ROBERT NISBET The Nemesis of Authority No em a Tice Wl come oie wigs core pea es fe we ne ier rae ee mises rime Bie py Miles ee i se oa ein ah ee ca ee eee eae eras ce can es ay eee ee res ser hese eae a! eal Be oe a Sa peices Mt ers Saeco ssh eye em ol ee ger ee mil ee ee cea era Aa eno crt Cael te ry oh Sie sree eee eco seatbelts St es Tobert Nibet is Profesor of Sos gl rte ety of Colom Sede avng ough Berkley Columbia, Princeton, and Bologna ; Nibet wana ein Pll 086s Change and History, The Soca! Bond, She “Degradation ‘of the Academic Bogna ed The Quest for Comman- a rey enn cn Hick ey oe’ ea Nipple irae dees 2yrRoen ana Aen Sone corn Iressa Sage cise ait Ste SRE Wiacs Ae Pena era a eae golem hear BLASS ae a iabe ere aoe Feb Eien fea“ eebacee'y boas tet Pes Sactyehs Satees, Bt Se ETD rie oe oe Sattar es ae rire bathe ace fidament and ofthe conccace that seperti (ii ie ed aio Reena. pede e hgh Seow acer aat e Seng Semon ag oe Seni Sag cone pic eine Soper tarot PA errs Se ath Saat Bris ete baarace So Eyfn any ther period ia the West since pet- ings the tna years of the Roman Empire ihe trom the vl ft impels GHiSerto undestand the spreading fall: ret ac wien ura ely ths general ope of rorordty and degrade trot charactors 0 ruc of what cal tt er tn i ere volt sok agen government agai ‘fa; agsineé economy. the problem would otbelaete at latin uf age, divers, fa pol ci es hong, revel ‘esis any and al forms of author, even ‘hse Seth andere theseles as Simplest of tacimigus inthe art, the mest iehental of canonr of judgment, When ftvelt against ll ordigay, traditional ‘thre had wera lf ot ha beeome the sblect of boredom, there’ ts nothing ith ba revolt agains even the iden of thot principles revel that ad the Fests we to'be een in worship of the uci consecration of the tril and {nane, a ins state of Innguage and ol ie ‘that lees payee experience tk ‘noe theory ey out. 1 TET as begin with the authority of ta Lifuage 1, of all forms of authority, ate Fos fondamental to both the scl bond”and to eltre, No community, po “Sociton, no culture can exist above the tos pre vel wiht engage ad Bite compler jodaments an Seat asl seed a yen wt ‘Compose fe Language need not be verbal ‘Fours. There he scaled silent lan fee of lal nl ter pal exe edn compl a alate ef fee fig ‘There are muse, patting, sculpture, i matheratic ll fone of communica ib in wc vrbal engage sano! cry te very far in reaching. th meanings Neverthels, nal ret Sees of ciation, Teeyuage inthe vetbal same has been er Gat Oe nd bat think of the ways Crock {losophers an poets of the Eth and Sth EEntines BC. gered in ved, caressed, Shu explored inthe ways of lovers, ita hie way wih ll of the greater ages cofttuitural sBlreacence. Inthe 12th and Sah centurie yn Wertera Burope the [ah rua passed fom what was semeely mare fas kind of pain speech to intraments rch eater subtlety and versal make Sig peedble the beginnings of English, French, and other erature, i, Europe, ‘Again inthe fate 16th and carly 17th con- ‘fos we are tn the presence of thousands of new words, words Heh in meaning at they me eal to ear and. eye. Shake peur at wesknosy was Intosiated with sce tell oe er i popula playeigt he was had not reat Fiany of hi Brteners been almost equally IRiovcsted. bythe. Elabethan language thot came tumbling in fesets and Fas From the, pene of Marlowe, Bacon, Shake Spey ft od dns of ers eefovnding the greatness of modem Eng” tah Vain abo form of cultural aie Ity hat was ins way as peat as anything Bat came from the Greets and Romans. Ts they are age of cutural ePlorescence, so.are there, an the evidence of history ger of cultral steriity and. degeneration SE, ges have « numberof commen char fet, no of them «reat iF {Sagonge Tels mre than retreat. Te, often ton fie sale, a replaton of Janguage find ofthe tod of hought which go with Aches of language Lingus corupions {bgund slong. with cltvations of feling na epotion a hich language, uch, egerled most os an enemy, i ordinary {iets more than scale coercion Une te quite of search forthe simple ot cllogual ere sabotage of all that Suthortative in language. In such age, Seep commonly, there turing to the chile the noble savage, she barbarian, to {Pose who may lek language in any fal Senge of the word bot who posses 30 Hlclancd by those bored