How To Survive a Liberal Education

...P a r t o f it comes from the realization o n the part of many students that they have been "had...

...they do not accept the beliefs and values of the parents and the neighborhood...

...I'm no prude and I'm no saint...

...He taught what is called "an honors course...

...8 The A l t e r n a t i v e December, 1971 A few years ago when I was teaching English in a suburban high school, I had a colleague named Joe...

...He told me once he respected my mind, which meant, I believe, that he made allowances for the fact I believed in the God of the Church Fathers, the God of Athanasius and Thomas More and the God of John Henry Newman...

...therefore the student concludes that both the method and the beliefs of the two groups are somehow distinct: if you believe in God, you must believe in God the way Uncle Louis does...

...He is a shoulder-squeezer and knee-prodder...

...They want truth, and Joe and thousands of others like him have effectively demolished the correept of truth...

...The Senator has been rearing around the Republic at a pace that is remarkable even for a Senator whose inattentiveness to Senate business is a minor legend...

...He had done his intellectual duty...

...Joe showed me his reading list for the course...

...Faced with what admittedly is the sophistication, breadth and depth of reading experience that professors have vis-a-vis students, a student would have to be superhuman to overcome the feeling that the ritualistic liberal professors are correct, not only in the way they ttfmk, but in the condlus/ons they have reached...

...What matters is whether or not such views are true -- and it is the conservative potation that the traditioanl views are, for the most part not only true, but demonstrably so...

...The student has progressed from dogmatieally-held prejudices, unexamined and half-understood, if at all, through the cynical but almost always convincing skepticism or leftist dogmatism of the professors to, finally, an intellectually based, rationally held position that is in line with the basic beliefs of the working class parents - - and of Western civilization at its height...

...But media man does not only hold to his lies because of mankind's inherent appetie for falsity...

...If being frantic is being serious (and more Democratic politicians think it is), then Bayh is serious...

...pect Heidelberg man thrived on rumors about the buxom lady from the dave down the mountain, and the rumors were palpable pappycodk...

...This, I think, is why we see the alleged irreversible shift from conservatism to a perverse form of liberalism among college students...

...So who cares...

...Uncle Louis believes in'a way that is uninformed, bigoted, not at all intellectually sophisticated and - - therefore - - not only his way of believing but the Concepts he believes must be erroneous...

...9 All this is very obnoxious and, understandably enough, it does not appear to be moving him an inch toward the nomination...

...It was a status symbol for two reasons: honors courses meant prestige in themselves and Joe was a gifted teacher...

...No one will tell him that there is another battle: that of questioning the stuff he is getting now without reverting to the kind of argumentation his parents "taught" him...

...Some Washington reporters know why Mr...

...Bayh's disingenuous withdrawal that we are publishing a report received last month from William G. Freclericks on the truth about this great man's exit - - ~ust ascribe it all to our noble desire to "shake up the system.'" RET Quickly now, before it sinks beneath the foam, consider the Bayh-forPresident caper...

...They were told at age fifteen the virtues of questioning, but no one ever told them to question the worth of eternal question...

...It comes usually in two stages, the first coming before he enters college...

...He felt it was something I just never could overcome, like some physical deformity...

...But his campaign is intriguing nevertheless...

...There are millions of students who have been led to believe that there are two important things a person must do if he is to be intellectually respectable: the first is to have an "open mind" and the second is to "question" everything...

...Once the child started "thinking," presumably, Joe's work was done...

...I was reminded of all this by the unleashing of the wolf packs on the college campuses...

...He was what used to be called a "fallenaway Catholic" and I was - - and am - - a Catholic...

...What has happened...

...Challenge" meant that he would do everything in his power to start a child "thinking" about, say, the possibility of atheism...

...The dogmatic assertions that pass for argument among the average families come to seem to the mind of a college student vulgar, irrational and shameful when placed next to the admirable exercises in logic, demonstration and irony that are the marks of the best liberal professors...

...Wrong, Joe said...

...The money and energy Bayh expends in self-promotion is inversely proportional to his devotion to Senate duties, and that is a lot of money and energy...

