howled at that one.) Later, he workednhis way up from foreman on a loadingnplatform to owner of a neighborhoodnbar, which gave way to the spin-offnseries Archie Bunker’s Place. It was atnthis point that Lear gave up on satirenand began portraying an Archie whonhad mellowed and begun to grownsensitive to minorities and left-wingncauses, and it is also at this point thatnthe show left the air.nAnd the Meathead? The last wordncame in the spin-off series: he ran outnon his wife and son, took up with anyounger woman, and retreated to anCalifornia commune.n— Matthew KaufmannLAST DECEMBER, almost f^venhundred black men, women, and childrennmet on Jekyll Island, Georgia, fornthe first National Kwanzaa Celebration.nNo whites were allowed. Solemnizednwith what the Atlanta Constitutionncalled “none of the usual holidaynhype,” Kwanzaa is a week-long blacknreligious festival founded in 1966 bynMaulana Karenga, a professor of blacknstudies at Cal State Long Beach.nKwanzaa — Swahili for “first fruits” —nis “a holiday created by Africans fornAfricans,” said Karenga, and it rannfrom December 26th to January 1st.nPrincipalities & Powersnby Samuel FrancisnJ_iewis Namier liked to tell the story ofnan English schoolboy who was asked tondefine “imperialism” on an examinationnpaper. “Imperialism,” the buddingnproconsul wrote, “is learning how to getnalong with one’s social inferiors.” In thenEdwardian twilight of the British Empire,nthat answer might have sufficed tonwin a scholarship to Balliol, but thesendays the lad would be lucky not to windnup in jail for a hate crime.nYet, despite Western genuflections tonself-determination and global democracy,nempire, like Che and Elvis, lives.nIndeed, the rationale for imperialism isnno longer the callow snobbery of Etonnand Sandhurst, Social Darwinist rumblings,nor Rudyard Kipling’s “whitenman’s burden,” but the very same pro-n8/CHRONICLESnThe sponsor of the Jekyll Islandnprogram was the National Black WholisticnSociety, an organization that, innthe words of its founder. ProfessornHaki Madhubuh of Chicago, seeks “tonintroduce our people to a way of lifenthat’s not conflictual with the way ofnnature.” The society made sure, fornexample, that every meal had a vegetariannentree such as akara, mashednblack-eyed peas baked in a patty, andnthat foods were cooked in the “way ofnnature,” such as sauteing collardngreens in olive oil rather than salt pork.nSpeakers at the gathering, in additionnto Karenga, included Professor NainnAkbar of Florida State University onn”Spirit, Water: The Healing of OurnAfrican Souls” and psychiatrist FrancesnCress Welsing of Washington, D.C.,non “Building Families to DestroynWhite World Supremacy.”nThe highlight was the “AfricannSpiritual Reclamation Service,” annoutdoor candlelight ceremony in honornof African ancestors. Participantsnasked the spirits of the dead “to feed usntoday,” said celebrant Chester Crundy,nhead of minority affairs at thenUniversity of Kentucky.nIn Atlanta, there was a Kwanzaanparade through downtown and “standing-roomnonly” for the celebrations,nsaid Akbar Imohotep, director of thengressivist slogans that provide the lyricsnfor what is supposed to be the imperialnrecessional. For all of President Bush’sninvocation of the “international rule ofnlaw” and the “New Worid Order” inncranking up Western war machines fornthe crusade against Iraq last winter, thenwar was no sooner concluded thannAmerican and European diplomats,ncorporate satraps, global welfare workers,nand assorted do-gooders descendednonto the deserts of the Middle East tonbring the locals up to snuff. It’s true thatnAmerican conquistadors didn’t plantnOld Glory on the shore or hang thensheiks and emirs from the nearest kumquatnbush, but nobody out there couldnhave had any illusion as to who wasnreally in charge. It wasn’t Saddam Hussein,nlet alone that merry old soul. HisnMajesty the Emir Jabir al-Ahmad al-nJabir Al Sabah.nnnMetro-Atlanta Kwanzaa Association.nAt high schools, community centers,nand churches, blacks celebrated thenseven principles of Kwanzaa: umoja,nracial unity; kujichagulia, racial selfdetermination;nujima, racial responsibility;nujamaa, racial economics; nia,nracial restoration; kuumba, racialnneighborhoods; and imani, ancestornworship.nThe Kwanzaa creche, used for publicnand private devotions, has sevennitems: mazao, crops produced by collectivenagriculture; muhindi, an ear ofncorn for each child in the family;nkikombe cha umoja, the “cup of racialnunity” from which libations are pourednfor the ancestors; mkeka, a mat representingnAfrican traditions; kinara, anseven-branched candelabrum symbolizingnancestral Africans; mishumaansaha, seven candles for the seven principlesnof Kwanzaa; and zawadi, handmadengifts exchanged between parentsnand children.nKwanzaa “should not be seen as anrejection of Christmas or Christianity,”nsaid Professor Karenga. Rather, itnmakes sure that blacks “don’t have tonadjust to a white man in a red suit or anwhite child in a manger.”n— Llewellyn H. RockwellnImperialism is the systematic dominationnof one or several countries bynanother, and although empire historicallyninvolves all the splendiferous trappingsnof formality and ceremony, itndoesn’t really need them. Only thosenwhose grasp of public affairs remains atnthe level of junior-high-school civicsnbelieve that the international powernwielded by the United States and thenSoviet Union since 1945 hasn’t constitutedna kind of empire, and with Muscovynwheezing and whimpering its wayntoward disintegration, the end game hasnleft the United States the only player onnthe board. In 1947, James Burnham,nsurveying the realities of world power innthe wake of Worid War II, understoodnwhat was happening.n”Western civilization,” Burnhamnwrote, using the language and ideas ofnArnold J. Toynbee, whose multivolumen