National Trends

Why the Moon Is Red

Having had a week to think about it, the Establishment has made up its mind about who’s to blame. The propaganda machine spat and sputtered for the first few days of Sputnik’s flight, not knowing quite where to direct its fire and threatening even, while groping for lost bearings, to ask some interesting questions about its own premises. But in due course, and with exquisite synchronization, the big guns zeroed in on the two targets that any fool knew from the beginning were going to get it—the pennypinchers and the McCarthyite super-security goons. We have not spent enough money on our national defense, the editorial writers and the columnists and the kept legislators are now solemnly advising; and we have not provided our scientists with an “atmosphere” hospitable to their work. That is why the moon is Red.

LB

About the Author

L. Brent Bozell Jr.

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Why the Moon Is Red

Having had a week to think about it, the Establishment has made up its mind about who’s to blame. The propaganda machine spat and sputtered for the first few days of Sputnik’s flight, not knowing quite where to direct its fire and threatening even, while groping for lost bearings, to ask some interesting questions about its own premises. But in due course, and with exquisite synchronization, the big guns zeroed in on the two targets that any fool knew from the beginning were going to get it—the pennypinchers and the McCarthyite super-security goons. We have not spent enough money on our national defense, the editorial writers and the columnists and the kept legislators are now solemnly advising; and we have not provided our scientists with an “atmosphere” hospitable to their work. That is why the moon is Red.