intellectual power. One of the finestnsamples of a dialectical novel transcendingnthe very notion of fiction—a 20thcenturynspecific genre—Darkness atnNoon will long remain a most precisenindictment of communism’s moral failure.nFor that, any thoughtful person innour age owes Arthur Koestler respectnand admiration. We are certain that hisndeath will not erase his presence aniongnus for a long time to come.nAn Epitaph to RabiditynA venerable gentleman died not longnago at the age of 83. He was one of thenmost advertised, maligned, and abusednhate objects of the American liberal universe.nHis name was Robert Ten BroecknStevens, president of the J. P. Stevensntextile company, whose valiant fightnagainst unionist crime, abuse, and hypocrisynfi-equently made headlines in thenmedia. His cardinal sins and unpardonablenwickedness were endlessly illuminatednon the giant expanse of the progressivenpress, from the Times, CBS, andnthe Post to Mother Jones and VillagenVoice.nWhat was never mentioned was thatnMr. Stevens, whUe serving as Secretarynof the Army in 1954, was deeply involvednin the fight against Senator McCarthy,nand was instrumental in bringing aboutnthe latter’s final defeat. According to thenliberal gospel, one cannot possibly benantiunion and a servant of democracynand truth. There’s no such thing as independentnintegrity.nCopycatsnWe suspect that whatever has happenednto the world during the last centurynhas been and continues to be predeterminednand predicated somewherenbetween New Jersey and Oregon. Thisnis, of course, a sweeping generalization,nbut one that can be dissected v^^th thenprecise insights of philosophy, sociology,nand the history of manners—all ofn42inChronicles of Culturenwhich prove its puzzling accuracy.nTherefore, what happened in Marchnin West Germany—called one of thenmost important elections of the post-nWorld War II period only confirmed ournsuspicions. The Greens, a sort of artifactn(homunculus?) of a political party,nbrought into the German political processnsomething that is weird by thencriteria of European parliamentary tradition,nbut which is not unknown innAmerica.nThe Greens are not exactly a party,nhaving no sensu stricto political programnanchored in a given set of ideologicalnprinciples which, in turn, are rootednin a philosophy or a world view. Theynare dedicated to a political defense ofnemotions, penchants, sympathies, preferences—particularlynto the defense ofnnature against the encroachment of thenenterprising human mind and humannsocioeconomic activities. Love of andndevotion to nature is certainly nothingnnew; for millennia it has been a valuablensource of poetry and personal raptures.nHowever, a few decades ago in America,nsuch feelings acquired a special coloringnthat in due course prescribed a commitmentnto militancy on behalf of somenstrictly defined sociopolitical posture.nThe hitherto innocent and benignngroupings of bird-watchers and pineforestnfens suddenly emerged as a highlyncharged political force that eagerly,neven fanatically, began to march fornevery leftist cause, brutally tramplingnany cogent argument that contested itsnallegedly sacred crusade. Since that development,nany political stance announcingna fight against the American way ofnlife—^from zany anarchism to rigidlynorganized revolutionary movements tonshrewd Kremlin proxies on Americanncampuses—has been able to count onnthe ferocious support of perpetuallynenraged snail-darter worshipers andndormant-volcano lovers. During theninfamous 1960’s, the American ecologicalnmovement fiercely sided with thenmade-in-Berkeley fascism; it subscribednto the tenet that all the ills and indignitiesnof existence are nested in thennnAmerican political and economic system.nSome environmentalists go so fer asnto claim that the American democracynmaneuvers us all, willingly or unwillingly,ninto hastening the extinction of life onnthis planet. Consequently, their missionnis to stave off that catastrophe by joiningnforces with the most unbending, relentlessnenemies of America’s “depravity” •n(guaranteed by the Constitution), all ofnwhom are on the left, each of whose endngoal is to destroy American democracynand replace it with some quasi-Marxian,nSoviet-like, vaguely envisioned sociopoliticalnstructure giving all decisionsnconcerning rocks, plants, and natural resourcesnto the fanatical idolators of anlandscape unspoiled by a smokestack.nThe Greens, which in the March electionnwon a small representation in thenBundestag (German parliament), supplynprecisely the same ideologicalnscheme coupled with fierce, rabid anti-nAmericanism. Their political pronunciamentosnidentify America as mankind’sncurrent curse and evil. From the perspectivenof their fight against atomicnenergy and nuclear-defense systems—nwhich is waged by the German middleandnupper-class youth, their main constituency—^theynseem not to realize thatnthey have become an objective tool ofnthe Kremlin’s policy in Europe. Theynseem to have ignobly forgotten that theynowe their fi-eedom and affluence to thenMarshall Plan, to America’s politicalnmagnanimity after their World War IIndebacle. Yet what’s truly grotesque isnthat they seem not to notice that, actually,nthey are a sort of American product.nIn spite of some bemuddled, romanticnecht German ingredients in theirnrhetoric and image, they are Americannmerchandise, complete with the bluejeans-cum-T-shirtnuniform, mentallynequipped with virtues and standardsncranked out in the ideological sweatshopsnof Greenwich Village or manufacturednby the conscience factories innCalifornia and New Mexico. As such,ntheir political durability and seriousnessnis a matter of news stories and reportage,nnot one necessitating study. Dn