wth the dsc pines ‘of guage =a form of wid, « fei stra meray tit es Hake age auch a one as T have just desert? Is too soon to be sure, There fre however, re inn a ew of is fm ie sigs of such ages in our midst. The eecae of the autoriy: and commonity, Fine cn be en in th te thd Bence languagerbating ranks of ri Eis oe whom a single fouedetter word ‘Sidlestyyeperted, can be the stock of polt feal attack and also. at the same time Wethdrawal fom the toils and traps of a Tina they Far. The ersion cam be seen int ange cfc, ices fe Stati can be seen fo 2 growing name Tr of books ant articles written Dy act Serie inet of ance a tense ature" find it hard to comquer belie hat 4 The toate Reclew — Winter Sing, 1972xo dor ch ects ba ‘asso a ch rt ce hea tte ca aaa hs ger Hee cal per, sae eat ae act Se eee eke vcs eer es ape a cet fees ie mon 3 a ag Gee fee Wipe ike ir Store Oe aaa ies oe pa nae a hee ‘The eof hi book’ and ir as apt 0 ETS Oe te the fhe isteach Wench ch edie ae le am ce cat are seats Gay ee co ee coed ei yi 2 Eerste or SLOG cent Te me Se eat pear eee Scie rem ee Seok olrotlg ft ae ee ie ee at 1m Hoare cgeee epee te de ese rei le eit au el ada Sa ace secre sie Fre we et eg ice nen elt nah eter me etme Meet ache a Sa ag te Sn oe Se re ik eee es et seta fe fons pet toe or ee eles re sche, clslae had wr so Pee hee ee eee eee ard ye Reet sacral asc er eel ag oe hf Soamliifece Qoucrnteat Sams aie acre alge Richard Poirier ie wonder spate wo Hore win, by srtae of chichned or yath, have ot pet had ie TR Ect he has Ben eet Tere, iene te le hn fot the rman condition tot want fo distort or exwagerste here The coment revolt against the Word, faint the anthony of language, may Be ino more than an eddy large fou covet Ie sal i a and wir em ct possible, though there i Ile i am tvilence for this, that side by side with Seu on what cal here the authority of innuage there goer the germination aod, thoy devloptent of ne, more vital and txprestive language: After al, what some fee elled Winter's barbacleyawp” ey Sesseen today ta bea language of singular Felines. Bet Whitian loved enguage: be viata i Wate he ig agaist was assuredly nt Fenuage: only “certain highly’ formalizes, fren losses, pes of language, metre, Sn ej thon who ety dere gage an enemy of tre feling sr) ie nocence, wo relet to the author of lan siuage a8 waste. could themselves be seen {0B fashioning new ways of language, orenive of ae of man expr, teopths of meaning of reaches of agin: Sion at the old ways ar perbape nek ex Siva es coud gle whore contort he performing se ‘Unhappily, wht we are sccing today The Iteralleite Review — Winer Seine, 197252 manifestation, 4 not result, of an older, deeper mire pital movin at Bas been kong a now, a8 George. Steiner {es ut on his superb book, Language and Silence, for close to three centuries. {do tot kw we Have read more sane Mating piece of istorcal analyst than Steines chapter tn this book titled “The Hetreat ont the Word In beef compass itll usa great deal about the buchground tithe’ contemporary ersion {have been Sreiing of. The folowing passage, taken Front tipoint in hiv essay. 8 important wi he me teehkef eapeente and sh feet Gt initia tigers eee ‘ruak One cannot talk of Transhnte wipe ae haga The cil has marx re TePheeeh be tse, meeps, The Maori sotto ofthe phe of language of the authority of language fh soctys Hat Ceorge Steiner describes foe ws sp vehubly must be seen 3 the i ATapensabe background of present assaults solanguae i uel that rene primitionry of vocabulary, Aaunted p= Five tee many. areas of youth mong intelgetuals and aris on talk Shows: and cheubere would be possible trove it ot forthe pron dsplactnent of ‘anaes Ss Fung and See Euays Sorgen Cato Sa i Fan Se Paine st Fp 31 the majesty of language in the spheres Mr. Steiner wres of Steiner takes note of the fact that 20 later writer has ever diplayed the vocab Tay that Shakespeare die observes too that "the King James Bible, although fue Bod wordy saat tat he Conception ‘of Mertey_prevaling.at the time "wes" far_more comprehensive. han furs. The esvence of the matter, however, {tr aot inthe mornber of words avalabe TEE ee dete to whch the fescue ff Language are i) actyal cuent se" Steiner suggest, acknowlodging the if utes ofall such etinates, int as uch a iy’ percent of mede colli speech {nehgland. and” America comprises only that ore word and to ake en Selves widely understood. contemporsr inedia of tas communietion have had € Feduce English ta semiliterate condition” “The language of Shakespeare and Nit ton belongs tot stage of story in which swords were in natsral contd of exper. TEnced lifes The writer of tay tends to tee far fever and simpler words, both be. ise mis eure has watered down the Sot of Mercy and because the sun of seas wc word can pe ana rary and fulleient account fas sharply Siminshed 2 STILL anata of thee of uae in our day & the sepening ara swale se” of abstractions and. generic Terma for which no ready referent is feslly found We see this x ply in the wating of the polite Te, but Toc ‘evil Teng. ago Geclared ta. product BF he: democritie revoltion. Devteratic Peoples he observed, are spasionately a ictal to genere terme and abstract expres Tie bac cre which bound ‘on evry case whout attaching them 0 Sy parr fac cole a bur he thot they we intend to convey they render the male of speech more stesnct tn the fet ota in fess cea Bat svth regard to language demoerate nations prefer cunt to labor ‘And tho, with his usual astonishing i sight, Tec indicates. some a the fonsequences of thls specie form of dex Fstsement of language © Theliewailte Reciew — Winter Sein, 1972"1 do not know, indeed, whether {i fost has ot tome scree therm Jor those who speak and torte enn ‘fete nations. 2 the men he lee thre are frequently Tet to the forte of their Indiidual powers of ‘hint they ove olmostauayt prey 10 Doubt and os ther tution tHe te forecer chenging. they are never held fast to any of ther opinions by the im mobi 9f their fore Men ting In'demecrate cours, then, oat to entertain uncetied idea, and they Tequire loose expressions io. conse them. At they never know. whether the idea they express today ‘wil be Spropicte to the neve postin they tay occupy tomorvoe they naturally i ng rer rn hnrot term ts like a box wth o fale bottom; you may putin what Hae ou plate, ond fle ou agra wthow ing obec" George Orwel, himself a ifelong partisan of politcal causes but 2 notable trary trabeman,deseriped, a generation ago, the ‘Bchacement of the, Enaish Tanquaue he coal re gig on aru i i {ute of vagueness and sheer incompetence ite mont mara rater of moder Englsh pros and expecially of any Kind of police! writing ‘Ae soon as certain tops Ere rated the concrete mts into the by acl and no-one seome able 0: tink of fume of epocch that are nt hackneyed: rote consis less and less of words chosen forthe sake oftheir mening, al mee and moce of planes tacked together lke the Fections of a prefabricated henhouse Of. slg on Folica anu nd wth Yaraions thf tru of ll politcal parties, Tom Conservatives to Anarchists "i de signed to make lies sound truthful and ‘mur respectable ‘The fault i by no means « recent one: ‘Think only. of Rowsean and his Genera Will of he declaration that the require ‘ment of absolute obedience to the General Will io, more than “forcing individuals tbe free” Think of Mare an Capitalism land the Proletariat Think of the changes tec ave en rue othe, sole we "Peoples ‘nat to emphasize "democracy “huoran Fight" and "Treodory. Few would F Bomex tne Yok ACh, ‘Ths eamay was ot pubisbed 1948. The and hh hat he to a i a a jer Safer ome a oF campuses" albeit major anes, was a Tey Sanne ecu bream he ferret tet don Ecou hare attrac re ieee ee Selah eres permet ae ee ire ares ales Sstrctions and a, public long since de peta db Peele Pe ob Soiree seca Bt na ea Say ne Pecan ees oh ses ire Rom ogg hae sai ga pea ict jalan toa at Koacerits ae led Romie cepa Meg yuan ae ahvaete er piped test Sarge cea ora tea seth ite mie reece ie car ae Ge recede bt ee segrad arenes ware irate vie my sl ur ase tht ins Sara See tay that has formed tlt tn he primitive of “ike han "ec and above al, "you now” hot be a dieu geneation {ov enslave pte, soll," and cul vray. Weaken, corrpt, dslve the a tony af language in’ soley, and the rest follows rather exa URN now to the culture that is the Thigh culture—of our age, the culture ‘of which literary imagination ithe core, find’ we seo, of course, a comparable, even related, erosion of auberiy, Here too we fre in the presonce of what Professor Poirier has eo aptly