas” manhood about which Reichart is treme problem happening among is dangerous in and of itself. It preaching should look like seems less advantaged boys and particu- sends the message to mothers that to evade even him. He mentions a larly among racial minorities in our the presence of a father really is well-known incident in Portland in inner cities, he would probably optional and, frankly, women could 2017 during which a man attacked have to explain why that is—and probably do this job better them- two young women of color on a that would surely discomfit him. selves. All they need to do is talk to commuter train. Three men stood According to the 2018 Current their sons, listen to their sons, and up to protect the women, and two Population Survey, 44 percent of be less judgmental. were killed. “On the surface, these black children live only with their Even when confronted with evi- three men—a poet, a college gradu- mother. The share of children dence that boys from the same ate, and a career serviceman—were living without a father is only 12 neighborhoods do worse than their very different from one another, percent among white children. Bi- sisters in school and were more but they drew from the same well zarrely, Reichert insists that fathers likely to be caught up in the juvenile for how they thought about being don’t matter that much. He writes: justice system, Reichert suggests male,” Reichert writes. “Each had “There is no evidence that only that bad neighborhoods affect boys taken to heart a commitment to the another man can support a boy to more adversely than girls. It is the virtues of courage, empathy, and become a man himself. In fact, such “social stresses of racism and pover- service to others.” mentoring most often ensures the ty” as well as “the cultural norms of Reichert doesn’t speculate wheth- perpetuation of traditional ideas.” masculinity” that are the problem. er these three men would have Taken literally, the first sentence is In particular, he doesn’t like the stood up if other men were being true, if Reichert simply means that way that cultural norms instruct attacked, but perhaps we shouldn’t it is technically possible for a fa- boys in how to treat girls. Reichert discount the possibility that chiv- therless child to become a (decent) singles out one boy, Will, who spoke alry was one of the other virtues man himself. But there are reams to other students at his school about that they took to heart. If they had of evidence that boys with fathers the great relationship he had with been raised according to Reichert’s in their home are less likely to be his girlfriend, Annie. Reichert takes advice, they probably would have incarcerated, more likely to finish it as a sign of the health of their cowered in a corner—crying.q
48 Politics & Ideas : June 2019
Politics&Ideas.indd 48 5/13/19 4:00 PM Culture & Civilization The Sad Tale of Charlie Movie Star
Rock Hudson, who had romanced Doris Day and primary-source biography, Mark Elizabeth Taylor on screen pre- Griffin’sAll That Heaven Allows: A never himself ferred to have sex with men. Biography of Rock Hudson. It con- His silence was far from surpris- stitutes a serious attempt to tell the By Terry Teachout ing. Until recently, no Hollywood story of a man who in his lifetime studio would cast a star who was did all he could to stop it from be- N JULY 1985, Rock Hudson publicly known to be homosexual, ing told.* announced through a spokes- for it was assumed that uncom- Is it worth telling? No one has man that he had AIDS. He fortable moviegoers would refuse ever claimed that Hudson was a died two months later. In to see the films in which he ap- great artist. At his best, though, between, People published a peared. This is one reason that stu- he was a thoroughly competent Icover story that acknowledged for dio-system contract players were professional whose life and work the first time in print what had made to sign a “morals clause” were exemplary of Hollywood in been known throughout the film forbidding them from engaging the days when the studio-system industry for most of the 59-year-old in off-screen behavior that might “star machine” (in the phrase of the actor’s adult life: “The stunning bring their employers into “public film scholar Jeanine Basinger) took disclosure implied for Hudson’s disrepute.” When miscreant stars young men and women with little public what for decades had been were popular or promising enough, or no acting experience and turned an open secret in Hollywood—his the studios would unhesitatingly them into celebrities. In Hudson’s homosexuality.” Yet even on his paper over their misconduct at all case, the story of how he became deathbed, Hudson refused to admit costs—but if it proved impossible a star—and the price he paid to do that the six-foot-four matinée idol to keep their transgressions quiet, so—is very much worth telling. their careers were cut short. Terry Teachout is Commen- Today Hudson is mainly remem- OY SCHERER JR. was tary’s critic-at-large and the drama bered as the first celebrity to have born in 1925 in Winnetka, critic of the Wall Street Journal. died of AIDS. But his off-screen life R a small town (not yet a Satchmo at the Waldorf, his one- has also won him a secure place suburb) not far from Chicago. man play about Louis Armstrong, in the history of Hollywood, one When Roy was five years old, his has been produced off Broadway and prominent enough that he is now throughout America. the subject of a decently written * Harper, 469 pages
