524
PARTISAN REVIEW
think it legitimate to argue as follows: Regardless of the fallout that the
transfer of distinctively modern forms of organization of knowledge and
its corresponding cognitive style may have created in the private sphere
of everyday life, today, with multiculturalism triumphant in the univer–
sity, we are compelled to arrive at conclusions which defY those observa–
tions made in the countercultural mode. Rather than witnessing a colo–
nization of the lifeworld by rationality
a
la
Habermas , we appear to be
in the midst of a
colonization of rationality by the lifeworld .
Following in
Marx's footsteps - and if a pun is permitted - the present situation war–
rants the observation that what must be done is to turn Habermasean–
type analyses on their head and explore the implications that the multi–
cultural conquest of the academy have for the future of the modem uni–
versity and, by extension, for modern Western society as well.
We appear to be caught in a process that is fundamentally altering
the essence of the modern university. Rather than providing an au–
tonomous space for the cultivation of rational thought and analysis, the
university today is in the process of becoming yet another sphere of the
general culture. [ think it of some importance to realize that this reversal
spells the end of the modern university in the Enlightenment mode.
What will take its place is unclear as of yet, and much will depend on
the outcome of the current battle over the mind of the university.
The implications of this reversal also spell grave dangers for the fu–
ture of American society. For what is at issue here is a renunciation of
the very premises that have provided the American experience with its
unifYing principle . As historians and sociologists have shown, almost
ad
nauseam
by now, everyday reality in our culturally and socially diverse
society is variegated and precarious. Distinct worlds stratified by
ethnicity, religion, and socioeconomic class coexist side by side and are
separated by gulfs of experience and lifestyles . The best chance for
succeeding as a multicultural nation, a vast majority of observers would
agree, has been provided by the principles on which this nation was
founded and which are best embodied in the Declaration of
Independence. At their essential level, these principles rest on a rugged,
even radical, some would say, individualism which allows men and
women to pursue their goals regardless of the constraints their origins
may place in their way. The premium on individual achievement has
always been the hallmark of the American experience and has provided
an anchor to a nation of immigrants and cohesion to American culture.
This emphasis on individualism has served as the ideological basis for a
truly democratic and multicultural America and made this nation the
envy of others.
Nowhere is this type of individualism more pronounced than it has