called “the performing sao We. all Tow what the performer in the arts—in say, ballet, musi ot theatre, Display i anuredly involved, but it igplay of technique, of form, and of iseipine Beyond the wil or capacity of tmost of vs. Even when the performing fst seems to be mot natal and. at ‘ase and sch pth seri fore hess of great performances that “nature becomes" our common svord af praise — wwe require enly a split seconds rection {orbe temindod tht Few things Ia fecal foe the subjection to. authority, the sel srpine, and. the mastery of technique that "beng natural does Sn « performance ‘But Profesor Poiier's “performing sel” ig very. diferent fom the performance of the artist as we have known ts gencely. “By performance he writes, “I mean, ia ay aang, aching slfpleasing response to the. pes sure and difeaities Twe been describing By. “pressures and. difculties” Profesor Fier mess of cone te dpe and Suthorties nich are the very sinew 0 Culture and Ie traditions but which to the ‘hind ia sate of barbara, ae Matheve [Amold thought of tht word, can sem only 2 hopelesly impenetrable thicker. Profes for Pouter ts no barbarian, bot be i won ‘Sitlly sympathetic to those whe, by vi. fue of edad o south ave not yet a the time or opportunity to past from 1 inusbarisin in which we ate al Born to the ‘ulture that hae been, ever since the Gree, the highest of values fr this ite Profesor Poirier regards the techniques, the forme, the les and stractutes~ whieh {n't say the anthortes ~ of our inherited fulure 840 mach “waste” Disorder is the hinge dnorder in and for Well: dscrdee fs the highest creative necessity of the artist fr thinker In an essay i, The Performing Seq ited “The Politics of Sel-Parody™ be Hlomtibos for us a gente of contemperary Ierature, one that very clearly he Ende delicous and self pleas. that "makes Tun of sel as 1 goes along." With alte prac. tice anyone, he implies, can got in the gene, ven Tovdividule of substantial talent of genius, if only they wil fallow the, two, Simple rules of St making the naked self the arbiter ofall delights ay seco, de- arin everything in eulne, everything, 0 Begone Banat Clearly, when you have become adept in the game of sellparody, you can make the whole world your oyster For Professr Potir, loving elf an disorder above all hing, seeks even to show us hat not merely he and ether present ctor of Poroon HRecew, but, when you come right down tole T'S Blk James joyce, Nabokov and fully creative writer ofthe recent past Sn be best understood, best interpreted, in terns of their hang tented literature 1p fem. Despe the wal atte, even commonplace, acts of Nabokov’ lots and Joyce, profousd knowledge of tnd respect for the teaditens of culture, fn, above all forthe reber of language, “nd of scholarship in the study of language, itis possible for Profemor Poter to etn filo sand declare that in atack eal ture alone and jn consuming passion for Aisrder are tobe found the tue spH0gs Of the genius ofthese mind, Proitsor Power har nat the remotet notion, seemingly, that eeatvity— and ths iss Gue in scletice and scholarship a es tn the imaginative arts —is never the con: Silence of nls rejection of the forms fod structures which the creative mind finds ‘ound him. Tels Soariably a ork ing fom, and. generally through, these to ‘et form and ructres: forms 8 {res that may be 20 orgtal indeed 35 0 snake their relation to pest seem highly {enuous That creative ms do tndeod re ‘eal capacity for berating themselves fo Some ‘eres from accepted modes of in feloctial order as & means of quickening the search for other modes, no ay meant {hat pasion for" duorde. for "waste i tveelding. Least ofall does mean pasion ‘or“uefwatching™ “There i nothing strange inthe fact that fn fuel a book as The Performing Self we shoul tn the ero to be Youth? Darin the past decade or two in America, yout i eve ch than fin he romantic itenuy and politcal mind that the thle savage served fm France fo the fate tghtcenh century that the hid, dhe pees Stk amd, in due tine, the worker seve & iter romantica, chang that peculiar form of romantic pastoralism that was the ‘proletarian novel ofthe 19908 Noone word Expect a tor of Partin Review to be ohcerned with peasants or workers, not at 8 Thetmoreteiate Review — Winer— Spring, 172the present