“Think with the Liberals, eat with the Tories”. The conservative war on education.

Watching “The Picture of Dorian Gray” on TCM just now, I was struck by this bit of Oscar Wilde’s prescient dialog, “Think with the Liberals; eat with the Tories”. I immediately thought of Winston Churchill’s pronouncement that any adult who is not conservative “has no brains”*.  In looking over the modern conservative landscape in North America, I have to give the advantage in this case to Wilde.

Conservatives have a history of distrusting and outright disdaining intellectualism. This is the basis for much of the outrage and fear they espouse in their daily thoughts and actions. Their proud embrace of unabashed anti-intellectuals such as George W. Bush and Sarah Palin, not to mention Don Cherry and Mike Duffy, say more about why gluttony for power and materialism in modern times triumphs over the pursuit of the best paths for survival of the species.

In Churchill’s day, wars were fought for survival. Today, wars are more often fought over ideas. Conservatives are fraught with wars. They wage battle after battle against progress and higher forms of thought, pleasure and personal freedoms. Their permanent state of outrage and entitlement leave them wounded and hurt. Unlike the relative honour with which Churchill and the soldiers waged their wars, the new conservative warrior is so consumed with rage; rules of war have been thrown out the window.

The training ground? Universities and colleges where the young conservative realizes they are surrounded by superior intellects and far more curious minds are the culprits. The young conservative feels isolated and outmatched. This feeling of helplessness breeds deep resentment and a newborn sense that they are victims of an unfair, ‘liberal’ world that excludes their basic ideals, needs and rights.

Which brings me to Russell Jacoby’s article in the Nation on the conservative war on higher education. The author points to William F. Buckley 1951 book. “God and Man at Yale: The Superstitions of “Academic Freedom”, which is an opening salvo very much followed today by conservatives who are appalled that universities do not exclusively represent their views. Yikes. It is a fear of “unregulated intellectuals” that scares them most. The loss of control of the message is what truly sends them over the edge.

With communism dead, leftism moribund and liberalism wounded, the fear of international subversion no longer threatens. Even the most rabid critics do not accuse professors of being on the payroll of al Qaeda or other Islamist extremists. Moreover, conservatives command the presidency, Congress, the courts, major news outlets and the majority of corporations; they appear to have the country comfortably in their pocket. What fuels their rage, then? What fuels the persistent charges that professors are misleading the young?

A few factors might be adduced, but none are completely convincing. One is the age-old anti-intellectualism of conservatives. Conservatives distrust unregulated intellectuals. Forty years ago McCarthyism spurred Richard Hofstadter to write his classic Anti-Intellectualism in American Life. In addition, a basic insecurity, which plagues conservatives today, a fear that their reign will be short or a gnawing doubt about their legitimacy. Dissenting voices cannot be tolerated, because they imply that a conservative future may not last forever. One Noam Chomsky is one too many. Angst besets the triumphant conservatives. Those who purge Darwin from America’s schools must yell in order to drown out their own misgivings, the inchoate realization that they are barking at the moon.

Read the whole thing. Perhaps it is this outrage, this insecurity, that drives conservatives to seek elitism through power and money and hold up anti-intellectuals as leaders. Their arguments are so vacuous and often unashamedly disingenuous, they do not hold up to analysis. It is rarely the argument that matters, but the manner in which it is made that is important to them. Bluster, emotion and slogans replace debate and thoughtful analysis. Loud voices attempt to obfuscate facts. Unethical, deceptive and questionable tricks take the place of careful, incisive exposition. It is an expression of rage, pure and simple.

Lest you say I am unfairly painting all conservatives with a broad brush; that may be true. I am talking about the evolution of the conservative movement in North America. Surely, there are conservative intellectuals who embrace science, the present and the future. There are those who can win any argument with parsed language and skilled debate. For every one of these thoughtful conservatives, there are hundreds – if not thousands – more who would rather blame societal, cultural and political failures on liberalism, which they attribute to the lessons given by liberal professors. There is no argument there so the only recourse for the great majority of modern conservatives for the rest of their lives is to yell, be outraged and try to censor that which they do not approve. They learned early.

* While there is no actual proof Churchill ever uttered this phrase, it is widely enough attributed to him so I feel comfortable using it in the post. Just so you know.