Balder Ex-Libris

Author : Oliver Revilo Pendleton
Title : The New Order Changeth, too
Year : 1989

Link download : Oliver_Revilo_Pendleton_-_The_New_Order_Changeth_too.zip

Last autumn the Christian Science Monitor devoted a full page to what would have been a 'scoop' in the old days of independent and competitive journalism. It predicted that on the first of January 1989, William F. Buckley, Jr., would retire from active management of National Review and, dignitatis causa, move himself upstairs as "Editor in Chief," turning over the actual editorial responsibility to an imported editor named John O'Sullivan. It hinted that important changes in staff and policy would follow, and presented a "mock up" of an appropriate cover for the first issue in 1989, which would announce the abdication of the founder of the journal and Mr. O'Sullivan's ascension to the editorial throne. In America's Decline I sketched the origin of National Review, as planned by Professor Willmoore Kendall of Yale, and its conversion into what he called "just another Liberal journal" when he severed his connection with it. The periodical, originally a weekly, became a fortnightly, survived heavy losses and the enforced liquidation of the original publishing company, National Weekly, Inc., and eventually survived the loss of the best mind ever associated with it, James Burnham, who (for cash) had lent his name to the masthead, given advice (sometimes disregarded), and written articles. (1) (footnote 1. Mr. Burnham owed his reputation (and prosperity) to his Managerial Revolution (1941), in which he identified the fatal separation of control from ownership which has made our society hopelessly vulnerable. His greatest book is The Machiavellians (New York, Day, 1943; paperback reprint, Chicago, Regnery, 1963), in which he examines the real bases of politics in the traditional and favorable sense of a word which is now currently used to designate a form of criminal activity. His Suicide of the West (New York, Day, 1964) is a sequel, identifying clearly the intellectual and spiritual disease, the "AIDS" of civilization, that is called "Liberalism." Mr. Burnham died of cancer last year, and, sad to relate, just before his death, a pack of Christians invaded the sick room and harassed the dying man until they succeeded in splashing on him some holy water that would reserve for his ghost a comfortable apartment in old Jesus's famous retirement home up in the stratosphere. It is shocking that that indignity was inflicted on Burnham, who was a rational man and regarded Christianity as a crude fiction, which had been useful as a myth so long as it provided an effective means of social control (see The Machiavellians).) The fortnightly eventually became a solvent, soundly established, and perhaps quite profitable business, and certainly the most literate representative of the kind of "conservatism" that was promulgated by old Ronnie Reagan's speech-writers, including, of course, slavish obedience to Yahweh's Master Race. Since its primary objective was more or less subtle promotion of the Jesuscult, preferably in the version vended in Rome at the time the journal was founded, it was exposed to acute embarrassment when the Papacy was made just another mouthpiece for the international socialism that is only nominally and superficially distinct from Bolshevism, but Mr. Buckley was able adroitly to avoid with editorial finesse commitment to either endorsement of or opposition to the ecclesiastical revolution. (2) (footnote 2. The equivocation did not content Mr. Buckley's brother-in-law, Brent Bozell, the author of The Conscience of a Conservative by Barry Goldwater. He seceded and founded an admirably forthright journal, Triumph, which, however, was short-lived, since most Catholics have the American habit of refusing to consider or even perceive uncomfortable facts.) Given the position that National Review attained through the wit of its editor and two or three of its writers, the news in the Christian Science Monitor was of interest. It was not, however, entirely accurate. Mr. O'Sullivan did become the editor, and Mr. Buckley did move up to the journalistic penthouse, but that happened many weeks before the first of the year, and there has been no announcement of Mr. Buckley's retirement--not even a preparatory hint. The latest issue I have at hand is dated 24 February 1989. It contains, as usual, reprints of "Bill" Buckley's syndicated newspaper columns (in which he waxes sentimental about a performance by Ronnie and Nancy Reagan, even alluding to Philemon and Baucis, quoting the story, not from Ovid, but from Whittaker Chambers). There is a book review by him, and his dextrous hand is visible in the editorial section. If the Monitor was right about the eventual change, the transition is being slowly and cautiously prepared. ...