...Is it the professor's belief that his values can he challenged only by methods and viewpoints of the workhag,class parent...

...this stage usually is not reached unless the person attends college or comes into contact - - through magazines or books- with persons who question the responses made to the basic worksl An example: a freshman will react to "patriotism" by equating it with simple, unexamined prejudicesabout the flag, Valley Forge, etc...

...These students can no longer believe in the beliefs of their parents and their churches - - yet they are too bright to believe in the professors...

...It is usually the introduction for most young Americans to what might be called non-prejudicial thought...

...Questioning" is an exercise in methadological skepticism that seeks by unending debate to reduce to absurdity any belief in objective standards of morality or belief in a Supreme being...

...The intriguing aspect of the Bayh campaign has nothing to do with anything the candidate says...

...chins of those whom he is inflicting his particularly leaden small talk...

...Still most reporters have no idea what has taken plade in Mr...

...It is - - say the professors - - only their intellectual duty to help shake these kids up, to have them "question" the values they bring to school...

...It included works by Jean-Paul Sartre, Camus and Voltaire...

...He is always throwing "playful left hooks at the...

...Media man also adcepts lies because he is too lazy to discover exactly what the truth is...

...I suggested that this might be a little bit much for fourteen and fifteen year old children, who weren't emotionally or intellectually prepared for say, No Exit or Candide...

...It's our job as teachers to challenge them, to start them thinking...

...After all, there is a large stockpile of such brass on Capitol Hill...

...Ironists will note that teachers who say this never say that one must question the absolute virtue of an open mind or have an open mind about questioning as an absolute virtue, An open mind is usually held by this kind of liberal to he that state of the intellect which rejects all traditional morality and especially belief in a Supreme being...

...They don't want cute tricks...

...The brightest of the bright were allowed to take...

...They knew that one was supposed to have an open mind - - but they discovered that a consistently open mind could soon become a hole in the head...

...Good Chap, Can't make it over the high hurdles of rationalism, but he has spunk, bless him...

...Yet every poll indicates that the public is managing to remain blissfully ignorant of his campaign...

...William G. F r e d e r i c k s So powerful is mankind's yearning to believe a lie that he w/ZZ cling to it even though it is not particulorly useful...

...He is constantly told that the battle is only between what he came to school with and what he is getting now...

...A political science teacher will challenge that response by going through a process of argument that leads to the conclusion that one can be loyal to one's nation by questioning it, by challenging "popular concepts" of patriotism, by sneering at the "parentchurch" reactions...

...Let's trace a student's intellectual progress in today's higher education...

...Yet where, oh whore can a student hear this view on campus...

...Usually this means an unexamined adherence to what might be called the standard emotional response to words such as "patriotism, God, law, right, wrong...

...Senator Birch is spending enormous sums of other people's money in order to tell the Nation that he would rather like Birch to become Chief Executive and the leader of the free world...

...yet how can he also hold on t o t he Content of their belief, since his professors, day in and day out, demonstrate that if one is to think "intellectually," one arrives at certain conclusions about God (he isn't The A l t e r n a t i v e December, 1971 9 there), patriotism (it's a sham), and right and wrong (there are only shades of gray - - except the war, that is immoral...

...They are no different from anyone else...

...Take for instance the whopper that Senator Bayh ~ust dropped our of the contest for the White House because ol his wile's uncertain health...

...They are the busiest hands in the Western world...

...It is as simple as that...

...I'm in between...

...it's the same GOd...

...Thus, you might go on to stage three...

...What is wrong is that he has not learned ways to challenge the beliefs of those professors who challenge the beliefs of his parents: no one on campus has ever said to him: "Yes, it is true your parents don't think in the sophisticated ways the professors do...

...This has even held true of the lower forms ol man...

...But it does not therefore logically follow that the views held by your parents are undesirable and the views held by the professors desirable...

...Stage Three: Again, the student is active...

...If this sounds as if I'm making it up, believe me, it's true...

...What is wrong, of course, is not that the student has learned ways to challenge the beliefs of his parents...

