The rot in elite academic culture
PLUS: How Vivek Ramaswamy is auditioning to be Donald Trump’s VP
Below are the words of President John F Kennedy, age 46, and a graduate of Harvard University, speaking at Amherst College in the autumn of 1963 when time was running out on his life. They are painful to read because they represent a loss that is almost immeasurable. When you read his words savor them.
They are the words of an American president born in privilege, forged in war, and prepared to lead in a dangerous hour during which crisis and opportunity met in tumultuous conditions. Take in their wisdom, and judge them against the rancidity of the dialogue that flows from Trump and a political power class that has removed itself from any concept of obligation, responsibility or duty to the country.
The congressional testimony offered by the presidents of three of America’s most elite universities — MIT, Harvard and the University of Pennsylvania — about antisemitism on their campuses was an unsurprising moral abomination that evidences a deep rot in American culture, and specifically, elite academic culture.
This has become a world apart where language has stripped meaning from words, and concocted a new dialect of absurdism that is immoral, imponderable and poisoning the minds of the most privileged students in America.
There has long been a problem at our elite universities, which seem to be producing morally empty automatons for some time. Cases in point: Elizabeth Holmes, Sam Bankman-Fried, Josh Hawley and Ted Cruz.
The abysmal performance of Presidents Gay, Magill and Kornbluth wasn’t accidental, and it doesn’t demand apology. It is. The words demonstrate their personal unfitness and the sickness at their institutions.
I wonder which PR firm each school has hired to navigate itself through the crisis. Empty words are exactly that. Empty. Case in point: President Magill’s attempt at an “apology:”
JFK’s words below are filled with meaning and purpose.
Many years ago, Woodrow Wilson said, what good is a political party unless it is serving a great national purpose? And what good is a private college or university unless it is serving a great national purpose? The Library being constructed today, this college, itself--all of this, of course, was not done merely to give this school's graduates an advantage, an economic advantage, in the life struggle. It does do that. But in return for that, in return for the great opportunity which society gives the graduates of this and related schools, it seems to me incumbent upon this and other schools' graduates to recognize their responsibility to the public interest.
Privilege is here, and with privilege goes responsibility. And I think, as your president said, that it must be a source of satisfaction to you that this school's graduates have recognized it. I hope that the students who are here now will also recognize it in the future. Although Amherst has been in the forefront of extending aid to needy and talented students, private colleges, taken as a whole, draw 50 percent of their students from the wealthiest 10 percent of our Nation. And even State universities and other public institutions derive 25 percent of their students from this group. In March 1962, persons of 18 years or older who had not completed high school made up 46 percent of the total labor force, and such persons comprised 64 percent of those who were unemployed. And in 1958, the lowest fifth of the families in the United States had 4 1/2 percent of the total personal income, the highest fifth, 44 1/2 percent. There is inherited wealth in this country and also inherited poverty. And unless the graduates of this college and other colleges like it who are given a running start in life--unless they are willing to put back into our society, those talents, the broad sympathy, the understanding, the compassion--unless they are willing to put those qualities back into the service of the Great Republic, then obviously the presuppositions upon which our democracy are based are bound to be fallible.
The problems which this country now faces are staggering, both at home and abroad. We need the service, in the great sense, of every educated man or woman to find 10 million jobs in the next 2 1/2 years, to govern our relations--a country which lived in isolation for 150 years, and is now suddenly the leader of the free world--to govern our relations with over 100 countries, to govern those relations with success so that the balance of power remains strong on the side of freedom, to make it possible for Americans of all different races and creeds to live together in harmony, to make it possible for a world to exist in diversity and freedom. All this requires the best of all of us.
Therefore, I am proud to come to this college, whose graduates have recognized this obligation and to say to those who are now here that the need is endless, and I am confident that you will respond.
Robert Frost said:
Two roads diverged in a wood, and I--
I took the one less traveled by,
And that has made all the difference.I hope that road will not be the less traveled by, and I hope your commitment to the Great Republic's interest in the years to come will be worthy of your long inheritance since your beginning.
