Franklin Einspruch has a piece in the City Journal about recent art installation controversies at American universities: “When Artists Fear Their Audience.” In short, leftwing artists have been scandalizing contemporary hypersensitive leftwing coeds* on campus, and the coeds have demanded that their schools banish the unsettling artwork from their precious space. And they get their way. Many social commentators like Einspruch find this trend alarming, wondering what happened to the American spirit of freedom, inquiry, and expression that is supposed to inform our institutions of higher learning. What a circus! It almost makes me think warmly of old school lefties who championed the “open society.” Who knew that their Frankfurt School machinations would ultimately result in tyranny? Imagine—a social revolution instigated by Communists has tended toward totalitarianism? Most unexpected, no?

(* Well, not really coeds in the case of Wellesley College)

Posted by Joseph on Wednesday, January 28, Anno Domini 2015
Philosophy | Anthropology • Politics • (1) Comment