In Defense of Elitism

...A recurring theme in Henry's book, in fact, is the chorus of silence with which his peers affirm his clear-eyed arguments...

...The silence of Henry's circle, among whom, undoubtedly, number many best-andbrightest types, is a reminder not only of the intellectual repression of our day but also of the aptness of the word "brave" to describe a book such as this one...

...Colonel Harry G. Summers, Jr., author of On Strategy To order: Send $9.95 per copy to: Old Court Press OR P.O...

...It is the systematic validation of black failure and Hispanic racial isolation, accompanied by a rationale that forbids polite society from labeling those things what they are...

...I am not a right-winger," he writes, "and I hope I am not a nut...

...Even the book's inscription, to "the friends who egged me on," must stipulate "especially the handful willing to say so in public...

...America's doors will never again be closed to blacks...

...General Phillip B. Davidson, author of Vietnam at War and Secrets of the Vietnam War "IT'S A GOOD READ...

...Victory in Vietnam has the answer...

...The problem is that some cultures have more to offer than others...

...Henry's special peeve is the $150 billion a year taxpayers spend on higher education...

...Society has degraded the elitist concepts of individual Diana West is a writer living in Washington, D.C...

...0 The Road to Serfdom F.A...

...So writes William A. Henry III in his brave, posthumous book, In Defense of Elitism, a densely packed, frequently brilliant, occasionally chaotic work that challenges the prevailing orthodoxies of -isms and rights groups...

...responsibility, merit, achievement, and learning itself...

...This is not a point Henry dwells on...

...And on the philosophical plane, how can the very people most apt to say that childbearing is a private matter when the subject is abortion then reverse themselves and insist that it is a societal matter when the subject is their personal need and convenience in the workplace...

...The measure of a just society is not whether a demographically proportional share of any group succeeds, but whether any individual of talent can succeed regardless of what group he belongs to...

...Despite the seeming elitism of fostering self-improvement and learning," he writes, "the true effects have been to help break down the distinctions between the accomplished and the workaday, and to promote pseudo-scholarship based on gender anxiety and ethnic tribalism...

...Reduce—through removal of federal subsidies—the percentage of high school graduates who go on to college from nearly 60 percent to 33...

...His modest proposal...

...Perhaps it's time to stop thinking of blacks—and having them think of themselves—as a category...

...Box 1387 Winter Park, FL 32790-1387 call 1 800 215 3868 Record your name & address...

...A fewglimmers of old-fashioned liberalismfrom-on-high do come shining through in the author's mouth-puckering distaste for anything even remotely populist, be it the "self-celebration of the masses via . . . camcorders" or state government...

...But time and again, he mentions requests for anonymity from people who agree with him, colleagues and contacts who refuse to let their names stand alongside his...

...t's impossible not to mourn the passing of a man who could write the following sentence: "The unvarnished truth is this: You could eliminate every woman writer, painter, and composer from the caveman era to the present moment and not significantly deform the course of Western culture...

...As proof he offers the facts that he is "still" a Democrat and an ACLU member, and has received awards for his civil rights writing from assorted victimish groups (he lists them all...

...Since World War II, competition between the intellectual forces of elitism and egalitarianism has become disastrously one-sided—and "egalitarianism has been winning far too thoroughly...

...Thomas Sowell, Forbes, cover story, January 1994 Paper $10.95 320 pages Cloth edition $25.00 Available at bookstores...

...EXCELLENT...

...In the great debates of our day, there are those who look askance at liberals-come-lately...

...William Henry's name may now be mud among the left's true believers, but think of all those friends he left behind, sitting on the fence...

...The American Spectator November 1994 75...

...fascinating and beautifully written," — Lt...

...It must be said that although Henry excoriates affirmative action, he also falls back on his liberalism to blame "cynical white male managers" for its failures...

...Your order will be shipped with a bill...

...U nencumbered by the stultifying rhetoric of sensitivity, Henry simply writes what he thinks...

...On multiculturalism: "The troublesome aspect of multiculturalism is not the opening of 'our Anglo-Saxon heritage and values' to the recognition of other achievements...

...A true classic....Even more relevant to the United States today than it was when it created a sensation on its original publication in 1944...

...On May 14, 1964, the Socialist Democrat Party voted to terminate the Bobby Baker/ Lyndon Johnson investigation...

...That would be, in the moral and metaphysical sense, an affirmative action...

...Did this cover-up lead to 55,000 unnecessary deaths in Vietnam...

...In perhaps the boldest passage of the book, Henry allows for "the possibility of difference" among the races: Perhaps it would mean that, in a society sans affirmative action, somewhat fewer blacks than whites would go to college, fewer would become lawyers or docIN DEFENSE OF ELITISM William A. Henry III Doubleday/212 pages / $20 reviewed by DIANA WEST 74 The American Spectator November 1994 tors, fewer would run large corporations...

...Henry, the Pulitzer Prize–winner and Time magazine culture critic who died last summer at 44, mentions having shared this gem with "several dozen male and female acquaintances who are learned and cultured, in most cases as a vocation, and they have all agreed with me, although each and every one asked not to be quoted...

...On taxes, Henry writes that "Democrats have an effective elitist message to offer in raising taxes—to wit, noblesse oblige...

...But don't reinvent their culture, or anyone else's, to suit your need for emotional black and white...

...Henry doth protest too much...

...Henry makes a quirky champion, given his meticulously listed credentials...

...Would it matter...

...His take on feminism prompts him to ask questions about a working mother demanding job flexibility for child-rearing: Why, pray, should an employee with divided loyalties be treated the same as one who will give his or her all to the job...

...Let them rise or fall as individuals...

...THE UNIVERSITY OF CHICAGO PRESS SPECIAL FIFTIETH ANNIVERSARY EDITION WITH A NEW INTRODUCTION BY MILTON FRIEDMAN EXPOSED: The greatest cover-up in the history of our republic...

...Just as quotas are meant to guide minorities to equality in the present, Henry says, "multicultural theory is meant to give them a sense of equality about their past...

...A ccording to Henry, "elitist" is now as damning a pejorative as "racist...

...He also relates that he "hurriedly crossed the room" to avoid being introduced to Pat Buchanan, adding in the next breath that his wife and he "have donated copiously to the electoral opponents of Jesse Helms...

...On romanticizing Indians (whom, when the mood strikes, he calls Siberian-Americans), Henry warns: "Admire the Indians if they embody values you cherish...

...But not only is the work of such figures worthy on its face, it is also to be prized precisely because of its source...

...Arguably not, as long as everyone who is qualified has a chance and more than a few minority candidates actually continue to make it...

...We have taken the legal notion that all men are created equal to its illogical extreme, seeking not just equality of justice in the courts but equality of outcomes in almost every field of endeavor...

...From Milton Friedman's Introduction "When he wrote The Road to Serfdom, [Hayek's] was a voice in the wilderness...

...Britain, France, and Japan typically send only 10-15 percent of their young people to college...

...Bravo...

...Now the fight [has] been taken up by people all over the world, by institutions and movements, and the ideas that seemed so strange to many in 1944 can be found from scholarly journals to television programs...

...Now, there's an idea . . .) But these are throwaway lines, unsupported by the solid intellectual framework of his book, which stands squarely on the works of such conservative thinkers as the frequently cited Charles Murray, Thomas Sowell, Walter Williams, and Gertrude Himmelfarb...

...HAYEK Hayek's timeless meditation on the relation between individual liberty and government authority...

...Past grievances, past conflicts, are no rationale for the fictionalization of history and the unending redress of such present-day programs as affirmative action...