This day devoted to the memory of Robert Frost offers an opportunity for reflection which is prized by politicians as well as by others, and even by poets, for Robert Frost was one of the granite figures of our time in America. He was supremely two things: an artist and an American. A nation reveals itself not only by the men it produces but also by the men it honors, the men it remembers.
In America, our heroes have customarily run to men of large accomplishments. But today this college and country honors a man whose contribution was not to our size but to our spirit, not to our political beliefs but to our insight, not to our self-esteem, but to our self- comprehension. In honoring Robert Frost, we therefore can pay honor to the deepest sources of our national strength. That strength takes many forms, and the most obvious forms are not always the most significant. The men who create power make an indispensable contribution to the Nation's greatness, but the men who question power make a contribution just as indispensable, especially when that questioning is disinterested, for they determine whether we use power or power uses us.
Our national strength matters, but the spirit which informs and controls our strength matters just as much. This was the special significance of Robert Frost. He brought an unsparing instinct for reality to bear on the platitudes and pieties of society. His sense of the human tragedy fortified him against self-deception and easy consolation. "I have been" he wrote, "one acquainted with the night." And because he knew the midnight as well as the high noon, because he understood the ordeal as well as the triumph of the human spirit, he gave his age strength with which to overcome despair. At bottom, he held a deep faith in the spirit of man, and it is hardly an accident that Robert Frost coupled poetry and power, for he saw poetry as the means of saving power from itself. When power leads men towards arrogance, poetry reminds him of his limitations. When power narrows the areas of man's concern, poetry reminds him of the richness and diversity of his existence. When power corrupts, poetry cleanses. For art establishes the basic human truth which must serve as the touchstone of our judgment.
The artist, however faithful to his personal vision of reality, becomes the last champion of the individual mind and sensibility against an intrusive society and an officious state. The great artist is thus a solitary figure. He has, as Frost said, a lover's quarrel with the world. In pursuing his perceptions of reality, he must often sail against the currents of his time. This is not a popular role. If Robert Frost was much honored in his lifetime, it was because a good many preferred to ignore his darker truths. Yet in retrospect, we see how the artist's fidelity has strengthened the fibre of our national life.
If sometimes our great artists have been the most critical of our society, it is because their sensitivity and their concern for justice, which must motivate any true artist, makes him aware that our Nation falls short of its highest potential. I see little of more importance to the future of our country and our civilization than full recognition of the place of the artist.
If art is to nourish the roots of our culture, society must set the artist free to follow his vision wherever it takes him. We must never forget that art is not a form of propaganda; it is a form of truth. And as Mr. MacLeish once remarked of poets, there is nothing worse for our trade than to be in style. In free society art is not a weapon and it does not belong to the spheres of polemic and ideology. Artists are not engineers of the soul. It may be different elsewhere. But democratic society--in it, the highest duty of the writer, the composer, the artist is to remain true to himself and to let the chips fall where they may. In serving his vision of the truth, the artist best serves his nation. And the nation which disdains the mission of art invites the fate of Robert Frost's hired man, the fate of having "nothing to look backward to with pride, and nothing to look forward to with hope."
I look forward to a great future for America, a future in which our country will match its military strength with our moral restraint, its wealth with our wisdom, its power with our purpose. I look forward to an America which will not be afraid of grace and beauty, which will protect the beauty of our natural environment, which will preserve the great old American houses and squares and parks of our national past, and which will build handsome and balanced cities for our future.
I look forward to an America which will reward achievement in the arts as we reward achievement in business or statecraft. I look forward to an America which will steadily raise the standards of artistic accomplishment and which will steadily enlarge cultural opportunities for all of our citizens. And I look forward to an America which commands respect throughout the world not only for its strength but for its civilization as well. And I look forward to a world which will be safe not only for democracy and diversity but also for personal distinction.