time anyhow, and that prety SGuPeaces ny ‘Vout For dhe ys of {tesing fooling, and murmuring of seet fothings to Youth Profewor Poser wily i Mould appear pay any price short of fle ‘ous, English Sits Pte Poles, Youth? st the agaregate ofall young persons in Amer toy? Chey not the {he thy minosty that frequents places like Reiger. in search of felng senaiy, en foster, mapbe even a degree? Fosbly. fr Viton dea agent which all empirical feta the pone omen tly [relevant Almont certainly As T suggest ‘hove, Prdesucr Poners fondness for the ‘word "youth But a single example of = Fndness of sburactions i general which foroiten resemble wet sponges strung t0 seher ink ol b,c ed single detente story of Wester, Sxlfe when a much barbarism, as much {Sictsed “onslaught agaigt culture and Envention iran form, and es moch sheer Segoe ea calfare and ead ta pase ato. print nto musi nfo ar, {ante the Aci tage ate cade ote i, "Ba Bal a eet ‘tnd wn soa thoughtul and penettng Sarnia of the mater® thatthe ba from of the decade has roots — some of them st Bell notes, in the period, 1695 101A Bet wets: “The molernist innovations that aed so fully between 285 a Lhd wrought fo extraordinary changes io culture. First the war et of Ferrers ithe faethe breakup of poetic syatax, saree oun fetn the alt fly of the picture plane on the canvas The toe of atonality fa music, the loss of Senjuence in temporal representation and of Fotground and background in spatial pie Korialzation, And second there was a_tew Drevenation of the sel which Roger hat [ick Cin The Bonguct Years) has character. Teed in tena of four tela —the cut of lahat, the delight io the absurd; the fevers cf valves #0, a8 to celebrate the ‘over rather tha the higher sxpulses; and 2 concern with hallucination ‘Ae Bell writes, all of this (which was really @ rather small movement, an eddy, Jite ear peed) asgomed grander po portions in the 1080s. ‘The infantil, with e'Ress on feelings pais, and ecstases of SSepgg Be Hr Comment, Se the young, the absurdity, sin the plays of Terese, the wake dsp of Us most pet te prs fone self Ua fering ere {o'porchologial sell, diplay of geitali hacer ‘eed Tone be snore than a hares joven, enterprise = neve Sphere od art the ever of aluce hou Which the coascrumy ugly and anal were lone in von atthe eareully on te cee erature abd he cos ee Sarge eck here oy og ties for dining soup a fours the varied drug. an ibe forms of hallucination all ofthese, what a my ald then re at ety stacks onthe ony AUG‘ the above, as Danie! Bell also requires us to do'by the cogency of hia ticle and west of detail the concern with Siolence and erly, the preoccupation with the serally perverse, (Qe worship of this Ieioc e ealad cht ain tion with human excrement, the apocalyptic iow of everthing i-America 203, tnd IC pain hat the 1980s was a good deal thore than the earlier pevod: mae incon {ent intersty, and fn sheen impact on cul {tre "The great aim of culture Matthew ‘Amold wrote isthe preface of his Culture aud Anarchy, “iste aim of eting ourselves iS cri i pete ao make i prevail” But the great aim of the tna ate iting = with rare and remarkable Sevens Sue in he TO gs Sault on perfection n any rewonably fective, or a least external, sere of this ‘Nord. What Lionel Tring, im 2 now hie {one phrase, had refered to a8 “adversary ture” became, by the 196s, ao albout flim again culture, against the author Uy a aired by Praesor Ptr 1 being in Sry large put, “waste For it the Herston achieved by the spilaming Sl io the iby, ietatin {yr hbo from the coratrants of 33} fn structure, from the dselplines of hard ‘Tork und objective theme, the 108 proved ere ts a wats detent empty of original” Everyboiy. wis tbe eoaly ice to rte exactly ase ‘wished, but alas, on the evidence, none of ee the ogo mode, tnyehing to sy, Inutaly amusingly hase inastebtssed bythe self and it eration From ‘authority of any in, those most CEimantly ‘concerned. with revolt against Sanformiy are te ones who have in ft The treclee Recee = Winter Spring. 