« The View From Your Window |
Main
| Will The GOP Turn On Gates? »
04 Apr 2009 10:58 am
The High Culture Wars
Scott McLemee George Scialabba
reviews Against the Grain, a collection of forty-five essays from
The New Criterion:
In its crusade against the politicization of contemporary culture, The New Criterion is -- on the whole, in the main, and not to put too fine a point on it -- right. Notwithstanding the importance of legal and social equality for women, homosexuals, and members of racial minorities, most of the cultural strategies employed in the service of these ends have been -- again, on the whole; and with many exceptions, not always duly acknowledged by conservative critics -- misguided and counterproductive.
Multiculturalist pedagogy; the promotion of “cultural diversity”
through arts administration, philanthropy, and public policy; academic
departments of Women’s Studies and Afro-American Studies; the project
of “critical theory”; and in general, the greatly increased weight --
in teaching and research, hiring and funding, programming and
grant-making -- given to explicitly political considerations:
altogether these things have done more harm than good. They have
undoubtedly made possible some valuable work and attracted some people
to culture who would otherwise have been lost to it. But they have also
generated a really staggering amount of mediocre and tendentious work.
And not only do these ideological priorities make for less accomplished
artists and scholars; they also make for less effective citizens.
Attempting to turn one’s professional enthusiasms and expertise to
political account can distract from -- can even serve to rationalize
the avoidance of -- everyday democratic activity, with all its tedium
and frustration.
Share This
TrackBack URL for this entry:
http://www.typepad.com/services/trackback/6a00d83451c45669e201156fa3f982970b
Listed below are links to weblogs that reference 'The High Culture Wars'
