Yes, I’m renewing my subscription to The American Scholar. I like the editor’s (Robert Wilson’s) self-confidence in telling me that if I didn’t like his choice of articles, I should perhaps consider other publications. If our roles were reversed, I would have told him the same thing.

The Scholar has some of the best pieces written in today’s America. The book review section is excellent, the kind that puts one in a buying mood at amazon.com. On the negative side, some of the articles are written by academics who don’t get out nearly as much as they should. I don’t like articles that would get rave reviews at all known Faculty Clubs. I like writing that peeks into the abyss and tells us what the writer saw – and what he or she has learned.

For example, in the Summer, 2006 issue, Jay Tolson (a U.S. News senior writer and expert on novelist Walker Percy) reviews a life-of-the-mind book (An Argument for Mind) written by super-psychologist Jerome Kagan. Prof. Kagan is one of the most important academic thinkers of the past century.

In the late 1950s, Kagan became involved in a famous study of “typical American children” (mostly white, mostly middle-class, as befitted the 50s). The study explored key assumptions that psychologists and baby-rearing experts believed in then – and that many still affirm.

Kagan describes four assumptions: “The first swore allegiance to the significance of experience, especially maternal love and effective socialization of good character. The second held that habits, values, and emotions established early would be preserved indefinitely. The third alleged that psychological growth was gradual, and the last declared that ‘freedom from coercion’ [apparently coercion on or by the child] was the ideal state every child should attain.”

Admittedly, most studies seem somehow to confirm their organizers’ beliefs. In this case, Kagan’s study called all four assumptions into question. In fact, some of them turned out to be dead wrong, including one that’s a core of progressive thinking about child development.

As reviewer Tolson says, “The idea that the earliest years of infancy were the most determinative, for example, took a strong hit. Finding that behavioral differences in the infants first three years had little bearing on their psychological differences as adults [!!!!!!], Kagan discovered that behavior exhibited in the years between six and 10, after a child entered school, was a fairly good predictor of adult behavior.”

Obviously, Kagan’s book is a must-read. Tolson’s review shows his own value as a great generalist, who seeks to understand – and then explain in clear terms – some very complex thoughts. Reading Tolson on Kagan turned out to be one of those illuminating experiences that occur too rarely in life.

There’s another superb piece in the Summer 2006 edition. It’s “Feckless and Reckless,” by novelist and journalist Alan Peter Ryan. Once a New Yorker, he’s lived in Rio de Janeiro for about five years.

It’s impossible to do justice to the quality of this brief (2000 words?) article. It’s a tidy monument to good writing.

Consider one paragraph devoted to explaining why Rio-ites (Cariocas) are scary, if skilled, drivers. “Brazilians, so soon after the crushing military dictatorship, haven’t gotten over the habits of silence and caution. A restaurant in my neighborhood . . . provides a card you can fill out to rate the quality of food and service. The choices are: Excellent, Good, and Reasonable. Reasonable?”

Ryan continues: “The things other people would rate somewhere between unacceptable and criminally culpable – from food to dishonest government to incompetent repairmen to unreliable telephone or electric service to the terrifying crime rate – the Brazilian would, with a shrug, call ‘reasonable.’ But I doubt that anyone has ever checked that word on the card – or even filled out the card at all. Brazilians don’t like to behind evidence that might come back to haunt them. They prefer anonymity.”

In terms of essayistic prose, that’s about as good as it gets. In one extended paragraph, it gives great insight into the psyches and the hearts of Brazilians. It’s a shorthand version of what it would take months (years?) to learn about the people of Rio.

I hope everyone who reads this column looks into The American Scholar. Ignore the occasional pieces that show academics posturing and preening for one another; read the good stuff, which is available in abundance.

 

“[Ayaan Hirsi Ali is] a charismatic figure . . . of arresting and hypnotizing beauty . . . [who writes] with quite astonishing humor and restraint.”  (Christopher Hitchens)

 

The first time I saw Ayaan Hirsi Ali, author of the best-selling book Infidel, was on C-Span, usually an exercise in boring chatter and an outlet that I rarely watch.   Christopher Hitchens, the brilliant English author and enemy of Islamo-fascism, was in the audience.

