Israel the David has become Israel the Goliath. In the eyes of millions, a much-admired underdog withstood heroically, even miraculously in June of 1967, the threat of annihilation from the giant military menace of the combined Arab armies. Four and a half years later this underdog has become, in the minds of those same millions, an aggressive, obstinate, muscle-bound upstart, not only blocking all possibilities for normalcy in the Middle East but, far more dangerously, threatening the peace of the world. As this reversal of image hardens, political postures change. Here in America, those in the political center see Israel as an obstacle to broader economic trade and thus to easier diplomatic relations with the vast Arab world, while from the left, Israel stands condemned as an imperialist tool of the capitalist powers, preventing the legitimate national liberation of millions of oppressed Arab fellahin.

The cold war is over." By 1972 this phrase has become a cliché, perhaps especially among knowledgeable people. In other times there would be nothing very wrong with this: for there are many clichés that are by no means untrue. (Where there is smoke there is fire.) Unfortunately, the movement of ideas has become so predictable, because of their total involvement with publicity, that clichés no longer merit even partial trust. (Where there is smoke there is smoke; and where there is fire there is fire.) For years I have borrowed Wilde's admirable aphorism about people who pursue the obvious with the enthusiasm of a shortsighted detective, until I found that, no matter how funny, it is no longer applicable: for the public cogitators and public prophets of our time have captured the obvious with all of the calculation that a farsighted young associate professor, in pursuit of a profitable academic career, can muster.

In early 1971, national attention was focused on two trials, the court-martial of Lieutenant William Calley for involvement in the Mylai massacre, and the trial of Charles Manson and associates for the Tate/LaBianca murders. Both trials were widely perceived as paradigmatic, though different people had different paradigms in mind. In the paradigm of the "Left," it was precisely American society that was on trial in Fort Benning. In the paradigm of the "Right," the Manson trial became the trial of the counter-culture. For some, those convinced of the imminent demise of American society, both trials together were paradigmatic of America's descent into a jungle of murderous irrationality (this last paradigm was especially prominent in foreign commentary, as, for example, in that of the German news magazine Der Spiegel).