During the 20th century it was thenwidespread availabiUty of education—nespecially higher education—whichnpreented class lines from becomingnrigid. The average poor youth desirousnof advancing his economic and socialnstation in life found that a universityndegree opened doors of opportunity.nAnyone wishing to become an officernin the Armed Forces needed a bachelor’sndegree; anyone wanting to work atnthe white-collar level found such employmentneasier to get through a uni-nersity placement service; certainlynthose wanting to enter the professionsnneeded to go to college; and anyonenwanting to enter the civil service abovenGS 7 (other than through politicalnappointment) found that a college diplomanmade civil ser’ice exams easier.nThus today it is ironic that Texasnand Oklahoma — two states where,nsupposedly, there is a belief in thenwork ethic of the frontier and a hatrednfor rigid class lines, where, supposedly,nthere is a dislike for privilege basednon inherited wealth—should be talkingnof raising tuition as a way ofncutting government expenditures. Thencombined cost of tuition, textbooks,nlaboratory fees, and room and boardnhave already increased to the pointnwhere it is virtually impossible for thensons and daughters of the poor to workntheir way through college.nTo this, legislators reply that everynraise in tuition and dormitory fees hasnbeen offset by the awarding of additionalnscholarships and loans to thenneedy. This does not enable studentsnto feel they have earned their education,nbut rather that they are the recipientsnof state welfare. Moreover, thisngrowing reliance on Federal and statenloans and scholarships means that statenand Federal bureaucrats increasinglynare determining who will be the nextntechnological elite.nDemocracy and free enterprise,nwhich hae produced an abundancenen’ied around the world, demand thatnhigher education be available to allnwilling to work for it, not just for thosenborn to wealth and privilege or elsenable to curry the favor of the bureaucracy.nThis fact somehow seems to havenescaptd legislators in Texas and Oklahoma,nstates founded by men andnwomen who believed in the work ethicnand in individual choice, not in bureaucraticnpaternalism or inheritednprivilege. Such is the road to makingnAmerica a land of rigid class structure,nnot an oasis of democracy and freenenterprise.nOdie Faulk is a distinguished Southernnhistorian and a contributing editornto Chronicles.nLetter From thenCaribbeannby Geoffrey WagnernA Cultural Evening in GrenadanDuring the four-and-one-half years ofnCuban hegemony in Grenada, I oftennhad cause to cross a country road fromnmy house on the Pointe Salines peninsulanto the Headquarters of the DGIn(Directorio General de Intelegencia) toncomplain about the noise. Would theynplease turn down the altavoz or speakernsystem beaming Castro’s speeches atnthe empty West Indian countryside?nThe furious squawks of the Cubanndictator, aimlessly amplified into thenelvety dark, seemed an apt symbol ofncommunism’s folly and failure, forneen the Cuban workers didn’t listen,nbeing so hard-worked they bunkedndown early; but it was interfering withnour Mozart. Besides, the medical studentsnwho rented rooms nearbyncouldn’t study against such sound. Inled a delegation of them to the DGInhouse.nWe were met with cautious courtesynand made our pitch. For a moment Incouldn’t help comparing the cleanshaven,nshort-haired Cuban intelligencenmen with the hirsute hoboes Inhad seen leading student demonstrationsnin the 1960’s in America. Senorndell’Osa told us that his Cubans (toneach group of whom an agent wasnattached) were enjoying a cultural evening,nuna noche cultural. If so, Inreflected, they were doing it to snores,nto be heard coming from the barracksnhuts about. In the event, it seemednneither advisable nor possible to arrestnHis Master’s Voice, and we departed,nthe students disconsolate, myself thenricher for a new translation.nFor the term cultural seems to bencommunist code for yet another Orwelliannopposite, meaning anticultural,nsince propaganda can nevernnnbe art. It can supply art with a pabulumnof sorts, as in the best of Eisenstein,nbut that director’s pathetic lastnyears under Zhdanov’s culturalncommissarship could be calculated tonturn even a Candide into an “agent ofnthe opposition.” Thus in Grenada, annisland without art, una noche culturalnhad to make do. Still and all, I confessnto surprise at the crudity of the Cubansnin this respect. After all, Cuba pretendsnto some cultural sophistication.nCastro’s friends include Gabriel GarcianMarquez, the man who dismissednthe agonized Vietnamese boat peoplenas so many “currency smugglers” beforenreceiving his Nobel Prize for literature;nCuba also boasts some goodnguitar music, some rotten painting,nand worse ballet under the aegis of thenageless Alicia Alonso, another intimatenof Castro’s, called “The MenopauselessnGiselle” by Juan Blanc. Perhapsnwhat Cuba sent us Grenadiansndown in the way of culture indicatedntheir estimate of our intelligence.nLooking back on his life in Trinidad,nV.S. Naipaul reflects: “Nothingnbound us together except this commonnresidence. There was no nationalistnfeeling; there could be none. Therenwas no profound anti-imperialist feeling.”nThere was none in Grenadanuntil Maurice Bishop tried to manufacturenit after his “coop de tat” ofn1979. We in the Windwards are muchntoo porous for the usual Marxist ideologicalndisinformation to have anynmeaning at all. “Nothing was creatednin the West Indies,” writes V.S. Naipaul.nIf culture is identity, we lack it,nand thank God. It is conceivable thatnthe internal diversity of a typicalnWindward Island (including Indians,nChinese, Syrians) saved the sanity ofnGrenada during the years of the NewnJewel regime, as Bishop thunderednaway: “In the context of the culturalnrevolution, I want to emphasize threenmain points — the spreading of thensocialist ideology, the wiping out ofnilliteracy and the building of a newnpatriotic and revolutionary-democraticnintelligentsia.” To follow the book, henhad to come up with some sort of localncultural palingenesis. Frankly, hencouldn’t get close. He even gave up onnthe rallies when only 10 childrennturned up for one.nGrenada has no folk art, like Haiti.nIt has no theater and one cinemanAUGUST 1986 / 41n