The Open Question

IT IS more troubling than amusing that at the moment when Rolling Stone shows the President of the United States and the man he appointed chairman of the Republican National Committee rocking out on stage before a national audience, national review chooses to publish an anti-rock screed by a born-again rock hater [“Rock of Ageds,” Feb. 24],

That NR tacks against the Zeitgeist is fine. Standing athwart modernity and crying “Stop” is, of course, the point of national review; but that an article condemning rock could be published just as rock is, for example, becoming a force for liberalization behind the Iron Curtain surely is an irony. Rock ’n’ roll is synonymous with freedom to young people in Moscow, Warsaw, and Prague. Rock ought to be supported as a weapon of Realpolitik.

JB

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John Buckley

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IT IS more troubling than amusing that at the moment when Rolling Stone shows the President of the United States and the man he appointed chairman of the Republican National Committee rocking out on stage before a national audience, national review chooses to publish an anti-rock screed by a born-again rock hater [“Rock of Ageds,” Feb. 24],

That NR tacks against the Zeitgeist is fine. Standing athwart modernity and crying “Stop” is, of course, the point of national review; but that an article condemning rock could be published just as rock is, for example, becoming a force for liberalization behind the Iron Curtain surely is an irony. Rock ’n’ roll is synonymous with freedom to young people in Moscow, Warsaw, and Prague. Rock ought to be supported as a weapon of Realpolitik.