PRIDE OF AUTHORSHIP

[Larry Racies]

In article <Pine.A32.3.91.960209081109.55640A-100000 at itsa.ucsf.edu>,
Bert Gold  <bgold at itsa.ucsf.edu> wrote:
>
>
>
>PRIDE OF AUTHORSHIP
>
>
>Now we have two conservatives in America, namely Citizens William F.
>Buckley and Stephen Forbes, espousing views first articulated by the left.
>
>Buckley has devoted an entire issue of his National Review to the
>proclaimation that the 'drug war is lost' and 'legalization' is now
>our only hope for a sane nation.
>
>Forbes has claimed an edge over Dole in the current Repubican
>New Hampshire Primary Polls, largely extolling the virtues a the flat tax.
>
>Time magazine devotes its entire issue this week to a lengthly exploration
>of the flat tax concept, originally proposed by none other than
>the California 'flake' Jerry Brown.
>
>What have we now in American Politics?  Conservatives gone fanciful?
>Attempting to reach conciliation with the left? Or simply drunk with Power?
>
>Analysis of the narcissism of the 90s leaves us with no more startling
>conclusion than it would in the ancient Greek Myths: viz. That they
>will wither away in their own image:  But not before killing that
>which made them.
>
>For me, as a jew, it feels odd to be considering pride as a sin.
>Because my understanding, though feeble, is that that is what Jesus
>preached.  
>
>What is clear for me is that neither Buckley nor Forbes, oddly both
>magazine magnates, are being honest in attributing credit for their
>ideas.  Each appears to be appropriating the ideas of another without
>respecting their originator.  And, as it happens, in the case of both
>of these ideas, the originators are on the left.
>
>In an era where form is more important than substance, why should
>we expect correct attribution from our leaders?  Perhaps because it
>is only by following their example that we shall set our own.  And
>if the examples of our current leadership are to be followed, 
>future moral poverty will be widespread indeed.
>
>It worries me that such obvious plagiarism can be so easily rationalized,
>that our leaders will engage any policy which permits their aggrandizement,
>and that our people will believe any communication from a charmed
>class of messengers, no matter how hollow.
>
>Bert Gold
>San Francisco
>

		Nicely put, but why don't you use his real name?

		It's Malcolm S. Forbes, Jr. (Call me Steve).


Larry Racies