Curtis Dahlgren
Back-to-school column, part 2 (a "best of the best")
By Curtis Dahlgren
"Wear your learning, like your watch, in a private pocket: and do not merely pull it out and strike it; merely to show that you have one." — Earl of Chesterfield (1694-1773)
[re "Ivy League Castroti"] www.renewamerica.com/columns/dahlgren/060303
HARVARD UNIVERSITY HAS A MODERN VERSION OF "CRUSADES AGAINST HERETICS": a jihad against anyone who refuses to sing PC doxologies such as "there are no differences between the sexes." Given ex-president Larry Summers' apologies and surrender, a sheepskin from Harvard is no longer worth the paper it's written on. Much of its "learning" is now worth no more than a pocket watch that's right twice a day. In Academicaland, the "Truth is relative," "irrelevant" — and a firing offense if it doesn't fit the fad of the moment.
"Etymologically, a heresy is a 'choice' one makes . . Greek hairesis 'choice' [is] a derivative of hairein 'take or choose.' This was applied metaphorically to a 'course of action or thought which one chooses to take,' hence a school of thought,' and, ultimately, to a 'faction' or 'sect.' . . .
"Another derivative of hairein, incidentally, was diairein [meaning] 'divide' . . ."
— John Ayto, Dictionary of Word Origins
THE LATEST CATCHWORD our scholars are hearing is "multicontextualism." I guess that relates to "multiculturalism," but that one lost its PR appeal. The academicians keep on teaching "tolerance for diversity" while at the same time refusing to give our young people the most important "context": the context of history. Therefore, our kids have as much "context" for current events as someone who walks into a theater near the end of a movie.
In the history of the "university," there have almost always been "two schools of thought" — except under totalitarian governments or monolithic faculties! The word division does not necessarily equate with evil; it normally equates with "academic freedom" in fact.
For example, I have never accepted the conventional wisdom that all scholars thought the world was flat before the so-called Enlightenment. With all the mathematical skills of the ancient Egyptians, I refuse to believe that they looked at the movements of the shadow of the round earth on the moon during an eclipse and didn't have any clue as to the shape of the earth. Are you kidding me?
It was "division" or "dissent" during the Middle Ages that settled many such questions — not the kind of totalitarian scholarship on display at Harvard! The "social scientists" seem to be "bothered" by the certitude and lack of grey areas in the hard sciences and math departments, so they evidently compensate by demanding absolute shades of grey in the soft sciences (politically correct "doctrines").
The point is, "division" means that there is academic freedom, which produces true choice, which produces challenges, which produces more choices and, hence, true "progress" for the human race. To cut off academic choices, as the Ivy League has done, equates with regression, not "progressivism"!
The status quo, right or wrong?
While we're at it, let us note here that the word "reactionary" is not a curse word, nor does "conservative" always mean defense of the status quo! In the 1960s, the Civil Rights movement was anti-status quo, and the conservatives' concerns had more to do with HOW TO DO IT (without the curse of "excess rising expectations" burning down Watts, Newark, Detroit, and so on, which resulted).
In the 21st century, the roles have been reversed regarding the "status quo": The liberals are defending the status quo of the 1960s-style nanny state, while the conservatives are proposing the anti-status quo ideas (such as school choice, and by bucking the failed and discredited fads that are defining deviancy down) . . . [end of excerpt]
"Just a Few Words More"
www.renewamerica.com/columns/dahlgren/060107
"Tears are often the telescopes through which men see far into heaven." — Henry Ward Beecher (1813-1887)
"Read the best books first, or you may not have a chance to read them at all." — Henry David Thoreau (1817-1862)
GOLDA MEIR WOULD HAVE BEEN CLEANING HOUSE ABOUT NOW. No — I mean that in the most literal sense. When there was a big decision to be made, Golda, it is said, would go home and do house cleaning until the Right Thing would come to mind. She wouldn't consult a focus-group study, take a poll, or send up a trial balloon.
The "science" of political science has become too cute by far, and "Higher Education" has gotten too "high" for its own good. On the one hand, talk about "diversity" is all the rage, but on the other hand, CONFORMITY is the name of the game! It stomps out all diversity, and simple proven principles are laughed out of school.