 

Ali may have been the most articulate and compelling speaker – even though English was not her native language – I’ve ever heard.  I’d read that she was a strong critic of Islam, and that she was under a death threat from the adherents to that profoundly flawed religion.

 

In the C-Span production, a Muslim man in the audience – he was in a distinct minority – asked her how she “dared” to utter such thorough-going criticisms of his faith.  His comment reflected the Islamic belief that the religion should never be subject to challenges, not from the faithful (which Ali no longer is) and certainly not by an infidel (which she now calls herself proudly). 

 

Perhaps the man’s question implied something else, that people who dared to venture on the life path she has are taking a great risk.  A significant portion of the Muslim doesn’t debate its critics.  Rather, it kills them, always in the name of its “faith.”

 

If you read the introductory paragraphs in Infidel, you’ll get a sense of the book’s power:

 

“One November morning in 2004, Theodore van Gogh got up to work at his film production company in Amsterdam.  He took out his old black bicycle and headed down a main road.  Waiting in a doorway was a Moroccan man with a handgun and two butcher knives.”

 

“As Theo cycled down the Linnaeusstraat, Muhammed Bouyeri approached.  He pulled out his gun and shot Theo several times.  Theo fell off his bike and lurched across the road, then collapsed.  Bouyeri followed.  Theo begged, ‘Can’t we talk about this?’ but Bouyeri shot him four more times.  Then he took out one of his butcher knives and sawed into Theo’s throat.  With the other knife, he stabbed a five-page letter onto Theo’s chest.”

 

“The letter was addressed to me.”

 

Theo van Gogh and Ayaan Ali had made a short film together (Submission).  It had portrayed the brutal and disgusting subjugation of Muslim women by Muslim men certain they were carrying out the injunctions of the "Prophet" Muhammed.  The film was Theo’s – and Ayaan’s – supposed crime against Islam.  In short, to tell the truth is somehow an offense against the Supreme Being.

 

What will be the fate of Ayaan Hirsi Ali, this incredibly beautiful, intelligent, and courageous woman?  Unfortunately, the Muslim world being the global embarrassment it has become, there’s a good probability she will go the way of her friend Theo van Gogh.  There are many ignorant, fanaticized, violence-prone Muhammed Bouyeri’s out there, with their guns, knives, and other implements of death.

 

Ali never goes anywhere without an armed guard.  She may need one for the rest of her life.  Born a Somali, Ali is a Dutch citizen who now lives in the U.S. and works for the American Enterprise Institute.  I sincerely wish the U.S. would do for her what it did for Churchill, give her citizenship immediately – and also provide her with Secret Service protection. 

I don't agree with Ms. Ali on some important matters -- deeply wounded by her Muslim experience, she has become a nonbeliever -- but I revere her courage and love of Western freedoms.  She has a great sense of humor and a rare willingness to challenge not only the preconceptions of others, but also her own. 
 

I urge everyone who loves liberty and the worth of the individual to buy Ms. Ali’s book.  I got it from amazon.com for about $13, plus shipping.  For anyone who wants to understand why most of the Muslim world hates us – and hates her – it’s important reading. 

Infidels shatters the "pet rock" of liberal intellectuals: multiculturalism.  She points out that muliticulturalism basically celebrates cultures, like those in Islamic countries, that practice authoritarian rule, intolerance of other religions, the subjugation of women, and economic backwardness.  Ali if an admirer of many of those "old, dead, white males," such as the philosopher Spinoza, who formed the basis of Western civilization.
 

In some ways, Ali reminds me of my friend Diana Lynn Irey of Washington County, Pennsylvania, the charismatic woman who ran against John Murtha in the last election.  Like Diana, Ali is scrupulously honest and intensely spiritual.  Both women attract friends and supporters in the same way magnets attract iron filings. 