1872told us the last about human nature, who Inve, inthe wntings, manifesto the least Individuality and have shown themselves to be the most easly captured by the Kind that ves In the fashions oF hve expected, gen of confor the hour Ose the adulation of Vout that was tothe seen: lest afew ofthe ‘hen ne eh tess buovaney of se rst of italy Bone rarely found these In any depe. Ione ce Heaton of he ack at ttn teva agaist authority proves 4 me esl a8 to dislodge authority, and then es only self to feed upon, ie colt army aly bens a ene Worhap infantile andthe abr ng nough and one wil hinsel become jut thats infantile and absurd. So the 19005 vwouid susues. wv gosta gn nor mr nents Bem Cae Seek aioe net all Bice ett te erat te Serica ance See aes acai deat Seg erm nce Sera fe stores Stren soe ea tm many. places this repudiation of the authority of reason Isto e seen in those iss of oie and calle youth where cling through senate an encounter ‘to eae in the wd phere ofthe arty just refered to, where renee Dation with self wth daplay or eet fall, takes the almost variable form of Aislay of the Teast rational, the least ree Sonrorented resson'aeprin. clement of the self and in the New oft where the pee prop re mor than aaa Neg? Yt zoey ac ro beets Root iat feats of caer as Ae pa ati ean Te ba fhe a politics of assault requited demolition of Bip remaining fath objectivity, of patsionate Teton itis ao easy to be scomful of objectivity, Who, afterall 6 ever whslly objective? Novone, of case. Neverthelen, whatever sey ret ha ad he We ee the tine of the pre Socratic philosophers, Inhatever succes have attended fin many. Spheres off hae alowed acceptance of bjectnily ar at Teast 2 worthy goa. To Aletiare that there ig form of knowledge {hat vot rooted wholly fa sellnterest, th soe nett group sce. 8 ed, vurces paon, of specatic obsesion, that is rooted instead it dene to observe tones work! as honestly and depassenatdly its humanly penile, and to reach con tlusion ‘accordingly, surely, to" declare Something of superlative nobility = uo mat teow en we my fal shor of den Dpurpoca ‘The. philesophial iterature fhe Wat ile th ntti of he ls ‘of the mind, s¢ they vere called by Francs Bacon, which seek incessantly to, engage tur attention and to make diffe the route ‘treason: Bversbodty knows this, What else See the purslt of method, a ogi. of ler, a neecton and linguistic dsepline about ‘xcept the stupa to ind means which will protect fromthe mot latent of Bacon's as Bat oconerte make an dl 0 12 ‘worship pure. subjeivsm, and to deny {ery the poslity or imporeance of ob Jestviys thks plaily, fs sooething novel, Tam not hemeve nearly 30 concerned by the pia aia amon the le ‘reason a3 Lam by the deeper and pore Ssidesprend asault that comes from what T fan eoly call the cult of indivlalty in ierican clogs and ivi BH slog erated, as « pat of “Conscious ‘nest TIT ReieWs The Greening of Amer [o's bound to gain far more members Shan any poveneat of plea radentom or 20 itl srequgd inthe way o tration for or membership in ths “green. ing ot mind nor learning. noe dscptine ‘Tobe able to fel toe abie to comnun ate ones feng to eters ~ non ings tatty so far as forbl,save only forthe Blas an Eno ein sm Hatt, tbe fascinate by others fe ihe and Sdn onc fe ind of pavehedelc these, al ofthis ft Fhesomer inch more widesprend, wil srely Prove to be the greatest single asst on Feazon inthe modem West Dro, fot all their undewbted impact, seem to me ut‘minor current jn the large reality ofthe cult Gf feeling and of self: Samuel McCracken as made this paint among others ni bel Hand article "Drugs of Habit and Deogs of lie showing corel that the mon meni dtntin between the free Such droge asthe familar aleaho, gsr: dite, and variations on sleeping pill all Avge of Pabit™~ and the later, which in “speed” aud) ESD, lies nation ofthe ater, with Conssqiences clearly understood toward an tent culture, andthe utter absence of el ‘Sesieaton in the former ‘There i, and has been for rare than two decades nw visible erosion ofthe ator. ity ofthe university America #9 be sen in the substantial degradation of dhe role Ad mitsion of the university fm American ife, Inside the seademy andy" wards ppl to colleges ofthe liberal ar type 38 sll enverites~ there would appear (0 ben widening indierenco to the eathoity of curmcatum, which after al aloo Sth scholarship, jst aboot all the academy He ad cate to Wt cute for neatly ght conturies, T take ths doe Alerts is Boredom, ths enter urscuinm fo ber fn ery targe pat the result of the academy's declsion, made In