[lit-ideas] Re: You Tube of Ayers speaking
- From: cblists@xxxxxxxx
- To: lit-ideas@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
- Date: Tue, 9 Sep 2008 12:11:43 +0200
On 9-Sep-08, at 9:52 AM, Eric Yost wrote:
Too few troops in a volunteer situation means the economy is doing
too well to swell the ranks as quickly as one would hope.
Cf. Arthur Hoppe's "America Needs Poor Soldiers" [_San Francisco
Chronicle_, August 16, 1971], which I just happened to (re?)read this
last weekend while sorting books. The essay is found in a section of
the collection of essays _Points of Departure_ that also includes
Swift's "A Modest Proposal"; this gives some idea of its 'flavour'.
In this case, however, the proposal considered (and ultimately
rejected) stems not from Hoppe's fantasy, but from following the
implications of a comment made by (then) Housing Secretary George
Romney to the effect that more Americans were out of jobs because
fewer were being killed in Vietnam. "One of the basic questions
Americans are going to have to ask themselves," [Romney] said, "is,
'Will people be willing to have more boys killed in Vietnam or higher
unemployment at home?'"
Chris Bruce,
not taking sides,
just reporting the coincidence, in
Kiel, Germany
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