 

Diana is a remarkable woman, but Ali is the type that comes along about once a century.  She’s a dark-skinned, highly educated version of Joan of Arc.  Unlike Joan (and unlike Diana), Ali has not yet seen the tremendous power for good that Christianity at its best can unleash in individuals and societies.  If that comes to her, and I pray it will, she could realize her full capacity to transform the world for good.

It's true that we evaluate any civilization by its degrees of freedom and tolerance.  But we also gauge a society by the "freedoms" it doesn't allow.   For example, as Ali points out, the Koran encourages men to beat "disorderly" spouses and to execute apostates.  Those are freedoms of a sort that no good society encourages.  
 

As women (and men of good will) come out of Islam, as they will in great numbers, they will need an alternative to the intolerance and violence they've left behind.  They will benefit from understanding a Supreme Being who is an endless fountain of mercy and compassion – a God who, unlike the one in Islam, wants to engage us in an endless dialogue. 

 

Whatever the exact path Ali follows, she is a woman deserving of our admiration and emulation. 

 

 

Note:  I’ll write at least one more piece in the coming days about Ms. Ali. 

I'm delighted -- and relieved -- to be blogging on Townhall.com.  Previously, I blogged for six months (Campaign2008)  on the Google site (blogspot.com), and there are roughly 100,000 (!) words of mine there.  Google obviously is a very successful organization.  However, like so many technology organizations -- I worked for Compaq as a consultant, so I know these things -- Google is of, by, and for techies.  It is jargon-ridden and remarkably unhelpful.  That's why I'm relieved to be on Townhall.com.

I have some friends and associates who write regularly for Townhall, including Mary Grabar, one of the finest young conservative writers going; William F. Buckley, Jr. (editor of The National Review, which I wrote a few articles for); R. Emmett Tyrrell, Jr. (editor of The American Spectator, for which I wrote regularly in the 1970s); Paul Kengor, the superb political scientist at Grove City College); and others. 

About me: I have a Ph.D. in English Literature from the University of Rochester (which I write about occasionally).  I taught for a decade at various institutions, including Rochester, the College of William and Mary, and the University of Georgia.  Later, I worked as a speechwriter and manager at Phillips Petroleum, Gulf Oil, and Aetna.  I also served as a consultant/writer for many other companies, including Merck, Lilly, The Hartford, Compaq, and the Pharmaceutical Manufacturers Associaton, or PMA, now known as Pharma. 

I've been involved in conservative politics since the Goldwater campaign, the one thing I have in common with erstwhile Goldwater supporter Hillary Rodham Clinton.  Last summer and fall, I worked hard on the campaign waged by my friend Diana Lynn Irey, who worked hard to unseat befuddled congressman John Murtha.  In 1973, I was part of a group of young conservatives who advised then college professor Newt Gingrich about his political future in Georgia.  I'm glad he took much of our advice, and in 1978 -- after two tries -- he gained election to Congress. 

Over the years, I've written for many publications, including -- in addition to the ones already mentioned -- Fortune and Newsweek.  Overall, I write about the things I know, many of them learned in the jobs I've held in companies that dealt with energy, insurance, health, pharmaceuticals, and computer technology.  A long-time admirer of Thoreau, I also like to discuss ways to simplify life, making it at the same time less expensive and more satisfying.  In short, my interests tend to be eclectic.

I'm going to put in this new blog a few columns that suggest the variety of issues I'll touch on in my blog.  Like one of my conservative heroes, Richard Weaver, I know that "ideas have consequences."  God gave me the ability to write, and I'd like to use that ability to advance the causes of faith, freedom, and fair play. 

In small part, people write for themselves, as part of the process of shaping their thoughts.  However, one's writings exist primarily for others, both to teach them and to learn from them.   I hope many, many readers send me their thoughts about what I've written.

I may not agree with what you say -- or you with what I say -- but let both of us resolve to defend to the death our rights to say what we believe.  "Come let us reason together."

My next column will deal with Ayann Hirshi Ali, a thoroughly remarkable woman who wrote the book Infidel.