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Culture & Civ.indd 49 5/13/19 4:01 PM father, an auto mechanic, lost his Part of the problem was that job and deserted his family. In Unlike they were slow to figure out what 1934, Roy’s mother married a hard- i kind of actor Hudson was. Misled drinking Marine who adopted her Wayne by his appearance into supposing only child. Unfortunately for the and Curtis, that he had the stuff to be a John boy, Wallace Fitzgerald thought Wayne–like action hero or a tradi- Roy effeminate and beat him and Hudson was tional leading man like Tony Curtis Kay, his mother. Kay divorced Wal- a sexually (at the time Universal’s most prom- lace in 1941, but the damage was ising contract player), the studio done: Roy Fitzgerald had become nonthreatening failed to grasp the true nature of a lonely, introverted teenager who man whom his still-emerging screen persona. was, like many such youngsters, Unlike Wayne and Curtis, Hudson obsessed with movies and longed women found was a sexually nonthreatening man to appear in them. whom women found irresistibly at- Roy enlisted in the Navy in irresistibly tractive on screen but who was by 1944. We do not know when he attractive on all accounts extremely shy in real realized that he was homosexual, life.* The critic David Thomson but it seems likely that it was in screen but would call him “innately gentle the Navy that he started coming to who was by all and sympathetic…and unusually terms with it. After his discharge, tender or sensitive for a man of his he moved to California, briefly liv- accounts shy in physique.” ing with his father and driving a real life. Such failures of perception were truck. Then he met Henry Willson, not uncommon in Hollywood. an agent who represented male Humphrey Bogart, for example, ingénues like Troy Donahue and was initially pigeonholed by War- Tab Hunter. Even though Roy had get ahead. Willson upheld his end ner Bros. as a tough-guy gangster, never before acted and was, in his of the deal and introduced Hudson and it took five years, from The own words, “a clumsy, tongue-tied to Raoul Walsh, a director who had Petrified Forest in 1936 to Walsh’s galoot,” Willson saw that his hand- worked closely with Humphrey Bo- High Sierra in 1941, for the studio some features and unusual height gart and Errol Flynn and, in 1930, to figure out that he was really a made him a plausible candidate for had discovered John Wayne. Walsh disillusioned anti-hero. Once War- stardom. He took the young man was struck by Hudson’s good looks ner started giving Bogart roles that under his wing, arranged for him and saw him as a natural for the ac- fit his personality, he became a star to have acting and voice lessons, tion movies that were his specialty. almost overnight. insisted that he shed the fey man- “At the very least, he’ll be good The same thing happened to nerisms he had picked up from his scenery,” the director said. Hudson when he was cast in gay friends, and changed his name Hudson spent the next few years Douglas Sirk’s 1954 remake of Mag- to the hyper-masculine “Rock Hud- working his way up from bit parts nificent Obsession, a sentimental son.” in major films to leading parts in melodrama whose central charac- “I always give a green actor the bottom-of-the-bill “programmers,” ter, an irresponsible playboy, be- gimmick of a trick name to help simultaneously studying acting as comes an altruistic brain surgeon him get known while he’s learning part of Universal’s in-house train- and restores the sight of a woman his trade,” Willson later explained. ing program. The studios used (Jane Wyman) whose husband Willson was an effective agent these films to gauge the develop- he had accidentally killed and with a sure eye for what he called ment of their contract players, and whom he inadvertently blinded in “picture potential.” He was also Hudson’s early screen appearances a later auto accident. Preposterous a notorious sexual predator who were noteworthy only for their though Magnificent Obsession was, expected to be serviced by the male apparent lack of promise. At one * To watch Hudson share the screen with actors in his stable as a condition of point, Universal’s executives con- Wayne in Andrew V. McLaglen’s The Un- representing them. Then and later, sidered dropping him, but they defeated (1969) is to see why he was never Hudson’s friends agreed that he were sufficiently impressed by his fully convincing as an action hero. While his demeanor is in no way effeminate, he was ambitious enough to do any- determination and hard work to lacks the larger-than-life self-assurance thing, for Willson or anyone else, to give him more time to develop. that Wayne exudes from every pore.