various ways and. at various dines over the past evera Gecader, to abdicate We Suthority in those areas" for which I Is Hope fad to wield authority aad Seek novel wats of interesting, then diver fe and tn due time amusing stents ‘The faeinaion with the relevant” and ith the imagined needs of “the stadent" began, teaily notin the 1960 fn the marifestocs Of the New Left on the campus, but i fee Shy tapos, cement and ter roel tie! during the period beyinning just alter ‘World War tt when the cult a ndviduaity Inthe acndemy began to spread to be se. feededs of course in due tine by the cult OF feeling, From the frst expessions of Fatty contempt for curicaim. at such aces a1 Harvard. snd Berkeley tothe Finds of student contempt to be found tn sensitivity sessions and encounters of vi fer communion, where feling fs sover. gus there i one sont canclode, a dret fine “The collapse of academe authority in the 10 as but the sorfacing of 8 collapse To wcrcteny ole ip he tame Sue of cach ace Br) We Sete Bet SoH, ted cb Robert Nisbet thot had! ecome rel during the 1940s and the 1880s whes the mision ofthe university ‘was so profoundly" changed from that of ‘Mucatit to tht of sereng saving ealing, ‘forming, even revoloonizing, the socal ‘Sider The ogra of knew for is ov stke bactme a degraded doa the a ‘rly dasing the penod eller Worls War TITNw conceptions of the toy of knowl: trige fourshed, x new breed of academic than asuraed power and inuenee fo un feviy ce the recreate and the “project” succeeded in importance bot the solar study andthe casroom. Given the degrade bios academies ‘jase shan range that thre wou Jae Been’ a one and the same time. ade gradation of each of the tles which ad ro for so anany contris, associated with the seademie dogmas the voles of teacher bn scholar foremest No sngle manifestation of the erosion of auth in American salty sc ee ijite as oymptornatic ofthe larger peblers ties the tron of academe authors ind, with if, the dslutin of the aeaderle mount, Por do Amerie wake Europe ‘Shere notcademie traditions of lami end stil to be rather strong, the we be tween the university ond. the intellectual my abe the ae te ingens sia the’ arts and Slences fener. fos been a very nearly vital enev SLEABLY, the individual seeking, ihroogh every ponible mean ee from authori Oe ofthe contra elles af our age in American sci. Such scape, sx eto eepe soca not have bea ‘eral n'a population, not even ol mg dimension, or it to have great poste Signilemnce. Tt is enmugh if be Hocated fmiong the ftelletoal, among those oho, Jnone way and degre or ether. suppy the Iteger Society with contrlling ges, 4% dominant pater of belie Tis hata sways been the ease. the tarsi, of Soclties rom wht St Simon eslled “or. tani to “ented epochs, ‘The. rots af Spelal change, including revolutionary hange, ae tobe found variably among eminant minorities, and of all cries fei Ge inn contd yt lectuals Ts the most (aught with vant cance to a scietyintitations, fa cher ‘alias and tr cructl allegiances Ite substantial umber of persons in sec eet elove that Tot watever ‘esom, from whatever ease, soley In toa a ine way, nce Some degree coupe of degenerate the fesults ate ot very diferent from what they would be i all or most members of Socley ‘were open participants tn the volt against author And some very te fent poll have tld us tat a malay of the american people do believe at the pr tent fime thet sot hat Tot fs way has Scam’ enteapped to corruption, inp coed ye ae Mattes would pia erent, even among intellectuals there wee the slightest ettlence that 2 some’ dominated bythe performing self by the indivdual who, in Bethe words ies to make his Sel'observable, and to exhibit a touch 25 possbie to the work” were far very longa tolerable sone, a foasble one social and. pavehologial terms, No such fvidence exits in huton: For invarably Sate fia accompanying te perm Sell—and within the same individual mong the very same minor. Tiriloliaton of the natural, the unto tore the “tos” self i the mort cbvious manifestation atthe present line of what Teall the nemese of authority not far vay fs olizstion of that special form of the perry lt ht aie wah the sments of power: the kin of power eat can Seom redemptive to tho ithe foe font fa oa cent he ech Sangean, 2 ‘rarer pees