The Book That Drove Them Crazy - "The Closing of the American Mind" 25 years later

The Weekly Standard Magazine ^ | April 5, 2012 | Andrew Ferguson

[Cincinatus' Wife]

GOOD piece.

[Westbrook]

The “public school” is BY FAR, the largest, most expensive, most subversive, and most destructive entitlement program in the country.

The “public school” is better understood as the “government school collective”.

It is silly to imagine that you can fix the public schools, because the very concept itself is communist.

Any child that comes out of the government school collective with their moral compass and common sense intact does so in spite of the government school indoctrination, not because of it.

If you want to win the culture war, have lots of children (see my tagline) and homeschool them or form your own school cooperative with your church or synagogue and like-minded friends and relatives.

Nobody loves your children more than you do.

Nobody can teach your children like you can.

Your children would love nothing better than to be taught by you, if you start doing so before they are corrupted by the government school collective.

It is hypocritical for you to submit your children to an authority with whom you fundamentally disagree. And your children will know it.

If you have children, make whatever sacrifices you must to get them out of the public schools.

DO NOT FEED THE BEAST!

Especially not with your own children.

[Steely Tom]

Then, seven years later, another book: The Bell Curve, by Richard J. Herrnstein, drove them crazy all over again.

[Cincinatus' Wife]

For clarity:

“....fashion of materialism& = of explaining all life...”

IS

...”As well as anyone then or now, he understood that the intellectual fashion of materialism - of explaining all life, human or animal, mental or otherwise, by means of physical processes alone - had led inescapably to a doctrinaire relativism that would prove to be a universal corrosive.”...

[Clintonfatigued]

Ping

[what's up]

I read "Ravelstein", but never read "Closing of the American Mind".

You reminded me that I need to get this book. Thanks.

[livius]

Alas, I fear that Marx and Freud didn’t fade away because they were discredited; they were simply incorporated so deeply into modern academic thought that they have become basic premises and no longer even need to be identified as such.

[originalbuckeye]

Didn't hear of this book. Will definitely look for it.

[jjotto]

Son to be followed by “My kids public school isn’t so bad” and “I’m/I know a public school teacher trying to help kids”. I have more respect for crack dealers.

[khelus]

The Deliberate Dumbing Down of America - Charlotte Iserbyt

[ishmac]

Great book, too. “Closing” is one of the dozen or so most infuential books I’ve ever read. It’s part of my “mental furniture.” Every cultural trend described by Bloom—from the breakdown of the family, to the situation of blacks at the university, to the destructive influence of feminism and promiscuity on campus—has gotten exponentially worse. The biggest difference is that now, these trends aren’t limited to places like Cornell, U of Chicago, Columbia, et al. They are general everywhere in academia, and have reinforced the corruption of the broader culture.

The cohort of students described by Bloom now runs the country , and is hellbent on carrying out the Revolution. The relativism fostered by Heidegger’s “openness,” the Frankfurt School, and Deconstructionism has done its preparatory work; souls empty of family ties, religious restraints and moral absolutes are now filled with the “passionate intensity” of liberation theology, eco-radicalism, etc.

It’s funny how Bloom— a secular academic homosexual— could be so perceptive about the breakdown of the nuclear family and the ravages of relativism! Bloom, who disavowed being “conservative,” sounds almost like his contemporary, Pope John Paul II when describing the centrality of religion, the family, and the priority of culture to politics.

Although during Reagan’s time one could think that our side was winning, the Revolution was still germinating beneath the surface. It was much more widespread and powerful than anyone realized. Now we will see if America can face down the Revolution within her own borders. Germany, Russia, Italy, and Japan couldn’t. Spain did, but at a terrible cost. As many have said in recent years, we live in interesting times.

[RoadTest]

“I read “Ravelstein”, but never read “Closing of the American Mind”.
You reminded me that I need to get this book. Thanks.”

Yes. Do read it. Bloom writes well, stretches our minds like a good muscle stretch, and rewards us with cogent occlusions.

[Westbrook]

> Son to be followed by “My kids public school isn’t so bad”
> and “I’m/I know a public school teacher trying to help
> kids”. I have more respect for crack dealers.

I hear this all the time.

It’s so hard to get through to people that “compulsory education” and “public school” are collectivist-statist (COMMUNIST) ideas.

So, they ask, is government road-building collectivist?

Well, not exactly. We’re talking there about INFRASTRUCTURE, and nobody is COMPELLED to use them, and the only folks who pay for them (theoretically) are those who pay taxes when they buy cars, register cars, buy fuel, and pay highway tolls, i.e, those that use the highways pay for them.

But most of the time, I feel like I’m talking to tree stumps, because, invariably, they will present anecdotal evidence that some school or some teacher is doing good.

Look. I could probably find some good food rooting around in a restaurant dumpster, but I’m not going to soil myself doing that.

[BfloGuy]

It's interesting that, as widely read and cited as this book was, it spurred almost no changes. And that's because "we" (meaning anyone not involved in the educational establishment) never demanded it strongly enough. We conservatives have the habit, I think, of just putting up with liberal establishments like education and the mass media instead of getting involved in them and fighting them from inside.

It's a tough assignment, because somebody has to design the cars, drill the oil, and build the houses, too. I think that's where most of us end up. What to do?

[relictele]

That was a pivotal period for me. I admit I was a Rolling Stone subscriber and prone to believing what they published (although the likes of William Greider are never to be taken seriously). Bloom’s book had them incandescent with rage and which caused me to wonder why.

After reading book I realized that Bloom was correct - which explained the vitriol directed at him.

[Principled]

blehhhhh...

The problem isn’t that public schools are public - the problem is that said system is required to accept and keep all kids - even those who do not wish to be there, those who are continually disruptive, those who are criminal. THAT’S the problem. Find a way to eliminate the majority of undesirables and you have the environment you want.

And, so you know, Thomas Jefferson himself advocated for free education.

Help rid the schools of losers - either by choosing a charter, private, or home school. But it’s silly to blame a non-existent problem.

[RoadTest]

“Closing” is one of the dozen or so most infuential books I’ve ever read. It’s part of my “mental furniture.”

Three of mine:

The Unseen Hand
Blacklisted By History
The Creature From Jekyll Island

[Auntie Mame]

Thank you for posting that. Downloaded and saved.

[Oratam]

Bloom, who disavowed being “conservative,” sounds almost like his contemporary, Pope John Paul II when describing the centrality of religion, the family, and the priority of culture to politics.

Reading the excerpts from Closing, I thought Bloom was on his way to converting to Catholicism.

[MrB]

Exposure of their agenda and the telling of truths that thwart their agenda

does indeed drive them crazy.

Usually what you get, though, is not a refutation of the exposed truth, but simply a denial and an ad hominem attack (”racist!”).