Dartblog

The Chronicle of Higher Education has just published a capital essay by Mark Bauerlein, professor of English at Emory University, called “How Academe Shortchanges Conservative Thinking.” (The article is only temporarily in front of the pay wall. For a PDF version, click here.) Mark makes a fine case for the inclusion of conservative thinking in the academy, which thinking is most certainly sodded-off at present. Mark shows in detail that even today’s political opinion leaders are unable to grapple with the right side of intellectualism, because that side—which has grand traditions just like its counterpart, and even more material success than its counterpart—and its symbolic personalities, are given short shrift by colleges and universities.

“[T]he conservative tradition remains a vital resource of ideas and theories,” he writes, “a heritage that claims world triumphs. To gain it the full measure it warrants — and to bring it to bear wisely on the issues we confront — we need more than conservative pundits on television or in the blogosphere, more than conservative publishers or think tanks. We need to subject it to the full analysis — critical and appreciative — of the academy…”

Needless to say, Professor Bauerlein knows whereof he speaks. We’d be witnessing a remarkable anti-intellectualism on the part of the academic firmament if it were to ignore his plea for inclusion.