Our universities are no longer committed
to educating the young. Rather, the professorate has betrayed America’s future,
and there is little more than lip service paid to learning in the noble sense
of the word. What now matters most is the profit motive and filling students
with a strange delusion called “social justice.”
The problem is not only that there is no such thing as social
justice -- all justice being context-specific, that is, determined by relations
between individuals -- because the young are not taught that
culture is a way of life, and a far better one than the common hedonism -- they
usually are never exposed to the books and films, the music and paintings, the
architecture and sculptures that raise existence up to a higher plane. On the
contrary, in a Satanic fashion, students are made to believe that these
magnificent human accomplishments are a kind of conspiracy by which white men
have long oppressed everyone. How false and perverse!
Born into a time gone wrong -- when wealth and the pleasures of
the body are the most valued pursuits -- students find that that which alone
can provide a wise direction is covered in darkness. Still more, that darkness
is supposed to be virtue.
So, on the whole, the professors cannot be trusted; many are, as
it were, demons pretending to be angels. The ever-canting social justice
warrior, very deceptive with his Harvard Ph.D., is hardly better than a street
thug. Indeed, it may be said of the latter that at least he is straightforward.
There is a need, then, for students to get their culture outside
the university. Although this may seem difficult, they should be heartened to
know that, by working to realize a vital part of their nature, they are
bringing forth what, in a certain sense, is already within them. For human
beings have an instinctive need for culture and an ability to produce it, like
the dolphin that is made to swim, and so long as they are diligent over time,
students shall find the effort well worth it.
“The greatest university of all,” said Thomas Carlyle, “is a
collection of books.” Indeed, and the good news is that never in history has
there been such an abundance of cheap and of free literature. Students, go back
to the old masters. Beginning with the ancients Greeks, work your way up to the
present. Don’t be daunted. The process is supposed to be
challenging. Besides, this is not work so much as the vocation of a lifetime.
Deep and wide reading, the richest solitude, should of course
occur alongside the enjoyment of music and film, painting, architecture and
sculpture. Notice that word enjoyment. The professors think that “seriousness”
precludes it. But that is just their silly game, a pathetic attempt to appear
profound. You need not play along. “It must give pleasure,” Wallace Stevens
rightly said of poetry.
Persons of native genius should take extra care to resist our
era’s many false gods -- Foucault, Lacan, Derrida, Butler, and the rest. These
are mostly admired by people who lack a strong background in Philosophy --
stupid English professors and the like. Academics, in their status envy,
are all obliged to do “original research.” It is, however, something that few
people can do, just as there are few people who can write novels and sonnets.
The result is the sham scholarship that has made academia a joke for the last
fifty years. The false gods, bad for everyone, will be a particular hindrance
to any unique talent. You gifted students must therefore be very careful about
them.
While anybody who would not be subhuman must be literate, even
more important than reading is the ability to think for yourself. To that end,
it is necessary to observe the world and other people closely. If you do so,
you may find that your insights agree with the many thoughtful minds who came
before you, especially as you get older. Thus, you will be unlike the majority
of intellectuals, people who spend their lives playing word games, while
ultimately knowing little of life itself. You may also see the effects of bad
ideas in people’s very lives -- but not yours, let’s hope! “Here is the
ultimate price of all those terrible books,” you should be moved to think again
and again, grateful to be living more wisely than others.
Most of all, you must scrutinize yourself, being honest with
yourself about your motives and intentions. Then you will know what you are
and, what is more, what you should become. You must, of course,
hold yourself to the same exacting standard that you apply to others. If you do
you should learn a lot from experience, forever the greatest teacher.
Christopher DeGroot is a contributing
editor at New
English Review and a columnist at Taki's
Magazine. You can follow his work at @CEGrotius.