...Thinking" meant to Joe adhering to certain skeptical and even cynical attitudes towards popularly held middleand working-class beliefs...

...he knows he cannot get away with giving the usual stock responses in class because professors can immediately destroy such a response with incisive arguments based on what seems to be irrefutable evidence...

...he now realizes that reality is much more complicated than the parentgroup even told him...

...Now this stage is quite complex and difficult to transcend...

...But Buckley believes in Him after a rigorous analysis and thorough meditation...

...Where had all that hate come from...

...I for one cannot blame any student for reaching such a conclusion...

...His most remarkable characteristic is his hands...

...Stage Two: He is active...

...The professor, on the other hand, believes in agnosticism in such a way that a freshman soon comes to admire not only his method (Documentation, quotations, well-reasoned arguments) but the fruits of the method, i.e., agnosticism, cynicism about the prejudices held by the working class...

...I ex...

...This is simply not the truth...

...indeed, they find those values and beliefs ludicrous, biased, bigoted, etc...

...Bayh lost his avidity for the sdaffold on 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue, but they also know how people relish a good, solid lie...

...Ultimately, they don't want charm or style...

...this course after undergoing careful screening to make certain only the best got in...

...The intriguing aspect of the Bayh...

...Take the idea of God, for example -- you can believe in God the way Uncle Louis does or the way Bill Buckley does...

...Their argument has always been that they must present "the other side of the argument" (the origin of the idea that an argument has only two sides is, a faseinaUng historical, puzzle) because, after all, the students have received "the only side" from parents and church and school...

...So it is because of the mantle of tommyrot that has covered Mr...

...These kids have to be shaken up...

...Students want truth...

...Certainly today's media man positively cherishes whole heaps of spurious truths...

...But that isn't the case at all...

...The professors speak a different language...

...Maybe we need somebody who can articulate across that spectrum of thought...

...It is part ol the truth, but it is not the whole truth, and a portion o] the truth still does not convery the truth...

...But the significant thing is not that Bayh is obnoxious, but that he is everywhere...

...Bayh's olfide, and they are too busy pressing their pants in the Washington saloons to find out...

...Although I'll admit it was a little odd in a high school situation, it is anything but odd if you take the educational world as a whole...

...Perhaps young conservatives might enlist the aid of enlightened liberal classmates to demand that professors who hold dogmatically liberal, radical or leftist opinions present a reading list and guest lecturers to even things out...

...Having "had" Joe was an experience in itself...

...But what about the "values" the students received from the professors...

...Thus, a college student is confronted with what seems to him to he an insurmountable problem: if he continues to hold on to the method of belief of his parents, he cannot live with himself, f o r he knows that such a method is intellectually disreputable...

...he questions the methods and the documentation and, ultimately questions the competence of even the most articulate men m areas of conduct and belief - - all of this using the professors' very own tools...

...That sort of thing...

...If that were the case, the values held by the working class would, of course, he intellectually doomed...

...His liberalism is of the most predictable sort...

...Who will help shake up these kids about those ideas...

...They come to school with the prejudices of their homes and the church and they just don't think...

...Now the student is faced with a dilemma...

...he begins by questioning the dond/us/ons of the professors...

...Nor is the campaign interesting merely because the candidate's brass is suggesting that he ought to sit in Lincoln's chair...

...Joe and I got along rather well...

...Stage One: He is passive, accepts views of parents and those who most closely affect his daily life - - church, school, neighborhood comrades...

...Three Democratic functionaries cannot meet for lunch without Bayh jetting in to administer his hail-fellow-well-met-brand of courtship...

...in all of the major areas of thought, there is a responsible, scholarly, welldocumented, rational, humane, intellectual position diametrically opposed to that of the relativists, liberal dogmatists and leftists and quite in the line with the condlusion - - if not the methods of argument - - of the parents, church, school - - in short, of civilization...

...Viewed in this fashion, what passes for a liberal education in most colleges today should bring a blush to the cheek of even the most unabashed liberal or leftist professor...