PROGRESSIVE REGRESSION
By
Rudy Takala
May 10, 2008
NewsWithViews.com
“Love of knowledge without love of learning degenerates into utter lack of principle…. One who has accumulated virtue will certainly also possess eloquence; but whoever has eloquence does not necessarily possess virtue.” - Confucius
Four centuries later, Christ made the same contrast between wisdom and virtue. "Behold, I send you out as sheep in the midst of wolves; so be shrewd as serpents and innocent as doves. (Matthew 10:16.)
Philosophy discovered for the East much of what Christ gave to the West. They were principles forged in the flames of a chaotic world, devoid of morality or reason. Secularists disturbed by the degeneracy of mankind were able to identify at least the most fundamental causes for what they saw, even if they were not fully able to make sense of them.
It is telling that theologians and philosophers have spent most of human history warning us about the problems inherent to intelligence without principle. Those who impart knowledge without also imparting wisdom or virtue do nothing but empower evil. Therein lies the problem with modern academia.
Today’s college campuses are one of the most distinguishing facets of a society in peril. Not only do they disregard the teaching of moral principle, they actively denigrate it. (My own campus’ “Sexual Education Extravaganza” display on the front lawn this week illustrated that well.)
That practice has had a toll, both human and cultural. Dr. Miriam Grossman, a college psychiatrist, began to touch on the human one in her book “Unprotected.” As Mona Charen described those she detailed, “Meet the liberated college woman. You may pity her.”
Ironic, she points out, that college health services tell their students to abstain from things such as smoking at the same time they encourage promiscuity. Forty-three percent of college women contract HPV, a disease that can lead to cancer. Twenty percent suffer from depression after having an abortion, which health services will also readily provide.
That must be what my college’s mission statement about creating a “community ethic of social justice” means.
Terrence Moore, a history professor and former lieutenant in the Marine Corps, compared the nature bestowed upon those influenced by modern education with the nature of those who fanned the flames of chaos in the ancient world:
“The ancient barbarians did little except fight and hunt. The modern barbarians do little besides play sports and pursue women…. Indeed, typical barbarian pastimes, like drinking mightily and watching WWF wrestling, seem expressly contrived to stupefy the senses and nullify the intellect.”
For students that colleges find themselves unable to dissuade from wanting to achieve something, they create implements such as student senates in order to instill emotional dithering and a fear of leadership.
As “leaders,” students are told that their mission is, to steal a phrase of Moore’s, “respect others.” It is to encourage “diversity.” Under no circumstances are they to do something that might offend others. Under no circumstances are they to actually lead.
These become what Moore called the wimps. “Wimps vote.” And as Aristotle pointed out, “to the cowardly, bravery will seem more like rashness and foolhardiness than what it really is.” Hence “issues that require bravery for their solution elicit only hand-wringing and half-measures from the wimps.”
Kay Hymowitz described them similarly in a cultural analysis titled “Child-Man in the Promised Land.” But instead of calling them wimps, Hymowitz described them as “Single Young Males” – or SYMs.
“Empty of passion as of responsibility,” she wrote that SYMs have “no self apart from pop-culture effluvia.” They suffer from “abulia”—chronic indecisiveness—so severe that they find themselves “paralyzed by the Thanksgiving choices of turkey, cranberry sauce, and dressing.”
Unfortunate that those most unable to make decisions seem often to be the most drawn to the decision-making process. The result is something all too prevalent in politics: effeminate men who look like they’ve got a hemorrhoid problem whenever a discussion comes up and they aren’t sure what the majority opinion is.
Given academia’s glee in destroying it, is it any surprise that our culture is suffering from a lack of leadership?
Sources:
1,
Charen
2, Moore
3, Hymowitz
© 2008 Rudy Takala - All Rights Reserved
