"[Allan] Bloom's book [The Closing of the American Mind] is a profound book, full of rewards to the attentive reader because of the richness of his thought and the clarity, energy, and wit of his writing. Near the end he offers a poignant metaphor of where we now stand in relation to the great tradition of human learning:
'We are like ignorant shepherds living on a site where great civilizations once flourished. The shepherds play with the fragments that pop up to the surface, having no notion of the beautiful structures of which they were once a part. All that is necessary is a careful excavation to provide them with life-enhancing models.'"
from Robert Nielsen's essay/book review, "The Closing of the (North) American Mind"
Monday, October 5, 2009
3 comments:
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I resist the urge to hurt Allan Bloom.
ReplyDeleteHe sits atop his mountain of shiny knowledge and criticizes younger generations as if we are all shallow Beavises and Buttheads who have never read a book in our lives.
He begins his essay strong, with some genuine concern about universities letting us down. I, who have not had the pleasure of actually going to university, was prepared to open up to this notion. Then he goes off with "Students have no understanding of evil and even doubt its existence," without backing it up. He insists that not only skills, but VALUES must be taught in schools. He believes that a melting pot of "'openness' actually leads to closed minds", believing that this confuses us, and makes impossible the distinctions between right and wrong.
I understand that maybe we read a less than other generations, but don't go telling me that if you had guitar hero in the sixties that you wouldn't have dropped your heroic little hippie protest sign and headed on inside.
Bloom is saying that because we are not one single race with one single set of values, we deny evil, and have no morals. I don't see an issue in moral relativism at all. Nothing is black and white. Grey areas exist everywhere: interpretation varies in literature, much of history is based on our best assumptions and extrapolations, the entire process that is our universe is completely grey to us.
Then again, I don't sit atop a mountain of knowledge, twiddling my thumbs and waiting for recognition that never comes, reacting with a claim an entire generation is immoral, and obviously could not understand someone as wise as I.
I could vent and vent on this insignificant little comment, but I'll put the rest in my commonplace journal.
Don't kill me for this one, sir.
ReplyDelete"Rage---Goddess, sing of the rage of Peleus' son Achilles..." proem, Bk I, The Iliad.
ReplyDeleteI love the passion, I love the rage... "but don't go telling me that if you had guitar hero in the sixties that you wouldn't have dropped your heroic little hippie protest sign and headed on inside"---this is probably the best line I have read in a long time! Bravo, Emily.