Daniel Patrich fi[oynilw I

f:rntasies of the right-lke as a tool of the Reds

etc.-and certain of theii characteristics, such

as the redemptive role of exrommunisb in

exposing the conspiracies (similar to that of the

ex-Catholic prieets of yore). But he knew well

enough the paranoid style of the left also, as is

illustrated in this paesage:

". . . the clinical paranoid sees the hostile and

conspintorial world in which he feels himsef to

be living as directed specifically agairct hia:

whereas the spokesman of the paranoid style

finds it directed against a nation, a culture, a way

of life whose fate. affectS not himself alone but

nrtljons of others. Lrsofar as he does not us'rally

see himself singled out as the individual victim of

e persot conspiracy, he is somewhat more ration-al

and much more disinterested. His sense that

his politicalpassions are unselfish and patriotic, in

fact, goes far to intensify his feeling of righteous.

ness and his moral indignation."

It is in that sense a rationalizing mode. Facts

are everything-and facts are neue/ accidental. 'Tor every eror or act of incompetence one can substitute an act of treaSon." furd always, of

cours€, this is proof of ithe existence of a vast,

insidious, preternaturally effective international

conspiratorial network designed to perpetrate

acts of the most fiendish character."

A 4 so to ilFK." lt couldbe viewed as parody.

fLThe homoserual .orgres in the New brleans town house d ttrc vilain dlay Shaw are straight;;i of Maria Monk's numery in Montreal. The ginerals

boozing it up as they plan the murder if Ueir commander-in<hief are straight out of Ramparts in a slow week in the'60s. The btack waiter who hears nothing is, well, MGM in the '30s. A John Birch look-alike is the fake enrdition. Carrison is forever going on about those who practic4 tg deceive, about riddl€ s- nmpped in mysteries inside enigrnas. Of partic,ular note: "Let justice be done, though the heavens fall." At one point I all but yelled qut ,,JLo!

[,Jse the codel Fiat Justicia Ruat Culum."

But it is not parody, and it is not funny. lt could spoil a.generation of Americao politics just when sanity is returning.

All of us in politics ought to see iu This is what citizens under 30 or 40 are going to be ttrinking soon. But don't despair. WC have got throug[ worse. As a matter of fact, an inadvertent illustr-a- tion is there in the movie itself.

.ln one of the longer scenes, Jim Garrison meets wlth. a renegade Pentagon officer who explains the y_hole plot. They sit on a park bench,-with the Washington Monument at iome distance in the background. Now if you just look closely at the monument, you will see that abaut a quarter of the way up,_the color of the stone changes, gets lighter. That is because ig the 1850s ttre pope dor,ated i bio;k of niarble'to ihe piivate assbcia- tion that was building the memorial. It was widely believed that there was a secret purpose in thii act-that when the block was actuilly iet in place, it . 'vould !e. the gignal for the Masonic-papisl scrzure of the Whrte House. A band of aiert r.iLens s:w to it ti^gt the narble ended uc cn ihe Potomac rnstead. Work stoppia, onfv ri U. ,.:

iqed by the CorRs of Enginlers 30 years later, .n ti.i.ne for the 1888 centennial, and that is the ierson for the difference rn color. Do.n't despair, but rnaybe Co read a l:ttle. The mernbers of the Warren Commission could have Conc that for uc. They could tr.uC hnorun ou past better.

_ Hcfstadter ciuses with this pearl ficrn the Bntish historian L. B. Namier:'"the crownrng attainment of historical study'' is to achreve ,,rn

littuitive sense cf how thinqs ijo irot happen."

The Paranoid Styl -f t happcns I war in the Whitc Hourc rt the hour

.L of john F. Kenned/r death. Therc were i.

iozen or so of us (I war an assietant labor

isreury at the timc) seetcd In e drclc' in

;residentid assistant Ralph Dungln't large routh-west

corrrcr roorn on thc lir* fhor. We wcre r

few. doon $own from thc Ovrl 0fficc, where thc

.ug, or eomething, was bcing changed end thc

furniture emptied out. Thc president's fanous

rocking chair wac resting on top o{ r piie of

cabhetr and such in thc litth anteroom just

outrHe. (Comc to think of i[ thir rmy h the only

"proof of r conspincy thrt 0liver Stone's movb -JFK mmebow ovcrtookr.)

There rrrr no formal anruunement tlut thc

prerident hrd di.d-juct r tirn whcn everydOd

knew. Nor did we do rnythlng thcrc wgft

anything lo do. Or not much, rnryay. McGcorgc

Bundy got up end went over !o t telephone.

arkjng in r quiet voicc thrt hc bc put tfuough to

thc recrctary of dcfenrc, Robcrt McNamera. Thc

door opcned, and in burst Hubcrt Humphrey;

eycr rtreeming, Hc gratd Dungan, who had

rircn "ltrhet hrvc thcy donc to urf hc gaapcd '

' "They,'of cour, were thorc peoph down in

Dalhr. No one in particular, just thc bunch that

rrcver did [fc lfuffEdy, otE of them-or what.

evcr-crrrcd enoqh fo do mrne cowboy rhoot-out

thing. A litth htei I wrr intcrviewcd oa

televirion, and fron sonrc unfathomcd 'reccrd

tlprc rorc thc opening wordr of Prorpcro'r

rcliloquy in "Thc Tempcrf: €ur reveh oow rrc

ended.'Thrt b whet had lnppcncd.