50 Culture & Civilization : June 2019
Culture & Civ.indd 50 5/13/19 4:01 PM it showed that he had developed by comparison. After Giant, he into a strong “supporting lead” After would continue to appear in Sirk- who, like Charles Boyer and Claude i directed melodramas, forgettable Rains before him, brought out the Giant, action films, and stodgy middle- best in actresses. Hudson would brow epics like Charles Vidor’s Sirk directed five more films 1957 remake of A Farewell to Arms. starring Hudson, the best of which continue to Three more years went by before is All That Heaven Allows (1955), in Universal finally found the missing which the actor was again teamed appear in piece of the puzzle that was Rock with Wyman. This time she played Sirk-directed Hudson. a well-to-do suburban widow who Hudson’s guest shots on such TV falls in love with her gardener, a melodramas, series as I Love Lucy and Caesar’s younger man played by Hudson, forgettable Hour had already revealed that he who is not only handsome but kind had a knack for light comedy. It was and intelligent as well. Their af- action films, and not until 1958, however, that Uni- fair scandalizes the class-conscious middlebrow versal paired him with Doris Day town, but in the end she opts for in Pillow Talk, in which he played a romantic (and sexual) fulfillment epics like the songwriter who beds sexually avail- over conformity to the rigid code 1957 remake of able women but falls for a spunky of social propriety that allegedly young lady who refuses to sleep prevailed during the ’50s. Once A Farewell to with him before marriage. Ross again, Hudson gives a fine sup- Arms. Hunter, the film’s producer, later porting-lead performance in a film described Pillow Talk as a latter- whose emotional extravagance can day counterpart of the “sophisti- feel campy to modern-day viewers, cated comedies” that “went out though Sirk’s melodramas have band’s sexual proclivities, it is a mat- with William Powell.” It is, in fact, a come to be regarded by a growing ter of record that their union lasted sniggeringly coy farce devoid of the number of critics as “subversive” only three years, from 1955 to 1958. true sophistication of Powell’s com- portraits of Eisenhower-era emo- But it served its purpose. While edies of the ’30s and ’40s (and full tional inhibition. rumors of Hudson’s homosexuality of equally coy allusions to its star’s The success of All that Heaven continued to follow him, they did homosexuality). But Hudson’s self- Allows put Hudson on the road to not see print until the end of his life, deprecating charm meshed well stardom—but it also placed him even though his promiscuity had with Day’s bouncy liveliness, and in the crosshairs of Confidential, long been a byword in Hollywood. the film became a box-office smash a widely read magazine that pub- (It is revealing, as well as sad, that that spawned two more successful lished scandalous stories about the he seems never to have had a suc- vehicles for its stars, Lover Come private lives of movie stars. He had cessful long-term relationship with Back (1961) and Send Me No Flow- already been the subject of articles a person of either sex.) ers (1964). in Life and other magazines that All that remained was for Hud- By then, the studio system was made increasingly pointed men- son to show that he carried suf- all but dead, and American mov- tion of his perennial-bachelor sta- ficient weight to be a full-fledged ies were moving in newer, more tus, and while Universal’s publicity star. He proved himself equal to challenging directions that were department responded by planting the task—up to a point—in Giant, alien to the conventionally inclined other articles describing his sup- the 1956 film version of Edna Fer- Hudson, who turned 40—old for a posed romances with starlets, the ber’s bestselling novel, in which he leading man in Hollywood—a year editors of Confidential knew better. played the head of a Texas cattle- after Send Me No Flowers came To prevent him from being outed, and-oil dynasty. His performance out. He made a short-lived effort to Willson and Universal are generally as Bick Benedict won him an change with the times by appearing believed to have arranged an un- Oscar nomination, but Elizabeth in Seconds (1966), a John Franken- happy mariage blanc between Hud- Taylor and James Dean were far heimer–directed science-fiction son and Phyllis Gates, the agent’s more memorable as Bick’s restless thriller about a secret organization secretary. Whatever Gates knew or wife and chief rival. Hudson came that gives new bodies to middle- did not know about her new hus- across as subdued, even diffident, aged men. But even though his per-
Commentary 51
Culture & Civ.indd 51 5/13/19 4:01 PM formance was genuinely and unex- by their ability to fit neatly into fully self-conscious gay man who pectedly impressive—very possibly the motion-picture franchises that pretended to be the straight-acting the best thing he ever did—Seconds now dominate the American film public figure whom he privately was so far removed in subject mat- industry. It is not necessary to be a called “Charlie Movie Star,” and ter from the movies that had made powerfully individual performer to who became rich and famous by Hudson famous that it sank with- play Batman or Kylo Ren: Indeed, doing so. As another gay actor who out trace. it may well be disadvantageous. knew him in the ’80s observes in As his film career went into Moreover, it is within the realm of All That Heaven Allows: “Who decline, Hudson started working possibility that today’s moviego- would he have really been if Roy in TV. A