European Stars And Stripes (Newspaper) - September 19, 1978, Darmstadt, Hesse Page 12 the stars and stripes tuesday september 19, 1978 John Roche courage the Rescue Force is on the was " we live in a period of Burnt out causes in his novel the bostonian Henry James began with a Savage parody of the Boston Reform set Rushing around in the Post civil War Era desperately seeking a substitute for abolition. His protagonist put it in a nutshell noting sardonically they secretly wished a return to Black slav Ery. Over the past months i have increasingly sensed that we too live in a time of Burnt out causes. One signal was the response of a group of affluent Young people average age probably 25, to a dedicated fund Raiser who approached them for Money to get Al Lowenstein Back in the first columns comments response was mystification which District of the 18th Koch s old but we in Massachusetts Don t have 18 districts and who was Koch a bit taken Aback the fund Raiser said Well you know it s in new York and Lowenstein was the Man who dumped what followed was a bit hard on my ego who was Johnson and where was he dumped it sounded like a Dis Cussion of a Gangland killing. The frustrated Volunteer drifted in my direction but i informed him that anyone Bill Buck Ley supported i was against. He restored my ego. Who s Bill Buckley another portent occurred in a seminar where 1 was discussing american economic problems and their political Impact. The group was composed of intelligent Basi Cally nonpolitical technocrats and in the question period one extremely Well in formed woman asked me about my con Cern Over unemployment. After laying out accurate statistics on the 100 million la Bor Force noting that few Heads of House hold were out of work that two income families were rapidly increasing with Al most 50 percent of women in the relevant age group employed she asked in Macro economic terms do you seriously argue that a few million unemployed Young peo ple constitute a problem if i thought in Macro economic terms my answer would have to be but i Don t operate on that wave length. I am a hopeless believer that the Central functions of a Community Are moral not Macro eco nomic. Even if it involves wasting Money every step must be taken to keep those unemployed Young people out of the can Cerous culture of poverty. I m not pontificating i know the Macro economists consider their position to have Long run moral virtue. However most significant Here is a growing Public acceptance of their View that characters like me have of d on compassion and interfered with the natural order of the economic universe. A further indication that ours is the Era of Burnt out causes came from my Light summer Reading in and Robert Kennedy and his the Nixon that emerges in his autobiography and the Bob by in Arthur Schlesinger s labor of love Are precisely what in political life they were not Dull. The books should Corner the door Stop Market i fled for Relief to bar Bara Tuchman s splendid Distant Mir ror a Panorama of the 14th Century. As i was annotating the Page in which Schle Singer absolves Bobby of real guilt in try ing to eliminate Castro i stopped and asked who cares a Good question one a number of us should keep in mind. The final episode which would have been High farce except for its tragic imply the opinions expressed in the columns and cartoons on this Page represent those of the authors and Are in no Way to be considered As representing the views of the stars and stripes or the United states government. Cations was the guilty plea by William and Emily Harris accused of kidnapping Pat Ricia Hearst. Like Leon Trotsky after the failure of the russian 1905 revolution the harrises defied the system announced Pride in what the kidnapping had accomplished and said it proved to the world the Power of revolutionary ideals. The Audi ence in the courtroom applauded vigorous difference Between Trotsky and the harrises Are obvious Trotsky led a Revo Lution. The sym ionese liberation army was not revolutionary it was a Nasty bit of pseudo revolutionary thuggery. The sys tem did t shake or even quiver. In fact it let these desperado cop their pleas. With Luck they will be Back to undermine society in five years. The fact the audience applauded this blather suggests that instead of sentencing the harrises to jail the judge should have put them and the audience in a museum. There they could run through the act twice a Day for the Benefit of those still Liv ing in the past. And change the ending As in medieval Miracle plays to insure the Devil s defeat. The cure for this me decade virus would be a Good War or serious depression but Only a sadist could find Delight in such Relief. We just have to realize that Nixon the vice president who took Power when Lowenstein dumped Johnson in Bobby Kennedy s Pool invented moral Macro economics. C King features James Reston pessimism surprising disturbing every once in a while somebody produces a Public opinion poll in America that makes you wonder for example the department of labor has just published one that is both surprising and disturbing. It suggests that the american people Are not Only troubled about the present but Are losing their natural optimism about the future. The interviewing for this Survey was conducted by the Roper organization right after the passage of proposition 13 in Cali fornia and was Analysed by Public re search inc., a private non profit Organiza Tion under contract to the labor department. Among the conclusions of the Survey were the following the american people feel it said the United states is not As Well off today As it was five years ago. This sense of backward movement for the nation is not new this trend has been picked up i these ratings since 1971." what is new however and alarm ing the Survey adds is the finding that unlike All previous measures the Public feels things Are not going to get any better in the Well we certainly All have our individual judgments on the value of Public opinion polls but if this Survey Means anything it is news of considerable importance. For it says some other things that if True must make us wonder where we Are going. For example it finds that while there is a general anxiety in the nation about the future the Blacks Are More optimistic about where we Are going than the Whites the lower Middle income people Are More hold on wait surely you re not optimistic than the Rich and what s Proba Bly the most worrying of its conclusions that the Young Are More pessimistic than the old. " in trying to. Explain this pessimism the labor department s Survey found that All people were startled by the influence of inflation and the rising Cost of living even before the problem of unemployment. Next to inflation and the Cost of living crime and the violence and threat to life seemed to worry most americans and the third concern was the tax Burden on working americans particularly in the Middle West followed by the Cost of medical and health care particularly by the people Over 60 and those with incomes of less than $7,000 a year. It is interesting to compare these anxieties in american life with what existed a generation or so ago. There is unemployment but never in the wildest imagination of the past so Many people employed now Over 90 million As they Are at the pre sent time. There Are troubles Between the nations but no major War or threat of major War anywhere in the world. No military conscription in the United states or anywhere else in the Western nations. Why then All this despair and pessimism particularly among the Young unlike their parents and grandparents they Are not being asked to tear up their private lives and go into the army. And never in the history of the Republic have so Many jobs been available to so Many people Black or White. Finally it is interesting that the depart ment of labor should publish a Survey dramatizing the grievances of the Ameri can people. Usually governments Tell us that everything is Dandy but Secretary of labor Ray Marshall is now telling us in this Survey that we have serious problems to face and Are losing our Confidence to. Deal with them and asking us what we think should be done about this crisis Oil Confidence. C new York times
