Pfaff's lament.

William Pfaff's long lament on the evils of Western modernism ("Clash of Cultures," June 16) contains a valuable, if common, critique of the "dominant culture and the political culture of the United States today." According to Pfaff and others, the West is destroying cultures based on traditional religions because we erroneously believe our civilization and market system to be superior. I question, however, whether it is logical--or responsible--to move from such a critique to the conclusion that there is no such thing as collective moral development. What is the point of lamenting and critiquing the world's failures if we are doomed never to progress beyond a primitive moral state? It's encouraging that Pfaff does "not deny the obvious development of society--institutional and legal progress, the benefits of representative government, the internationalized norms of justice." Yet who created these institutions if not human beings acting together?

PAULA CAHILL RUDDY 

Brooklyn Center, Minn.