A Clash of Cultures: The Bourgeois vs. the Burning Man

Trevor Grant Thomas.com ^ | 9/2/2017 | Trevor Grant Thomas

[DWW1990]

It seems that University of Pennsylvania law professor Amy Wax—who took her own turn melting the snowflakes at Middlebury College a few years ago —again has liberals in a lather. On August 9 of this year, professor Wax, along with law professor Larry Alexander—currently the Warren Distinguished Professor of Law at the University of San Diego—penned an Op-Ed in the Philadelphia Inquirer lamenting the breakdown of our nation’s “bourgeois culture.” ...

To further liberal angst, in a follow-up interview with the Daily Pennsylvanian the day after her Op-Ed ran, professor Wax doubled-down in her defense of the bourgeois culture. Declaring Anglo-Protestant cultural norms are superior, Wax told the student paper, “I don’t shrink from the word, ‘superior.’” She added, “Everyone wants to come to the countries that exemplify” these values. “Everyone wants to go to countries ruled by white Europeans.” Furthermore, Wax made it clear—because when talking to liberals, one must always make this clear—that she was not implying the superiority of whites. “Bourgeois values aren’t just for white people,” she explained.

In other words, as the professors’ original piece concluded, “All cultures are not equal.” Of course this is like saying “all pizzas are not equal,” but such a conclusion flies in the face of the multiculturalism preached by the modern left. And all cultures are not equal, because all values are not equal.

Let me make clear something that professor Wax’s “Anglo-Protestant” comment implies: America’s “bourgeois values” are superior because they are, essentially, Christian values. Thus a bourgeois culture is superior because it is essentially a Christian culture, and that ultimately is why the left attacked Wax and Alexander’s piece.

[Reverend Wright]

The satanic symbolism of “Burning Man” is beyond obvious.

Perverts set up an idol and burn it in celebration of the hell fire that they long for.

[DWW1990]

I was just thinking that yesterday! Well said!

[Albion Wilde]

Thanks for this post. I dug into the original article by Professor Wax (linked in this article) that started a new PC brouhaha at U of Penn, and that led to a series of dissenting opinions as well. What was most bracing was reading the hundreds of comments to these several articles, which were overwhelmingly in favor of a reconsideration of the cultural values that were common to the U.S. before the rise of the Great Society and cultural Marxism/multiculturalism. The great majority of comments also rejected the fact-free, knee-jerk pseudoacademic babble spewed in dissent and in reaction (not rebuttal) to her suggestions. A most enjoyable afternoon of reading.

[DWW1990]

You’re welcome!