small-screen natural, he ers will live to see an age when the Fitzgerald had been allowed to scored an immediate hit in 1971 “actors” in such films are no longer exist? Who would he have really with McMillan & Wife, a comedy- performers of flesh and blood but talked like? I mean, from the very mystery series well suited to his computer-created artifacts. beginning of his life, this is some- affable personality. Gossip about Therein, I suspect, lies Rock one who had to act just to survive.” him still circulated—including a Hudson’s ultimate significance, as When it was all over, Hudson bizarre rumor alleging that he and well as the source of the pathos told one of his oldest friends, “God, Jim Nabors, another TV star who of his troubled, largely secret life, what a way to end a life.” It is hard was in the closet, were planning to which foreshadowed what Hol- not to wonder as well what he marry—but he ignored it, as did his lywood is now in the process of thought of the way he had lived fans. He was, however, unsettled becoming. More than most stars, that life, hiding behind the mask of by the downward arc of his career, he was a pure creation of the studio Charlie Movie Star until he could enough so that his promiscuity for which he worked, a shy, pain- no longer be sure who he was.q became dangerously compulsive, which doubtless led to Hudson’s becoming infected with the HIV virus in 1983 or 1984. He continued to work for as long as he could, but Streaming Sacred his health quickly deteriorated, and the nine episodes of Dynasty, a prime-time soap opera, that he The achievement objects of a wistful voyeurism. But filmed in the second half of 1984 of Shtisel the TV Shtisels are a family first and were the last performances that he ultra-Orthodox second. They go gave before his death. By Judith Shulevitz about their business in a relatively Hudson was in the vanguard of ordinary fashion, loving and awful another revolution in cultural atti- F YOU’VE READ the reviews in turns, the way families are. tudes. He was one of the first lead- of the Israeli television se- They’re neither fanatics nor relics of ing men to cultivate a less overtly ries Shtisel, available on Net- a vanished Jewry. They thwart the masculine image, as did such other flix, then you know that it’s secular expectation that they will actors of his generation as Mont- the first mainstream drama chafe against their stringent laws gomery Clift and Anthony Perkins I to portray Jerusalem’s ultra-Ortho- and customs. The women aren’t (both of whom, perhaps not coin- dox Haredi Jews as, well, people. disempowered unless they happen cidentally, were also secretly gay). Until Shtisel, Haredim were more to be easy to boss around—and The line of descent that leads from likely to enter our air space as the there are plenty of men like that, Hudson, Clift, and Perkins to Tom black-hatted villains of internation- too. People don’t seem too worried Cruise and Leonardo DiCaprio is al news channels, throwing rocks at about their limited opportunities easy to trace. cars on Shabbat, overpopulating for self-actualization. No less consequential is the West Bank settlements, threatening And yet, for all its insider knowl- drying-up of the studio-sponsored to swamp secular Israelis with their edge (the show’s creator, Yehonatan training programs that taught yes- enormous families. Or they would Indursky, grew up in the Haredi terday’s movie stars how to act, show up in Jewish guide books as enclave of Bnai Brak) and well- both on screen and in public. There observed details of material culture is no longer a “star machine,” only Judith Shulevitz is the au- (embroidered plastic tablecloths, self-made actors who are judged thor of The Sabbath World. drab women’s loafers), Shtisel is not
52 Culture & Civilization : June 2019
Culture & Civ.indd 52 5/13/19 4:01 PM as realistic as its fans have made They mean that Dvore came down it out to be. It is not quite of this The from heaven to bring Elisheva to world, but its otherworldliness isn’t i Akiva’s door and smite her with immediately apparent, because the show- desire. show mostly plays it for laughs. runners try Shtisel makes all the clichés The very first scene is a dream about Haredi sex-aversion seem sequence. Akiva Shtisel (Michael (sometimes absurd. Its Jerusalem is profound- Aloni, a comely actor who can make successfully) not ly sensual. Long coats swing as payess look manly and sensitive at the men stride down the narrow, the same time) enters Anshin’s, one to romanticize golden streets, and Shulem takes of those grimly lit kosher cafeterias pride in a tall new hat. The wives’ with linoleum tabletops found all their subjects. stylish wigs and careful makeup over Jerusalem. He asks for kugel, The educational prolong the illusion of youth. Girls which is dished out cold and, puz- in long sleeves and calf-length zlingly to him, without its usual system we see is skirts that only accentuate their side of pickles. Confused, he walks as appalling to old-world allure await the chance slowly to his table. It starts to snow. to flirt slyly with the yeshiva bo- He passes an Eskimo sitting at a a non-Haredi chers their parents have hondeled table heaped with dead fish and as you might for. At one point, Akiva visits the a plate full of pickles. Then Akiva Galilee; when he takes off his coat spots his mother, Dvore, who died expect. and shirt, rolls up his pants, and (we learn later) just shy of a year wades in, the tzitzit, or fringes of ago. She’s eating kugel too, and her his undershirt, sway with his gait, eyes grow soft with love. (elementary school) where Shulem like