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Show txcalibur Defense more like apology BY BILL MARLING There was a time when I could have written a cogent and palatable palat-able defense of Spiro Agnew. But it's getting near impossible now, with every attempt sounding like an apology. That's the trouble. In light of today's predominant political poli-tical and social philosophy, one feels he has to apologize and explain ex-plain more subtly what Spiro is driving at. Of course, a portion of what the vice president has said is pure nonsence. For example, there were "Spiro Agnew's Ten Commandments Com-mandments for Protestors." To wit; "Thou shalt not honor thy mother and father, Thou shalt not write anything longer than a slogan, slo-gan, Thou shalt worship none but totalitarian heroes," etc. It's hard to imagine anybody rattling that off with a straight face. There was also the "Carrot to the Press" speech. And lately he has given himself to such a profusion of speeches, that a listener is hard pressed to keep up and keep straight. Seems as though his early successes have gone to his head. Earlier speeches Bui those earlier speeches, which focused the limelight on servation, even if it is still debated by certain myopic polemists. The past tense is not accidental, because be-cause he later says, "People can not live in a state of perpetual electric shock. Tired of a convulsive convul-sive society, they will settle for an authoritarian society. As Thomas Hobbes discerned three centuries ago, men will seek the security of a Leviathan state as a comfortable alternative to a life that is 'nasty,' 'short,' and 'brutish.' " Well-thought-out ideas It appears that Agnew, in these early speeches, rather than irresponsibly irre-sponsibly denouncing responsible people, has advanced well-thought-out ideas, unexpectedly rather philosophical in tone. The irresponsibility lies with those who failed to deliver the import of Agnew's ideas to the public. Over-reaction But when it comes to hitting lender spots, Spiro's defilement of the television networks was quite precise. Never has there been such a passionate over-reaction of holy innocense. What Spiro actually said was: "I am not asking for government censorship or any other kind of censorship. I am asking whether a form of censorship censor-ship already exists when the news that 40 million Americans receive each night is determined by a handful of men responsible only to their corporate employers and filtered through a handful of com-mentators com-mentators who admit to their own set of biases... . .The questions I am raising here tonight should: have been raised by others long ' ago. . . .They should have been raised by those Americans who share the view of the late Justice Learned Hand that 'right conclusions conclu-sions are more likely to be gathered out of a multitude of tongues than through any kind of authoritative solution.' " And then you know what THEY said. "They criticized me" All things considered, Spiro ' Agnew's defense really ought to I be handled by William F. Buckley, ! Jr. They sort of compliment one ' another. As the vice president's) speeches proliferate, they tend to become silly. Any day I expect him to join that special class of orators, epitomized by Major Richard Daley's remark that! "they have villified me; they have i crucified me; yes, they have even criticized me." Spiro, had substance to them. That substance, of course, was 1) largely ignored, 2) distorted and sensationalized, 3) adopted as a slogan. All of this because Mr. Agnew did not seem to merit serious seri-ous consideration, so grossly inconsistent in-consistent with the intellectual mold is he. He's not terribly polished and he's not subtle. He's not witty and has an abundant supply of faux pas. But what he said was in no uncertain terms an uncommon thing. Media's treatment The media's treatment of the vice president was most irritating. Instead of procuring a text of Agnew's speech and reporting the gist of his ideas, they threw out colorful little scraps like "effete snobs" and "calls for censorship" and ' Agnew attack called 'Base,' 'Ignorant,' 'Disgraceful.' " But what did he say? News synopsis is helpful, but more information than a headline is in order before drawing such encompassing conclusions. con-clusions. Ignored points Take that speech about "effete snobs;" it had some very apropos, but completely-ignored, points. Example: "Ironically it is neither the greedy nor the malicious, but the self-righteous who are guilty of history's worst atrocities. Society understands greed . and malice and erects barriers of law to defend itself from these vices. But evil cloaked in emotional causes is well disguised and often undiscovered until it is too late." This point, bearing great resemblance resem-blance to Eric Hoffer's theories, is well thought out. One could further contend that the self-righteous self-righteous stay concealed by diverting di-verting attention in attacking the "greedy" and "malicious." Pluralistic society Further along in that speech Agnew said, "America's pluralistic society was forged on the premise that what unites us in ideals is greater than what divides us as individuals." in-dividuals." Another accurate ob- |