Classical Values :: Moral Relativism Wins

Moral Relativism Wins

The New York Times has a bit up on the Canon (Culture) Wars and how they have affected academia. It centers around a discussion of Alan Bloom's The Closing of the American Mind.

Today it's generally agreed that the multiculturalists won the canon wars. Reading lists were broadened to include more works by women and minority writers, and most scholars consider that a positive development. Yet 20 years later, there's a more complicated sense of the costs and benefits of those transformations. Here, the lines aren't drawn between right and left in the traditional political sense, but between those who defend the idea of a distinct body of knowledge and texts that students should master and those who focus more on modes of inquiry and interpretation. However polarizing Bloom may have been, many of the issues he raised still resonate -- especially when it comes to the place of the humanities on campus and in the culture.

Here comes the punch line. And on the first page too!

All this reflects what the philosopher Martha Nussbaum today describes as a "loss of respect for the humanities as essential ingredients of democracy." Nussbaum, who panned Bloom's book in The New York Review in 1987, teaches at the University of Chicago, which like Columbia has retained a Western-based core curriculum requirement for undergraduates. But on some campuses, "the main area of conflict is trying to make sure that the humanities get adequate funding from the central administration," Nussbaum wrote in an e-mail message, adding, "Our nation, like most nations of the world, is devaluing the humanities vis-à-vis science and technology, so constant vigilance is required lest these disciplines be cut." Louis Menand, a Harvard English professor and New Yorker staff writer who serves on Harvard's curriculum reform committee, concurs: "The big question for humanists is, How do we explain why what we do is important for people who aren't humanists? That's been tough, really tough."

The Professor is complaining that the people think the Humanities have no relevance. If she is a liberal she should be cheering that moral relativism has won. If no judgments can be made no need to teach judgment, eh? I guess the downside of that bothers the Professor. Isn't it ironic, just a bit, don't ya think?

Bloom was wrong about Rock 'n Roll though.

Clayton Cramer has some thoughts.

Cross Posted at Power and Control

Comments

"Bloom was wrong about Rock 'n Roll though."

And Ayn Rand was wrong about photography, which she denied was an art.

Brett · September 18, 2007 07:27 AM

My daughter is reading Homer in her high school freshman English class. How many in the humanities in college have ever read Homer?

The only problem is that it will take another 40 years or more for academe to recover from the self-inflicted rot of the 60s.

nerdbert · September 18, 2007 05:15 PM

Bloom was right about rock music, the proof of the pudding being twofold:

1. The dominant form of popular "music" today is rap, where the "c" is silent. Yelling into my ear while waving a computerized drum machine around may be emotionally satisfying to the neobarbarians who practice it, however it is a sterile form that in nearly 20 years has not changed one whit. Rap is the logical spawn of rock.

2. Modern rock is entirely derivative. CNBC had some Bay Area group droning on the other day, it was a boring combination of early 70's Grateful Dead and early Springsteen, a rehash of rehasing. That's all there is out there, derivative reworking of reworks, emo whiners like Green Day, metal bands working the same tired furrow Ozzie's guys dug back in the late 60's, etc., etc., etc.

It is, as was made abundantly clear in _Closing_, music for children and childish people. The spectacle of 60-something boomers with their grey ponytails pogoing to the same droning, whining "I'm special, pity me" mixes well with suburban D00DZ cruising in their Elantra's that daddy paid for, hat on sideways while listening to "The KAT sat on the MAT 'cause he was FAT, where be all my bitches 'n ho's?". In both cases the emotional vacuousness of teen angst is replicated endlessly, and profitably, while any real thought is obliterated.

Bloom was right about rock. Period.

Classical Music · September 18, 2007 07:10 PM

You mention the Dead and Springsteen as exemplars of "good rock". I agree.

Many of the rock musicians of that era were classically trained or influenced. (Blood Sweat and Tears). That would also include classical literature (Dylan).

Then you mix in American Blues and country (the electric guitar) and you have a great synthesis. i.e. Aaron Copeland that people actually want to dance to.

The current music scene is what it is because the current crop of musicians is totally untrained. Either in music or literature. Which I think leads back to the academy. So in a sense, although his judgment of "classical" rock was wrong, he was correct that a lack of proper training in the arts of culture leads to degeneracy.

Its called "classic" rock for a reason. It will be played for centuries. Just as the music of the Gabriellis is still popular in some quarters.

Let me add FWIW. My #3 son (age 22) is a drummer (classically/jazz trained) and he prefers "classic" rock to the current load of crap.

M. Simon · September 18, 2007 08:27 PM

I do not mention either the Dead or Springsteen as exemplars of anything other than derivative, repetitive, childish claptrap for overage adolescents. The current crop of "musicians" is untrained in anything other than self-gratification. They are a logical and inevitable result of the self-pitying, forever immature predecessors.