a musical score meant to em- “Mother! What are you doing teaches. (Akiva reluctantly agrees phasize the beauty of his unusually here?” he asks. to freelance as a substitute.) With (for Shtisel) exposed body. “I missed this place,” she says. the help of a matchmaker, Shulem Caresses that must be withheld “Anshin’s?” he asks. keeps arranging meetings with ner- from other people are bestowed “What are you talking about, An- vous teenage girls, and Akiva keeps on ritual objects. When Orthodox shin’s?” Dvore says, shivering and politely rejecting them. Instead, he Jews walk through doors, they pulling her sweater closer. “I’m cold, falls for a sultry older widow named reach up and touch the mezuzot, Akiva, so cold,” she says, “and there’s Elisheva, considered a completely the slim boxes nailed to the lintels, nothing I can do. You can’t even get inappropriate match. then kiss their fingers. A fervently a pickle around here.” Inspired by his dream, Akiva devout teenage scholar rubs his The morning after, in the kitch- creates a free loan society in face in the velvet curtain of the ark en of the apartment that Akiva his mother’s honor. What he will holding the Torah and begs God shares with his father, Shulem, lend to the needy are space heat- to help him control his nocturnal Akiva asks, “What do these dreams ers. “Winter is over, Kiva,” his emissions. The Torahs themselves mean?”Shulem replies: “They don’t big brother tells him, annoyed are cradled like babies; one episode mean anything.” at Akiva’s foolishness. But Akiva even features a small Torah called A patriarch played by the brilliant craves warmth, and the weather is “Baby.” The Sabbaths are drunken comedian Dov Glickman, Shulem in cosmic agreement with him. A and sweet. has a big heart and commanding cold rain falls, and borrowers ar- The showrunners try (some- presence, but he’s also obnoxious, rive. One of them is Elisheva, who times successfully) not to romanti- oblivious, vain, and meddlesome. up till now has responded to his cize their subjects. The educational He likes to needle Akiva, who ir- pleading eyes with half-smiles and system we see is as appalling to a ritates him. It’s Shulem’s job to shakes of the head. “Wait,” he says non-Haredi as you might expect. A marry off his youngest son, an ag- as she takes her heater and turns to day at Akiva and Shulem’s cheder ing bachelor at 26 or 27 and a ba’al leave. “I have to see if it works.” He consists of several hours of Talmud chaloymes, a daydreamer, who’d plugs in the device and they watch, and Torah and one of math and rather sketch lemurs at the zoo stricken, as its coils grow radiant grammar, a curriculum that pre- than do anything useful like study with a suddenly erotic heat. pares students for nothing but more Talmud or take a job at the cheder What do these dreams mean? Talmud and Torah. (One of Akiva’s
Commentary 53
Culture & Civ.indd 53 5/13/19 4:01 PM bohemian friends reads Kierkeg- expect from Jane Austen’s stifling appears to Akiva again when he’s aard, but he winds up in a mental parlor society or George Eliot’s claus- contemplating showing his work hospital—not for that reason, but trophobic villages. In all of them, under a pseudonym because his still.) Talmud scholar not being a what seem to us minor violations of fiancée has asked him to stop paint- lucrative profession, money runs communal norms can do grave repu- ing. Dvore is sewing a tallis bag on short; so do tempers. Too many tational harm. Giti keeps her hus- a machine, and she looks up at her children are crammed into tiny, band’s flight a secret so as to leave son with total non-recognition. All under-furnished apartments. The open the possibility that he could of a sudden, he can’t remember husband of Akiva’s sister Giti runs come home and stay, rather than be his name either. Upon waking, he away, possibly with a “goya,” a Chris- shunned and driven out. When Aki- calls his dealer and declares he’ll tian woman. He has always longed va breaks off the obviously terrible use his own name at the exhibition. to live alone, he explains later. No engagement that Shulem pushed The dead help the living push back one forbids Akiva to draw, but no him into, his father throws him out against unreasonable demands. one is interested in his drawings, of the apartment, and his brother They err on the side of leniency. either, even after it becomes appar- complains that he can no longer look Shtisel’s characters are com- ent to outsiders that he has genuine his fellow Talmud scholars in the plicated—complaining, uncom- talent. Synagogue interiors have the eye. “Jewish law says that it’s better plaining, gentle, furious—but its monopoly on visual grandeur. to marry and divorce than to call off phantoms are sweet. That’s what’s Shulem could have been a sen- an engagement,” he tells his brother. refreshing about them. They come timental Tevye figure, but instead Akiva is now damaged goods—as not to terrify, like I.B. Singer’s de- he’s halfway to being a monster. one matchmaker says, a defecti. mons or the ghouls in today’s ubiq- He wolfs down the stews cooked Community is a consolation as uitous dystopian fiction and film, for him by a lonely divorcée while well as a burden, however, and but to signify. I was struck while ignoring her tentative overtures. He Shtisel’s people show up when com- watching the show by how odd intervenes melodramatically in his fort is needed, with the added assis- it is that we take for granted that son’s and his mother’s lives, usually tance of the dead. Elisheva, who has dreams are messages to ourselves to ruinous effect. In his worst—and outlived not one