But therc war rnothcr mittcr. tffhat wouH lhc American peopb ,4ir* tud hrlpcncd? Lete in thc

afternoon I learned on thc rrdio of thc rrert of t rnan who hed bcco involvcd vith Feir Play for

Cubr, or romething likc thrt. Oh, my Godt. I

thought, tlrc Texanr will kill hinr. Kccp in mind that thir wac r nation only just coming out of I perid of near hystcrie on the part of romc about

the menacr ard inllrrcncc o{ commturirrn.

At midnight I went out to Andrcun Air Forcc

Base to nreet thc plane bringing back.thc Cabhct

and subcebinct membcn, who hed bccn halfway acro$ thc Paciflc, hcading for Japrq whcn thc assassination occurrcd" I pleaded with any who kncw me:'\{e muat get hold of O$vdd.. No onc hed thc foggiert idea whrt I war talting rborrt. I went rwly with thc rcnrc thrt not crnugh o{ therc Aeople had cvcr been In r police station.

{lswald war killcd prercntly, whereupoo r \-f complicated thing happened. I did nol think tnere had bcen a conrpincy to krll thc'preeident, but I was convinccd thrt thc Americin pcoplc would rooncr or htar comG to bclicvc thrt thirc had becrr one unlcst uc inuastigahd the cuat uilh '

*aclly tlryt )ryanltion in nind" Jollur. Macy, who wae then Civil Service comrnirsioner, i,r now Ce:^d, aid sr; I ruuri irr q.oiri iri .r,lrei i uy hc ihoughr. But I ixlieve he agreed, and I know he begao to join mc in ,nceting with people who inight make r differencc, and malini tlie .ame ergument I did. At one point I war crFrying with rnc thc 19th crntury tncmdr, of partor Charler Chiniquy, frlty Yean in *rc Clructr of Rome." I -sed it aa eyidencc o( our urtcr crcduliry. Chiru- qiry icils of an 'nteryieu/ .rarning Liniotn ol a f:ithoUc ;iot rgainst hir lifc. Lincoln agrees 'l:c:crih,g :o Cl--Li:quy'c far,Lastlcal accc:.ini, ;e. rpondng ar followr):

"l *tll oc for cver graieful for the uarning wordr

1,';u ilve aodresscd to :ne:lbout the da..rgers ;lhead lo my irt'e, fronl Rrxn€. I krow *;rt they are rrot rl-rgnar/ d.rngers, lf I u'ere nghting agal,nst a i)rotcgtrnt South, as E rution, there wculd be no

i:r:;er i f :-:gis:,ii:atj::n. 'J1rc iliicns'-ho ;eiil i l i r

iible, fight brauely on rhe batrle-6elds, but thry do

.lesuitr, with their Infernd lnquisition, are tlrc ixrly organieed powen io th€ world wtdch heve re- c.ounn !g tlp daggg of thc assasciit to mrudcr tho€ c whom they cannot convincc with thcir rrgF mentr ol cooquer with thc 8word.,'

Th1 O.reydent. partlcutarty regrettd the Ro. man Uathotk traitorf, that so infestcd th€ Union army. [,ct it be notcd that Lincoln's secretary of war, &twin M. Stanton, believed that the xeasi_ natior had indeed t*en a Catholic plot Note also that thc. cqry d Tifty yearr, that i was carrying around trad bcen ryocially reprinted for thc l-96d preeidential,electicr, whjctr ic the only reaeon I ltnry rbout it

TV. g{,t nowb€ re, Macy ard L In truth, I VV probabb got into troublc. I wac h€ rrd rs

Fnng not that peoflc were likely to ttrinl there hed ben r conspincy urhss wc inveatigatcd propcrV, but that thcrc ladbcen a consoiracvlThc Warron Commigli<n did not se€ itr w6* iir any-lhinq [k! the pcrspcctivc I tud hopcd for. It wes LyrdonJohruon at hir wont maniputativc. cmi{:al. S€ ttrnS r chief jurtic of no grert inteUeci ti do a

i$ ttnt e corrupt FBI wrr urcll conlcnt should not

t ..r i ' .. ,

bc donc we{. &lwgrd Jay Eprtcin laid it el: out ur a mastet/r thcsb writt€ n rt Corncll r few yearu later.

Morc rclcvrnt to thc prcsant mom€ nt. horever, is

Rictrard Hofstadt€ r'r incomparaHe essay ''T}c Para-noid

S$c in Amerirzn Pobtics,'which as it happern,

he delivered as thc Herhrt Spenccr lecture at Oiit i,i within days d ijtc Karrcriy assassuuuon r,,it ,rar published in Harper's lvlagazine r year later.) He

ireginc "Althorgb Amerbn poiiri.al lite har rareiy been touched by ttrc nKsl 3sutc 'ffieties of chi

conflict, it lus served again and again e.r an erena for uncommonly angry minds.

. Hofstadter begins with the panic in New Eng- land n the 1790s over the &ngers to reLigion 6f ,he Bavanan iUumrnati. On to the anti-Mlsonic

era: ;hern rlut is what d.ran* wine from human :ki;.ljg. l.lext "Catholicr ar,d M,:rnroru-laier ile- groes and Jewr ient themgelver to a precccupa-tron

with rJlicit .iex." (Probably the nrost wl,Jily ierd contenlpcrary b.xrk ^n the Uruted Srates bc[ore "(]ncle Tom's Cabiu" .,,vas "Avf'd Ois,c!o- su.res" {tafOl, orte Maria Monk's ,.account, cf her ci{:.rpc jronl a convent/brcthcl irt lt{onfrcrl.) Cn l ; ll:e j ,,:i r Liiich !.,cicry.

ii,fstadter (as also Daniel Bcll) was r t l f i i s The wriler is g Dtnnrrnlir c,,nnlnr frnn ,V,r,