Robert Frost was often skeptical about projects for human improvement, yet I do not think he would disdain this hope. As he wrote during the uncertain days of the Second War:
Take human nature altogether since time began . . .
And it must be a little more in favor of man,
Say a fraction of one percent at the very least . . .
Our hold on this planet wouldn't have so increased.Because of Mr. Frost's life and work, because of the life and work of this college, our hold on this planet has increased.
VIDEO COMMENTARY: How Vivek Ramaswamy is auditioning to be Donald Trump’s VP
I react to Vivek Ramaswamy's comments at the Republican President debate on Wednesday night, saying both 9/11 and January 6 were inside jobs. This sort of inane commentary is clearly an audition to be Trump's running mate, and should be cause for national concern:
Sorry Steve, I respectfully disagree. This is a distraction and a deflection of the issue. All three university presidents have said that they won’t tolerate anti-semitism.
And these same universities in the past, were accused by conservatives of squashing free-speech by conservatives, so which is it; free speech or edited speech? And any threats need to be addressed by the police, which I believe has happened.
And is there some sort of loyalty test going on? If you don’t denounce terror, anti-semitism to some people’s expectations, then any statement issues will never be sufficiently enough.
That said, I agree, many colleges failed to protect Jewish students, but these congressional hearings and media attention is occurring because of Israeli businessmen and Jewish organizations throwing a tantrum. Not because the universities have acted in a detrimental fashion. It’s just another spectacle to stifle the anti-Israeli speech. Isn’t that the unconstitutional?
The rapes and murders of Israeli’ women and girls were horrendous; but how many innocent Palestinian women and children’s deaths need to occur before Israel gets its revenge or evens the score?
So far 5,000 Hamas fighters were killed according to Israeli figures; with more than 15,000 innocent civilians. Do Palestinian civilian lives count as well? At this rate, you’ll need 90,000 Palestinian deaths to eradicate Hamas. And this doesn’t include the wounded which is currently close to 50,000 and would increase to at least 500k before Hamas was annihilated.
And let’s not forget that Israel knew about an attack for over a year, yet ignored all the evidence. Egypt warned of an imminent attack two weeks before the attack, and Bibi did nothing. He’s actually denying that any warning took place. For eight hours, not one Israeli military or counter terrorist unit was dispatched to the south. Israel has many units on standby for such occasions .
And of all occasions; Israel’s 50th anniversary of the Yom Kippur War, the last time Israel ignored all evidence of an imminent attack. Yet, Bibi ignores this and doesn’t care enough to at least dispatch any troops or special forces for eight hours. Why?????
Has it occurred to anyone that perhaps this is exactly the outcome Israel wants? Bibi’s own government spokesperson said that the goal is to force a mass exodus of Palestinians from Gaza and force other Arab states to accept them as refugees.
I find these endless wars and countless attempts by both sides to reframe the narrative and re-write history appalling. That said, blaming universities isn’t the solution; it’s a distraction from focusing on what’s actually happening now, not a month ago.
Ultimately, the only winner by these kangaroo hearings is Trump, and his right-wing cabal of corrupt sycophants. They are dividing the Democratic Party when the election will come down to two or three swing states with large Palestinian and Muslim populations. Not to mention, large college populations that need to vote for democrats to even have a chance.
Let that sink in!
Thank you, Robert. As I watched this video, I could only think of the harassment put forth by the Republican members of congress and their leader as they scream free speech. I thought about the MAGA calls against women, against the LGBT peoples, immigrants, Muslims on and on.
Dehumanization. That statement really got me. A member of the GOP talking about dehumanization. Almost laughable.
Steve we either have free speech or we don’t. Do I think certain allowances for statements/speech are wrong, yes. Do I think we have gone off the rails on what we allow to be free speech, yes. However, until we decide as a country that stopping harassment and bullying by members of our government and those running for office must stop, will no longer be tolerated, this was just another show of bad faith.