ened ahs beeen ateare Groce Nein Beret as Geman ofa ie fie at ove eal poe ida les ese et eid a bs len bra ony i a Mingo as, Sap SHIRT cera es es soe Feat, tte ean Uren mee a ee sri et is lt Se ie ps ash Rone self and the craving for power; * “The great harm sae begun in the ta centinp manly through Rouse, tcth is doctrine of the goodness Iman nat Ou of thi lee educated ole, dite the doctrine org le ota at cow tah thay dt ould Et toa the complete disintegration of the te of ata te ends of moi poriadicaly Ceint 1 thee? power'® ym Arson among wits ind in Western history, with ‘Tosquevile and Matthew Arnold, among others, joining Burckhardt ithe 19th centnry, the anit ther preditable ainty between solo cular anarehy" and” caving Yor direct Power has been well uted Today ope fel oc alte aro uo make wp the very vanguard of ssl on {lthort, whether it be the author of the sovailed Establishment. the authonty of ordinary. city and. decency or the Suthortes of lanavage, reson, aed cota. Bo ot ding te the highes intensity of romantic faseation swith the power of a Casto oF Mast Tp bot thisk"even the Amenican intelectual. Beare seat 12 The mwalelte Reine — Winter ~ Spring, 1872Aiton with Sao ne 18508 was inuch a sgn of the seemingly eorlss ight {oipower ne finds among intllectoas gen seals cunt adalat of Nao Se ether with the, urseryke sayings of Ghatinan Mao the univenaluiteaton $9 Chine now of the army a the frumework of anal omni ther and, eve resents eversteady to stk the Sheet pet Eoifcaion of sbolute poet in one man to ae rou In the obvious fact of mitariaton, despot- Konan intellectual inanity of spoken and ‘itn utterances that we soe fa China ad Gabe these, surely, we fod ourselves on the verge of saying wil shor prove sl: rooming to theie in American soclety Aho now worship atthe shrine of Mao and {Who ean find something uocomrpted, pure, ‘Jean, and neo in Maat Chins, something ‘eeyant and comma and endowed with forte opting np ay hel 6 Trevoesbly lot in America, Perhaps 2. erhupe te fair with Nao will teats, fad shorty, at id the afar eavier with ‘Stalin, Wha less Wey to terminate, how ‘er athe la with power, the ae with right kind of weer of cnet power. “Werdo not know, anno! know, of couse, whether such weer of power sil come tn the American scene, (o be courted Amer Eau style as Mao, is courted fo China all ties normal impulses say suc Sigh unlikely in Ameri 5S alongs the two major pobiial partis Femuin song and the economy holds to fet ascoy wel ard lng sme omiiating misry defeat does not ceate tus feline of fasocurty greater than those normally present todas Bot the stendy accumulation of the er: sion of tutor in Arerican society and ‘cf td a hie we gr sing {day ine icresing sense of displacement Sh acestomed vale, and the mount Pevepton of the sos wold among 1g Eine mumbers of persons can erate tery probably ae now creating «condition where eine sil, major semana eatstophic Seiback Na lost war deprestion one mote ‘ational wave of stadt ibkenee, he poss ‘ie fen’ ake 8 peo eis not ifca for many of us to remem- ber the. extraondinary appeal that Huey Pong camp to have For large numbers of Kian doing the monte leading up 'Scassnatio, or the newly equa) appeal Sha ther Cohn ad rough rao presence lane. Quite possibly we have be En ney etc nh, or the special personal characteristics of Huey" Ling to ake eect tony, Who can fesse hl or when re longer opportunity to ebserve, 52, George Wallace One thing however, i fentan, We have not become, a8 peopl {So educate, too sophisticated, to weleome cour power able, recy, ver Sthelming. peronal power. No people in story Sher has or ever could, And when tach power comes in America, ft comes RSP no seem like power a al toa great inany people including iarge umber of Intellectuals, and perhaps eapesaly of the ng. ei be tome, exerting, cased. fetSoinmunal even redemptive. Such power always his in history when it fst DICTIONARIES — WEBSTER Library sla, 1972 an bang now, i im box. Cost rw SS. WILL SELL FOR $15 Deduct 10% on eres of 6 of mere ® NORTH AMERICAN LIQUIDATORS 50 Nina Fall Bes, Tonawands, Now Yor 1150 £00, order eclon $1.00 goad wil depos, Pay balance plus GOD. sisping on deliver. Be sete on inspetin &retun within 1 dye fr fl tun. 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