Bloom's judgement regarding rock was correct, and the proof of his judgement is before you; even you admit that the current crop of "musicians" is pathetic. Where did they learn "music" from? From rock stars. What did they learn? That haircuts and good poses matter more than any musical ability.

Time will tell if "classic" rock will be played for centuries, or even decades. Most likely the only reason the stuff continues to squat on the airwaves is demographics. So you'll be able to nod your head to "Kashmir" for some years to come, be happy. In time, however, the demographic will change and more & more music channels will consist of rap/hiphop/etc. thanks to the degeneracy created by rock.

Fortunately, chamber music continues to grow by leaps and bounds, symphonies continue to flourish, and real music remains in existence. It is a pity that many of the truly great 20th century musicians, such as Louis Armstrong, are increasingly unknown to anyone under the age of 40, but that's the way it goes.

Bloom was right. Rock is the music of children. Thanks for proving his point.

Classical Music · September 18, 2007 09:57 PM

Classical,

It is too bad you are so bitter.

However, there are Classical Scholars quite critical of the academy who disagree with you. Camille Paglia for instance who argues for a balance or a synthesis between Apollo and Dionysus.

I have been to quite a few Dead concerts. It was a religious experience for me. In fact I took a friend who was not a fan and he said he had a religious experience.

Bloom had Apollo down. Dionysus he was not at home with. This produces a pinched spirit. It appears you have caught the disease. My condolences.

The current crop of musicians imitated their elders instead of following in their foot steps. Cargo cult culture if you will. This is a failure of education. It is not a failure of music.

My musician son is at home with classical as he is with rock. I made sure he had the proper training because I know where the culture came from. Other parents have not done as well. Why? Because the academy no longer teaches culture well. (My good fortune to go to school for a while at U. Chicago. #2 son graduated from there this past June, with honors. Despite my career in aerospace I'm quite a fan of culture popular and otherwise.)

M. Simon · September 18, 2007 10:34 PM

Bitter? What a foolish observation, I am quite at ease with art and life. It is too bad you are unwilling to let go of the things of childhood, such as calling your contact high at a Dead concert a religious experience.

Citing Camille Paglia is quite droll, the self-labeled Dionysic who is hardly capable of actually taking to the hills and bringing back a kill. Please read Ortega y Gasset "Meditations on Hunting" and learn what Paglia doesn't know, and likely never will know.

I have no disease, I merely recognize childish behavior when I see it, and have been to sufficient rock concerts to recognize it. Watch some of the films from the 30's and 40's featuring musicians such as Ellington or Dorsey or Miller, and behold how the audience acts: like adults, not overage children. Compare that to your Dead concerts, with spinning, pogoing and the inevitable vomiting...

The current crop of "musicians" in the popular realm follow exactly in the footsteps of their elders; they take what they are taught and dumb it down. When you dumb down from blues, you get rock....dumb down from rock, you get rap. It indeed a kind of cargo cult, and a logical derivation from the empty-headed, adolescent spoon-banging-on-the-highchair that was rock. I suppose when the next step arrives it will consist of banging rocks together while grunting. No doubt Paglia will find some Dionysis in that, too...

I'm sure you are a fan of popular culture, and hope I have not taken up too much of your time up. Hey! Maybe Paris Hilton has done something, better look at one of your TV sets and see...

I'm going to listen to some music, myself. Something by a dead, white, male...

Classical Music · September 18, 2007 11:36 PM

Classical, it is a losing argument. They don't listen to "Casbah" because it was popular when they were in high school. They listen to it because "it is the best music of all time." Or so they claim.

But that isn't even the most bothersome, since popular music was always different from good music.

The really disturbing thing about what Bloom got right is that "educated Americans" are cut off from most of what education means. "Those who are ignorant of history are bound to repeat it." How many people study history, aside from the Revolution, the Civil War and maybe a bit about WWI and WWII? Who can describe the history of the Balkans and how it influences the ethnic tensions in the region today? Who can describe what started the conflict in Northern Ireland? Who many people died in The Ukraine under Stalin?

Or if you want a touch closer to home? When did the US invade Mexico? What is trail of tears, and which President ignored an order from the Supreme Court to commit what amounts to ethnic cleansing? Why is William Tecumseh Sherman so hated in the state of Georgia?

Personally I think it is a tragedy that someone can get a college degree without learning to read and intelligently discuss great literature. That they can get a degree without understanding the history of western thought - it doesn't come wholesale out of the Bible.

College isn't supposed to be a high-class technical-training experience. It is supposed to give you an education.

Zendo Deb · September 19, 2007 10:47 AM

Gentlemen,

You act like it is a crime to like Vivaldi AND the Rolling Stones.

As I said above. Pinched.

M. Simon · September 19, 2007 02:10 PM

In fact I will go farther.

It is snobbery.

M. Simon · September 19, 2007 02:12 PM