Myth-making

Press, 25 July 1986, Page 16

Myth-making

Sir, — Seldom has there been in “The Press” a more apposite juxtaposition of two articles than those by Garry Arthur on Professor Wendy O’Flaherty and the article below it by the anonymous correspondent of “The Economist” (July 19). To quote from Garry Arthur’s article: “Myths, in Professor O’Flaherty’s book, are unjustifiable ideas, and beliefs that give meaning to people’s lives.” “The Economist” article below it, “Soviet’writers I t

to get a novel taste of freedom,” is a typical and all-too-familiar example of the genre of mythmaking, which has perhaps slipped Professor O’Flaherty’s attention. Propaganda against the Soviet Union is the major source of Western myth-making today, giving lucrative employment to hordes of unconscionable academics and Soviet defectors in United States, British and West European universities, as well as venal political writers and the Moscow correspondents of United States and British news-* papers. — Yours, etc.,

M. CREEL. July 20, 1986.