[Phaedrus]

... but once you "know thyself" there's no way to look at the Left without profound horror ...

I was somewhat disappointed with the article insofar as I think the rot goes much deeper; i.e. into psychological dysfunction.

Most of us are "products" of the public school and university system. We grow up and we "get over it". I believe that those who remain within the "educational" system or who find their way into the media as a result of their talents also find themselves there as a consequence of their insecurity. Those institutions are one step removed from the real world of self-sufficiency and the individuals represented depend upon and are beholden to others for their sustenance. I think that they very deeply resent this. They are exceedingly immature.

The antidote might simply be to challenge them to grow up by calling their bluff. Robert Bork, a former Marine, is an example of an intellectual who grew up.

[ggekko]

This was a brilliant article by Professor Rozick. The evidence for his thesis is overwhelming from the virutally non-existent sales of post-modern academic fiction to the popularity of structuralism among literary intellectuals. The psychological tendency noted by Professor Rozick is also obvious by the choice of almost all literary intellectuals of academic careers over other venues.

There is a corollary problem as well: the right until relatively recently has ceded the entire area of culture to the left. This state of affairs accounts for the banality and nihilism of most popular culture.

[A_perfect_lady]

I was somewhat disappointed with the article insofar as I think the rot goes much deeper; i.e. into psychological dysfunction.

I would agree accept that just getting a dose of thought not saturated in Marxism broke the spell for me (well, began the process.) I read THE FOUNTAINHEAD and ATLAS SHRUGGED and I was never the same again. That and 3 years of Free Republic was quite an eye-opener. I don't think psychological dysfunction could be undone so quickly.... could it?

But then, maybe I never was a true liberal. When I "came out" as an official conservative, my tree-hugging former friends all commented sourly that they had known that about me for years. (-: