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Clever Pseudonym's avatar

I have a sneaking suspicion that at least half of the reason Western Civ had to go (hey ho!) is because it's arduous and intimidating to grapple with the works of, say, Plato and Aristotle and Dante and Milton etc—the challenge of reading our best books in their entirety and coming up with an intelligent response is difficult enough for a well-read adult, never mind a college kid and their tenured babysitters.

It's much easier to denounce a book or author based on sex and skin color, which allows you to maintain your ignorance but do it with a public performance of self-flattering self-righteous pseudo-virtue—"I won't read the Greeks because I'm protecting minorities!" lol

The American brain has rotted from an excess of cheap moralism in the same way that the American gut and body have swelled and sickened from an excess of cheap calories. People crave unearned moral superiority almost as much as they crave food and sex, and our academy has been happy to sell it to them as long as the funds kept flowing.

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Anon E. Mousse's avatar

I did not make my way through the rigors of childhood surrounded by the artifacts of elite educational institutions. Indeed, I endured nativism long before I knew the term. Along with the absence of privilege and the disparagement of social 'betters," it was nevertheless impressed upon me that to gain an education was to gain the world. And so I pursued education, and then more education, and yet more and I am fond of saying, "I am just getting started."

It is not wrong to critique the Western canon but it is wrong and intellectually defective to demand that all prior thought and evidence of Western culture must be destroyed in order to crown the latest thing supreme. This is silly, of course, yet no one dares to say it, lest litigation ensue. It is sillier still that in the eyes of the new (and largely self-selected) guardians of civilization, some cultures remain sacrosanct for their "authenticity," or some other unfathomable, yet not particularly special, quality.

Learning is difficult. Many long nights will not be applauded, for it will only be the student who bears witness to the task. Material is complex. This week I came across a meme captioned "Even I was confused." -- Immanuel Kant.

And so I laughed and carried on.

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