Berliner on Hollywood 10

In his Nov. 16 Column Right, “Hollywood 10 Were Villains, Not Victims,” Michael Berliner rails against so-called apologists of communism while, ironically, acting as an unashamed apologist for fascism. Berliner doesn’t possess the intellectual honesty to denounce communism and its practitioners while still allowing that adherents have a right to hold the opinions they hold without governmental persecution--without being forced to crawl through the mud for an unconstitutional congressional committee.

In addition, Berliner wants to portray the Hollywood 10 as murderous and stained with blood, while he knows full well, or should, that those filmmakers could very well support the basic, economic tenets of communism without supporting the mass genocide of Stalin’s terror state.

Berliner finishes up in a stunning display of intellectual shoddiness and irresponsibility, by equating “animal rights” and “environmentalism” with the sins of Soviet-era communism, straining his credibility as a commentator to the limit. He seems to want us to believe that caring about the planet (hence, standing in the way of business) makes one un-American and undeserving of the same constitutional protections afforded everyone else.

Berliner and his Ayn Rand Institute describe themselves as advocates of reason, but his arguments are anything but reasonable. They are one-sided, self-serving and specious. The group also describes itself as a champion of individualism--unless, that is, those individuals choose to stray from the path of capitalism.

ADAM CARL

Hollywood

What a delight to read Berliner’s Column Right. Berliner has the courage, and the understanding, to cut through the social platitudes that pass for judgments nowadays. I agree with his assessment of the historical facts and the moral issues that were involved. Let’s hear more from the likes of Michael Berliner.

STEPHEN SPEICHER

Thousand Oaks

Ich bin ein sophist.

TONY CASTANARES

Los Angeles

Berliner writes that the screenwriters’ 1st Amendment rights were not at issue when they appeared before the House Un-American Activities Committee, because they were asked whether they had joined the Communist Party, and not about their ideological views.

The screenwriters could just as well have invoked their 5th Amendment rights against self-incrimination in order to avoid indictment under the Smith Act, which made it a crime to advocate the overthrow of the government.

I have read that some of the Hollywood 10 were indeed Stalinists who conducted their own little “show trials,” but that doesn’t mean, contrary to what Berliner may think, that their activities exempted them from constitutional protections.

THOMAS A. OLAFSON

La Jolla