"Whoso would be a man must be a nonconformist . . . What I must do is all that concerns me, not what people think." — Ralph Waldo Emerson (1803-1882)
Years ago, it is said, a professor in Chicago told his students that they could not consider themselves to be really 'educated' unless they could answer "Yes" to the following questions:
Many a tear has been shed since we stopped looking "beyond the stars." If tears were telescopes, September 11, 2001 should have brought God into very sharp focus, but instead, our "popular culture" and the media have moved us totally in the opposite direction. I'm talking about music, the movies and TV, video games, and almost any form of entertainment you could mention. Sports are becoming more fierce and vicious, and even the news has become perversely deceptive and politics is now war.
Higher education considers itself the very avant-garde, or vanguard, of societal evolution, but radio host Michael Savage says that society has "sunk to a point lower than Rome or the Weimar Republic in Germany." I agree, and so would the writers in "Leaves of Gold":
"Few things could be culturally more deplorable than that today the average college graduate, who fancies himself educated, should never have read the book of Job, should be unfamiliar with Isaiah, and should be hardly able to identify those mighty men of valor, Joshua, Gideon, [etc.] . . . For this is nothing less than a loss of racial memory, a forgetfulness of our cultural heritage that is as serious in the life of nations as is for the individual the loss of personality attendant upon neurotic disease."
P.S. I would rather be a good "unknown writer" than be a famous fool. Villiers once wrote, "Men's fame is like their hair, which grows after they are dead, and with just as little use to them."
We might say the same thing about their "education" and "legacies."
Sir Thomas More said, "If honor were profitable, everybody would be honorable."
Enough said?
© Curtis Dahlgren
"Wear your learning, like your watch, in a private pocket: and do not merely pull it out and strike it; merely to show that you have one." — Earl of Chesterfield (1694-1773)
[re "Ivy League Castroti"] www.renewamerica.com/columns/dahlgren/060303
HARVARD UNIVERSITY HAS A MODERN VERSION OF "CRUSADES AGAINST HERETICS": a jihad against anyone who refuses to sing PC doxologies such as "there are no differences between the sexes." Given ex-president Larry Summers' apologies and surrender, a sheepskin from Harvard is no longer worth the paper it's written on. Much of its "learning" is now worth no more than a pocket watch that's right twice a day. In Academicaland, the "Truth is relative," "irrelevant" — and a firing offense if it doesn't fit the fad of the moment.
"Etymologically, a heresy is a 'choice' one makes . . Greek hairesis 'choice' [is] a derivative of hairein 'take or choose.' This was applied metaphorically to a 'course of action or thought which one chooses to take,' hence a school of thought,' and, ultimately, to a 'faction' or 'sect.' . . .
"Another derivative of hairein, incidentally, was diairein [meaning] 'divide' . . ."
— John Ayto, Dictionary of Word Origins
THE LATEST CATCHWORD our scholars are hearing is "multicontextualism." I guess that relates to "multiculturalism," but that one lost its PR appeal. The academicians keep on teaching "tolerance for diversity" while at the same time refusing to give our young people the most important "context": the context of history. Therefore, our kids have as much "context" for current events as someone who walks into a theater near the end of a movie.
In the history of the "university," there have almost always been "two schools of thought" — except under totalitarian governments or monolithic faculties! The word division does not necessarily equate with evil; it normally equates with "academic freedom" in fact.
For example, I have never accepted the conventional wisdom that all scholars thought the world was flat before the so-called Enlightenment. With all the mathematical skills of the ancient Egyptians, I refuse to believe that they looked at the movements of the shadow of the round earth on the moon during an eclipse and didn't have any clue as to the shape of the earth. Are you kidding me?
It was "division" or "dissent" during the Middle Ages that settled many such questions — not the kind of totalitarian scholarship on display at Harvard! The "social scientists" seem to be "bothered" by the certitude and lack of grey areas in the hard sciences and math departments, so they evidently compensate by demanding absolute shades of grey in the soft sciences (politically correct "doctrines").
The point is, "division" means that there is academic freedom, which produces true choice, which produces challenges, which produces more choices and, hence, true "progress" for the human race. To cut off academic choices, as the Ivy League has done, equates with regression, not "progressivism"!
The status quo, right or wrong?