but two husbands, from aspects of ourselves to which funniest—moment, Shulem upstag- talks to both of them frequently. Her we have no conscious access, while es his son while Akiva is accepting a visions don’t require dreams; her visitations from the afterworld, to prestigious prize for his paintings. revenants just appear at her kitchen which we have no conscious access Spotting rich Americans in the table in the middle of the night. One either, are assumed to be the prod- audience, Shulem grabs the micro- studies Talmud, the other eats soup. ucts of magic or magical thinking. phone to plead for money for his ye- They kibitz with each other and I may be making too much out of a shiva, in the process dismissing art with her, criticizing her for listening piece of light entertainment, but it as something invented by the Gen- to the radio on the Sabbath, advis- seems to me that Shtisel asks us to tiles because they didn’t have the ing her to marry Akiva. “There’s expand our understanding of “the Torah. You wonder how Akiva can room for one more,” they say. Some- unconscious” and “the self.” Imag- stand it, but Akiva can’t not stand times the dead crack dead-person ine a specifically Jewish dream psy- it. Occasionally he storms out of the jokes. “Help me up,” says Shulem chology, one that legitimates mes- apartment, but he always comes to Dvore, who appears next to him sages passed not just within parts back. He has no choice. These are after he falls in his living room and of a self-alienated psyche but l’dor his people. lies splayed on his back. “I can’t,” she v’dor, from generation to genera- Anyway, boundary-violating is says. “I’m dead.” tion, among souls that can’t be dis- baked into the community, as it is Historians talk about the “dis- entangled from fellow souls, mes- into any enclave this insular. Cars enchanted world,” the desacralized, sages that emanate ultimately, we with loudspeakers broadcast excru- rational existence that we the en- don’t know how, from Hashem him- ciatingly private news, such as the lightened have decided constitutes self. Who’s crazy, us with our world abandonment of a wife, under the reality. Shtisel is set outside the of dissociated individuals who talk guise of raising money for a fund to disenchanted world, which is part to themselves, or them with their feed her children. There’s no escap- of what makes it enchanting. Its fluid boundaries between death and ing surveillance, but what you real- apparitions aren’t always witty; life, self and other? Shtisel is by no ize after a while is that this society sometimes they weep, and some- means religious propaganda, but it doesn’t differ as much as you might times they just draw a blank. Dvore raises the question.q
54 Culture & Civilization : June 2019
Culture & Civ.indd 54 5/13/19 4:01 PM HOLLYWOOD COMMENTARY
continued from page 56 and wires and air- tion arrangements around television projects that are waves in uninterrupted and kaleidoscopic variety. designed to be complicated, which means designed to So the agents came up with a better way to fill confuse most writers. their rice bowl and invented what is called, with typical But there is something about the current sys- entertainment-industry utilitarian style, “packaging.” tem, where agents take a piece of the action off the Which is this, essentially: Rather than take 10 percent top, that benefits the writer. Agents can take a longer out of a lot of paychecks for writers on a television view on things—my agent, for example, has charged show, agents prefer to take a percentage—and some me a commission only a handful of times, after almost back-end points—out of the budget of the entire show. a dozen years of representation. Because of the cash In exchange, they don’t take the 10 percent out of a flow that packaging has afforded his agency, he’s been writer’s paycheck, and for a long time this was a happy able to play the long game, to bet on me to win. Even arrangement. Writers didn’t have to pay commission, though I don’t win that often. agents didn’t have to tell the writers just exactly how And as far as machers are concerned, some of the much more money they were making by packaging. biggest machers in town are the exalted class of writ- And then the future happened, as it does, always ers called showrunners. Many of them—your Shonda sooner than anyone expects. The explosion of places Rhimeses, your Greg Berlantis—manage multiple to put on television shows may have created more op- shows at a time and are compensated at levels way, portunity for writers, but it also squeezed individual way beyond the sweaty-sweatshop rate. The uncom- show budgets. The past 10 years have ushered in a fortable truth is, these days, successful television writ- kind of Walmart Effect for show business: There’s lots ers are a lot closer to management than labor. When of everything to choose from (good for the consumer), rank-and-file writers feel a salary pinch, the source is but each individual item must be made as cheaply as more likely the showrunner’s magnificent comp pack- possible. age—Rimes has a $150 million deal with Netflix—or So writers started to feel the pinch in their pay- the crowd of non-writing producers that gobble up checks, which is when they noticed that their agents large line items in every production budget. were getting phenomenally rich. And when the time Agents are a handy target, but going after them came to renegotiate the agreement between the Writ- with such fury and vengeance is making it hard to imag- ers Guild and the Association of Talent Agents, the ine a happy ending to this picture. More likely, the