May / June 1987
American Purpose
Issue 5, Volume 1

Publication Date: May 1, 1987
Posted: Friday, May 5, 1987

This issue includes 'Idealism Without Illusions'; 'Nuclear Denial'; 'Stubborn, Those Americans'; 'Ethics, War, and Peace'; 'Madison Senior Fellowships'; 'On Keeping Your Head'; 'In Brief'.


In This Issue :

Idealism Without Illusions
Shortly before they were married, or so the story goes, Jacqueline Bouvier asked Senator John F. Kennedy how he would define himself. "An idealist without illusions," replied the future president.  [More]

Nuclear Denial
Psychologists call it the "Stockholm syndrome, "after the hostages in a Swedish bank robbery some years ago who began, over time and under the pressure of their fear, to "identify" with their captors. They put on, unconsciously, the mindset of those who held them captive; they could understand, as it were, what could turn a decent man into a kidnapper. Or so they thought.  [More]

Stubborn, Those Americans
Speaking of "Amerika," and we promise that this is absolutely the last time we'll speak of "Amerika," were Dr. John Mack's worst fears realized? Did the nation's bile rise during the week of February 16? Ben Wattenberg doesn't think so. And neither does his friend Dr. William Adams of the George Washington University.  [More]

Ethics, War, and Peace
At its November 1986 meeting, the Board of Directors of the United States Institute of Peace awarded a grant of $91,400 to the James Madison Foundation in partial support of a program aimed at reinvigorating the scholarly debate on ethics, war, and peace over the next decade.  [More]

Madison Senior Fellowships
The James Madison Foundation's two senior fellows, Joshua Muravchik and David Satter, are both at work on projects that we hope will be of interest to our readers.  [More]

On Keeping Your Head
Your editor remembers that his seventh-grade teacher, Sister George Mary, was a fanatic for memorization who required that "If" be learned by heart. Not much of that exercise in Kipling remains fresh at hand, save the opening line: "If you can keep your head when all about you are losing theirs and blaming it on you."  [More]

In Brief
Democracy requires that some people, at least, stand back from the immediate controversies of public life in order to set the stage on which debates aimed at wisdom, not just at partisan victory, can take place. One used to think of the League of Women Voters as such an arena-setting organization. The league, according to its popular image, is a bipartisan, indeed nonpartisan, agency whose first interest is in the proper functioning of American democracy. The league, in its classic form, seemed to understand that there were some things more important than winning tomorrow's argument.  [More]