While we're at it, let us note here that the word "reactionary" is not a curse word, nor does "conservative" always mean defense of the status quo! In the 1960s, the Civil Rights movement was anti-status quo, and the conservatives' concerns had more to do with HOW TO DO IT (without the curse of "excess rising expectations" burning down Watts, Newark, Detroit, and so on, which resulted).
In the 21st century, the roles have been reversed regarding the "status quo": The liberals are defending the status quo of the 1960s-style nanny state, while the conservatives are proposing the anti-status quo ideas (such as school choice, and by bucking the failed and discredited fads that are defining deviancy down) . . . [end of excerpt]
"Just a Few Words More"
www.renewamerica.com/columns/dahlgren/060107
"Tears are often the telescopes through which men see far into heaven." — Henry Ward Beecher (1813-1887)
"Read the best books first, or you may not have a chance to read them at all." — Henry David Thoreau (1817-1862)
GOLDA MEIR WOULD HAVE BEEN CLEANING HOUSE ABOUT NOW. No — I mean that in the most literal sense. When there was a big decision to be made, Golda, it is said, would go home and do house cleaning until the Right Thing would come to mind. She wouldn't consult a focus-group study, take a poll, or send up a trial balloon.
The "science" of political science has become too cute by far, and "Higher Education" has gotten too "high" for its own good. On the one hand, talk about "diversity" is all the rage, but on the other hand, CONFORMITY is the name of the game! It stomps out all diversity, and simple proven principles are laughed out of school.
"Whoso would be a man must be a nonconformist . . . What I must do is all that concerns me, not what people think." — Ralph Waldo Emerson (1803-1882)
Years ago, it is said, a professor in Chicago told his students that they could not consider themselves to be really 'educated' unless they could answer "Yes" to the following questions:
- "Can you look an honest man or a pure woman straight in the eye?"
- "Will a lonely dog follow you down the street?"
- "Do you think washing dishes or hoeing corn is as compatible with high thinking as piano playing or golf?"
- "Could you be happy alone?"
- "Can you look into the sky at night and see beyond the stars?"
[excerpted from "Leaves of Gold," 11th edition (subtitled "An Anthology of Prayers, Memorable Phrases, Inspirational Verse and Prose from the Best Authors of the World, Both Ancient and Modern")]
Many a tear has been shed since we stopped looking "beyond the stars." If tears were telescopes, September 11, 2001 should have brought God into very sharp focus, but instead, our "popular culture" and the media have moved us totally in the opposite direction. I'm talking about music, the movies and TV, video games, and almost any form of entertainment you could mention. Sports are becoming more fierce and vicious, and even the news has become perversely deceptive and politics is now war.
Higher education considers itself the very avant-garde, or vanguard, of societal evolution, but radio host Michael Savage says that society has "sunk to a point lower than Rome or the Weimar Republic in Germany." I agree, and so would the writers in "Leaves of Gold":
-
"Educate men without religion and you make them but clever devils." — Duke of Wellington
"True religion is the foundation of society. When that is once shaken by contempt the whole fabric cannot be stable or lasting." — Edmund Burke (1729-1797)
"Learning is not wisdom: knowledge is not necessarily vital energy. The student who has to cram through a school or college course, who has made himself merely a receptacle for the teacher's thoughts and ideas, is not educated; he has not gained much. He is a reservoir, not a fountain. One retains, the other gives forth." — J.E. Dinger
"Few things could be culturally more deplorable than that today the average college graduate, who fancies himself educated, should never have read the book of Job, should be unfamiliar with Isaiah, and should be hardly able to identify those mighty men of valor, Joshua, Gideon, [etc.] . . . For this is nothing less than a loss of racial memory, a forgetfulness of our cultural heritage that is as serious in the life of nations as is for the individual the loss of personality attendant upon neurotic disease."
P.S. I would rather be a good "unknown writer" than be a famous fool. Villiers once wrote, "Men's fame is like their hair, which grows after they are dead, and with just as little use to them."
We might say the same thing about their "education" and "legacies."
Sir Thomas More said, "If honor were profitable, everybody would be honorable."
Enough said?
© Curtis Dahlgren
The views expressed by RenewAmerica columnists are their own and do not necessarily reflect the position of RenewAmerica or its affiliates.
(See RenewAmerica's publishing standards.)