large Guild’s position was very clear: Packaging must end, agents will simply drop their writer clients entirely and and the money needs to be redistributed to the writers. continue to package television projects through their The negotiations between the two parties broke directing and acting clients. Writers will be represented down. That’s when the Guild ordered its members to by agents with less money and leverage, the only two fire their agents—a massive display of unity (helped things that have ever really mattered in show business. along with veiled threats of retribution against recal- The entertainment business will continue to evolve citrant members) and the beginning of an impasse and shift as newer ways of making money emerge. One that began in mid-April and shows no sign of ending. thing is certain, though: Money will not, now or ever, The members of the Writers Guild of America are, un- be redistributed back to the writers in the sweatshops. fortunately, writers. Emotional, angry, maybe a little That is not the world we live in or the world to come. bit paranoid—these are excellent qualities in someone What the Guild envisions is a world where all the who turns his or her daydreams into dollars, but not writers are labor heroes, all the agents are hondlers, and quite appropriate for seeing the larger economic pic- you always know who the machers are. ture. So let me pitch this to you again. I made a mis- It’s probably true that agents make too much take earlier. This isn’t a social-justice picture. This money, although there were days in the 1990s when I is a science-fiction movie. Because the Writers Guild was convinced I made too much money. And there are doesn’t need a new contract. What it needs is a time probably things about the financing and compensa- machine.q
Commentary 55
Culture & Civ.indd 55 5/13/19 4:01 PM HOLLYWOOD COMMENTARY The Gilded Sweatshop
ROB LONG
KAY, HERE’S THE PITCH. As the movie be- happened in the intervening years can be experienced gins, we’re in one of those awful sweatshop simply by visiting your oldest-living relative and trying O factories—not sure about the era, but let’s to explain Apple TV or Netflix. say the 1950s, when there are lots of rich wardrobe What also happened in the intervening years possibilities and we can get period-appropriate cars was that talent agents—once objects of derision and easily. Also, it should take place before air-conditioning, mockery for their small-time greed and flexible eth- so we’ve got some ceiling-fan atmosphere and sweaty ics—became more than just dealmakers in loud sport shirts and all of the actors look dewy and appealing. coats. From the late 1970s to today, talent agencies This is a social-justice picture, with a message. have become immensely rich corporations, attracting The workers in the steambath of a factory have sudden- institutional investors, creating their own film and ly realized—don’t ask why it took them so long, just stay television production funds, and figuring out more with the pitch, okay?—anyway, they’ve recently discov- remunerative ways to make a dime than charging their ered that another group of workers in the same sweaty clients 10 percent. In other words, they went from hon- industry—doesn’t matter which industry, okay? Just let dlers to machers. me get through the pitch!—so, another group of work- The writers in their sweatshops (actually, nicely ers, office types in suits and ties, who take long lunches furnished offices on glamorous studio lots, with air- and never seem to be in the office, and certainly don’t conditioning, free lunch, and unlimited MacBook work as hard as the perspiring workers on the factory Pros) don’t like this twist in the story. They want to be floor, are making a lot more money than our heroes. represented by hondlers. Having an agent who is really A major labor action ensues. There’s some con- a macher is like having another boss, and who needs flict, maybe a romance in there, friendships dissolved, more bosses? resolution, a couple of big speeches and an Oscar(™) As explosive changes came to Hollywood, what moment or two, and boom: agents noticed was that telecommunications and enter- Final crane shot: The overpaid and dishonest of- tainment were merging in lucrative ways. It occurred to fice workers are marched out of the building, through them that show business wasn’t a business all by itself, the factory floor, as the (for some unexplained reason) but a component of larger enterprises. Cable compa- not-sweaty-anymore sweatshop workers cheer and cel- nies, for instance—and mobile telephone companies, ebrate their victory, with intercut close-ups of the union and streaming-video businesses—make money by leaders who guided them to this moment. charging monthly fees. It really makes zero difference This is the movie running through the heads of to, say, Comcast or Netflix how often you watch, or even the leaders, and the majority of the members, of the if you watch, their offerings. What matters is that you Writers Guild of America as they battle with the Asso- continue to pay your monthly bill. The shows they put ciation of Talent Agents over the details of a new con- on are just there to keep you from noticing the recur- tract. The old agreement between the two groups was ring charge on your credit-card statement and thinking, decades old, written before cable television, streaming “Hulu? Does anyone in this house watch Hulu?” video, Kardashians, and the touch-tone phone. What The result: Content—a word that accurately reflects the neutral, utterly indifferent way big media Rob Long has been the executive producer of six TV companies think about show business—must keep series. flowing through the tubes continued on page 55
