I've been reading the above book by Allan Bloom, published about 20 years ago in my spare time here in Dallas. Bloom describes the climate of higher education as he saw it in the late 1980s, though as far as I can tell, not much has changed since then.
His point, thus far, is that American students are no longer educated in such a way as to have a strong national consciousness or moral ideals to live up to. We are instead educated to be 'open' to all ways of life, which leads to a listless sort of relativism and a disconnection from public life. Is Bloom's assessment accurate?
Often as I've been reading Bloom's book, I've felt as though Bloom were describing me, and I've taken his words as somewhat of a challenge to evaluate myself. Unlike some of my friends (and the students Bloom describes) I grew up in a home with a strong sense of family and a book that defined our values and our place in history, the Bible, of course.
As I've grown older my trust in those values has waned dramatically, but to what end? It is difficult to live without a specific guide, even for all the spiritual and, dare I say it, existential pain I experienced. Without something to fall back on, the challenge of thinking and seeking value can be invigorating, but it can be daunting as well. I can become listless trying to keep up the energy for the search, and I often wonder how many of my peers even care about these things.
Do you? Where do you go for answers?
1 comment:
"Where do you go for answers?"
Depending on the day I either go to the Sunday brunch at the Yellow Rose (there's some good Sartre discussions to be had there) or else HEB (a wonderfully enlightening zest of existential wonder).
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