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PARTISAN REVIEW
dazzling, singularly unequipped to take over any integrative functions
other than those based on the lowest denOlninators of sex, violence, and
excitement. A university wavering between the mindless visions of multi–
culturalist propagandists and the complacency of an intellectually slothful
professoriate is about to abandon its
raison d'etre
and civilatory mission.
Rather than witnessing "the end of history" as Francis Fukuyama argued
a few years ago, today we must face up to the prospect of the end of a
civilization.
ROBERT BRUSTEIN
Dumbocracy in America
The letter of invitation to contribute to this symposIUm describes an
unarguable condition. The only debate is over how to interpret and
manage the situation. Few will dispute that American cultural and uni–
versity life have become subject to a whole new set of regulations -
speech codes, revised canons, new departments, lowered standards, in–
creased pressure for faculty and student diversity, excessive vigilance re–
garding the sensitivity of minorities - in an atmosphere of intellectual
constraint. The dispute centers on whether these are the best ways to ad–
vance the interests of the disadvantaged, and if so, whether it's worth
jettisoning traditional artistic and intellectual values in order to accom–
plish this end. The conservative position is clear and unequivocal - a re–
turn to things as they were, regardless of the social and political conse–
quences. Liberals are more divided over whether the current method of
increasing the rights of minorities, a cause they approve, can achieve its
goals without affronts to truth, history, art, rcason, and civility.
Ironically, the popular phrase associated with this method -
"political correctness" - has recently lost most of its currency, having
been bombarded with ridicule from all sides of the political spectrum.
Beginning with the conservative Dinesh D'Souza's
Illiberal Education,
a
comprehensive look at the collapse of universities under pressure from
radical demands; proceeding through Arthur Schlesinger, Jr.'s
The
Disuniting of America,
deploring the fragmentation of the national iden–
tity by racial and ethnic entities; to Nat Hentoffs
Free Speech Jor
Me -
But Not Jor Thee,
recounting the liberal intolerance expressed towards