56 June 2019
Culture & Civ.indd 56 5/13/19 4:01 PM YOU DESERVE TO KNOW THE TRUTH... Peace with Palestinian Dictators? Governments of the Palestinians’ two ruling dictatorships are in shambles—and at war with each other. How can Israel possibly achieve peace with them at this time? Neither the Palestinian Authority in Judea-Samaria (the West return for peace. Yasser Arafat turned down the first offer, Bank) nor the Islamist terror group Hamas in Gaza has held and Mahmoud Abbas rejected the second. Since 2014, elections since 2006, and the two factions are battling one Abbas has refused to negotiate with Israel. another in a vicious power struggle. Both refuse to recognize Hamas: Islamist Dictatorship. An outgrowth of Egypt’s the Jewish state or accept Israeli offers of peace. Muslim Brotherhood—which also spawned al Qaeda— What are the facts? Hamas is a fundamentalist Islamist organization. Its charter calls for the conquest of all Palestine—including While Israel, with the United States, made generous land-for- present-day Israel—and the establishment of an Islamic peace offers to the Palestinians in 2001 and 2008—and left state. Because of Hamas’ brutal use of suicide bombings the entire Gaza Strip to the Arabs in 2005—neither of the and rocket attacks on Jewish civilian populations, it two major Palestinian groups has accepted Israel’s offers . . has been declared a terrorist organization by the U.S. . or even its right to exist. What’s more, both the Palestinian State Department and the European Union. While Authority and Hamas governments are in disarray, Hamas won power squandering precious resources waging a bitter internecine after Palestinian war. Until these warring Arab factions reconcile—and While Israelis parliamentary accept Israel as their neighbor—it’s impossible to imagine a pray for peace, elections in 2006, peace agreement among them. Palestinian leaders it has refused to Splintered Palestinian Movements: Following Israel’s reject violence, and repulsion of five attacking Arab armies in 1967, Arabs pray for Israel’s in fact took violent in Palestine formed the nationalist Palestine Liberation destruction. control of Gaza. Organization, under Egyptian Yasser Arafat. Arafat Today Hamas rules inspired the First Intifada, a terrorist guerilla effort Gaza brutally, according to strict Sharia law. Hamas against Israel, which ended with the 1993 Oslo Peace has launched three wars against Israel, most recently in Accords. Under these accords, the Palestinian Authority 2014. Because of Hamas’ belligerence, Gaza is currently (PA) would run Arab parts of Gaza and Judea-Samaria, under sanctions from Egypt, Israel and the Palestinian while Israel has controlled the remaining parts until Authority. While the PA and Hamas have made many the Israeli-Arab conflict can be resolved through peace attempts at reconciliation, all have failed, and relations negotiations. After Israel’s complete withdrawal from between them remain poisonous. The people of Gaza Gaza, terror group Hamas won Palestinian legislative suffer an unemployment rate of 44%, just four hours of elections in 2006, then seized control of Gaza from the electricity daily and a dysfunctional economy. Hamas PA. Since 2007, Hamas has ruled Gaza as an Islamist currently receives some financial support from Iran and fiefdom, and the PA and Hamas remain fierce enemies to Turkey, much of which is used to continue the terror this day. group’s war against Israel. The Palestinian Authority: Secular Dictatorship. In order to forge an Israel-Palestinian peace, all parties While grounded in Muslim values, the Palestinian must sincerely want it and be capable of carrying out a Authority has always been secular. Following Arafat’s plan for reconciliation. It’s clear that today’s Palestinian death in 2004, Mahmoud Abbas was elected president dictatorships lack the ability to make peace among of the PA for a four-year term, yet has held the grip of themselves, humanely govern their people or commit to power ever since. Today’s Palestinian Authority is rife peace with Israel. While Israelis pray for peace, Palestinian with corruption, its economy is effectively bankrupt, it leaders still pray for Israel’s destruction. suffers from unemployment of 29%, and without foreign subsidies it would collapse. Despite its charter under the This message has been published and paid for by Oslo Agreement to make peace with Israel, the PA has remained dedicated to wresting all of the Holy Land from Jewish control. It has never recognized Israel as a Jewish homeland and has demanded that all Arab Facts and Logic About the Middle East refugees from Israel’s War of Independence in 1948—as P.O. Box 3460, Berkeley, CA 94703 well as some five milliondescendants of those refugees— James Sinkinson, President be “returned” to Israel, thus destroying the Jewish state Gerardo Joffe (z"l), Founder demographically. Israel—under the sponsorship of FLAME is a tax-exempt, nonprofit 501(c)(3) organization. Its purpose Presidents Bill Clinton in 2001 and George W. Bush in is the research and publication of facts regarding developments in the Middle East and exposing false propaganda that might harm the 2008—offered the Palestinians about 98% of Judea- United States, Israel and other allies in the region. You tax-deductible Samaria, as well as a capital in eastern Jerusalem, in contributions are welcome. To receive free FLAME updates, visit our website: www.factsandlogic.org
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