Tenured Radicals: How Politics Has Corrupted Our Higher Education

America's colleges and universities have always had their fair share of leftist radicals but as astounding as it may seem today, until the early 1960s the majority of college teachers tended toward the right or at the least managed to avoid the radicalism so thoroughly entrenched today. In TENURED RADICALS, Roger Kimball, himself a conservative critic of the arts, analyzes how and why this transformation has taken place. The villain he notes is that the very faculty who are charged with the education of our young have willingly and eagerly abandoned the search for truth by denying the very existence of absolutes like "truth" "justice" and "universality." Politics, in his opinion, has trumped an impartial quest for a firm and unwavering underpinning for Western culture. This attack began, oddly enough, in Plato's day as Plato had the good sense to recognize the seductive appeal of rhetoric and could reject it in favor of elevating the reality behind that rhetoric over the rhetoric itself. Kimball notes that over the next two millenia most philosophers have succeeded in avoiding this pitfall--at least until this century when Jacques Derrida began to unravel the meaning of meaning by imputing to it a foundation of relativism that says in essence that human beings can never "know" anything for certain because of unvoidable biases, prejudices, and ideologies. Kimball takes an interesting tack by structuring much of his book in the form of academic conferences in which he attends and by using his trusty tape recorder captures the very words and intonations of speakers who rail against the very jobs that pay them such lofty paychecks. Kimball is a very witty and funny writer. As these academic deans speak their deconstructionist jargon, Kimball will then translate into plain English. As he does so, he, like Dorothy in Oz, swoops away the linguistic curtain that hides speakers who literally exhibit a gross lack of the very essentials that they are expounding. Kimball is aghast at the willingness of academia to abandon the canon of Great Books. He notes that it is bad enough to suggest that this canon be discarded but that it is infinitely worse to replace it with second and third rate works that are represented only because the authors fall into an acceptable mixture or racial, ethnic, and gender divisions. Kimball also plays devil's advocate by examining the defense of academia against charges that this radicalization of curricula has rendered our nation's humanities departments largely irrelevant. Their defense, he notes, usually takes the tack of a call for "diversity" when the overwhelming number of courses offered today are anything but. In TENURED RADICALS, Roger Kimball is not optimistic that there will be any significant changes anytime soon. The philosophical mind rot has embedded itself too deeply. For those who still believe that there are still some universal sentiments worth learning, then this book is invaluable reading.

I remember asking Jay Nordlinger a couple of years ago why Roger Kimball didn't get swept up by a university due to his obvious brilliance, and Jay told me that he would gain no possible advantage from working at one (even if they would hire him) which is probably true as his brand of scholarship is seldom found in the academy today. Today I reread the absolutely stunning and marvelous Tenured Radicals and was remiss not to have reviewed it back in 2002. It remains a riveting and educational narrative even though over 15 years have passed since it was first published. The open-minded should be prepared though because this is a very ugly tale. Mr. Kimball goes around to various university speaking events and reports back to us not only about what has been said but also about the climate around the symposiums. Unfortunately, the reason that this book is not as well-remembered and quoted as it should be is due to its being a complete underestimation of the political corruption endemic to our universities today. In other words, what he described is rather mild as 1990 was a dream for libertarians as opposed to the horror show that we would find on campus in 2007. David Horowitz estimated that 10% of the professorate was left-wing and activist but that too is probably an underestimate. I pity students graduating from high school today as the 80 grand they'll pay for a college education isn't worth ten bucks due to the amount in which truth will be replaced with propaganda. At any rate, what's best about Tenured Radicals is Kimball's acerbic and rightly condescending wit. There are so many great asides here the tone will keep you giggling throughout. The Paul de Man debacle, in which one of the mother's of postmodernism was discovered to have had a Vichy-Nazi past, was a wonderful way in which to illustrate the lack of veracity and character present within the average deconstructionist. They all joined in to defend the deceased Petainist for no other reason than that he was a fellow serial obfuscator and fantasist. Once you're finished with TR you'll wonder why Professor Houston Baker didn't take his show on the road as a stand-up comedian. That guy's about as unintentionally funny as anyone in history. This book marked the beginning of a sensational career for Mr. Kimball who is now one of the two or three greatest minds in conservadom.

Roger Kimball's work is a refreshing look at the sad state of the Humanities today. Is the book rather one-sided in its views on the 'culture wars'? Yes, but then again one will not get much vigorous debate on the subject in most Humanities departments today-and this is exactly Mr. Kimball's point. Even putting aside the complete contempt for truth these scholars show, if this neglect and subversion of Humanities departments were simply an academic affair, perhaps Mr. Kimball would sound histrionic, but he clearly identifies the real victims-the students. Indeed, the book comes off at points almost conspiratorial, as Mr. Kimball implies that the failed radical fight these scholars fought while students is now being played out for the hearts and minds of contemporary students. Sadly, that argument is not without some merit. The adolescent postures of these scholars that are lauded as arguments by the so-called 'cultural Left' make amusing, if at times frustrating reading for those accustomed to the naive belief that the universities existed for higher learning in pursuit of such feeble contemporary notions such as truth. Mr. Kimball lances the proponents with their own words and ideas, not their backgrounds or politics, something his opponents should take note of.

When some future historian sits down to research his multivolume work on the history of human imbecility, he will discover the most interesting, exotic, and vivid forms of this vast enterprise in academia. And he will find Roger Kimball's turn-of-the-century researches on this subject to be an indispensible source. He will also find it a pleasure to read, which is unusual for a book which serves as a kind of catalogue of the the nasty, silly, and futile projects of the PostMod Academic. Mind you, Tenured Radicals is not for all contemporary readers. Many will experience its lucidity as a highly personal insult. Others will react to its wit with peevish resentment. Never mind. As the ancient Persian proverb tells us, "The dogs will bark but the caravan moves on."

Anyone who has squirmed in his seat as a university professor touts the obfuscating nihilism of the deconstructionists certainly owes Mr. Kimball a huge debt of gratitude. The best expose of the deconstruction sham there is. Hard-hitting and scathing . . . guaranteed to raise eyebrows.