grow up in luxury. One friend of ours solved the problem by allocatingrnonly enough money to set up his sons in business andrnleft the rest to charity. Others have sent their sons to the schoolrnof hard knocks. My father, who dropped out of college to stokerncoal on the Great Lakes, was working on a ship belonging to thernSteinbrenner line, when a frail lad was given to him as a partner.rnThe young man, who was obviously not up to the work, wasrnperfectly happy to let my father stoke enough coal for both ofrnthem. At the end of the watch, one of my father’s friends brokernout laughing and told my father that the young man, whosernwork he had been doing, was the owner’s son, George. Obviously,rnSteinbrenner pere was already concerned about thernspoiled brat who would grow up to be the scourge of professionalrnbaseball, but by then it was too late.rnThe American ruling class does not send its sons to sea butrnto colleges, where they are indulged and spoiled by theirrnalmae matres that pander to every vice: booze, drugs, women,rnmen. At their common messes, the Spartans used to introducernhelots and make them drunk, to show the young men how notrnto behave. Today, a college student could serve the same purpose.rnColleges that used to have segregated dormitories andrncurfews for women are now bordellos, and the administratorsrnlittle better than panders. They do have codes, of course, butrnthey are all concerned with controlling speech and thought.rnYou can shoot heroin and walk naked across campus; you canrnspend four years preying upon the freshmen girls, and no onernwill think the less of you, so long as you do not call someone arn”water buffalo” or engage in “inappropriate laughter.” Even silencernis punishable. At some universities, it is a violation of thernsensitivity code to pay no attention to a homosexual when he isrnmaking a pass: to pretend you don’t know what is going on is torndeny him the right to his sexual identity. Poor Mario Savio,rnwho lived long enough to see Berkeley turned into an indoctrinationrncamp.rnIt is as if our universities were designed for only one purpose:rnthe elimination of the last vestiges of obedience and shame thatrnhave survived four years of high school. The students are treatedrnas animals, to be herded into high-rise zoos and vast lecturernhalls, where they live down to expectations. The academicrnstandards are so low that it no longer requires effort to earn therngentleman C. When I was teaching at Miami of Ohio (back inrnthe early 1970’s), I discovered that the average grade was B (asrnit was at Stanford, at the time), and when I asked how B camernto mean average (rather than good) work, I was told thatrnMiami students were better than the students at Ohio State. Irnquoted Seneca’s remark that goodness does not consist inrnbeing better than the worst, thus driving another nail into therncoffin in which my academic career lies buried.rnIn speaking at colleges and universities, I have met many finernstudents—intelligent, polite, normal in every way (whichrnmakes them abnormal, indeed)—and I have run into professorsrnwho were hardworking, responsible, even brilliant. But thesernstudents and teachers are a dwindling minority, even at goodrnschools, and the average university teacher is not only incompetentrnto do his job—that is clear from the articles published inrn”learned journals”—but all too often, he is a cowardly, backbitingrnliar whose code of honor is that of the concentration camprncollaborator who sells out his friends for an extra bowl of slop.rnOne of my former colleagues was sent to jail when it was discoveredrnthat he had sexually molested his own son. And yet, hernis not without his defenders, colleagues who believe he shouldrnbe reinstated on the grounds that he posed no threat to students,rnsince he never molested a young man who was not arnmember of his immediate family. I wish I were making this up.rnModerate and liberal defenders of the university will trot outrnthe cliche that schools only reflect society. This is true, but notrnin the sense they mean. Most Americans are not as degeneraternas college professors and administrators (indeed, there arernhousing projects with a higher moral tone than most universitiesrnset), but the university’s lack of standards, its denial of reality,rnand its cult of immorality do reflect all too well the characterrnof the American ruling class.rnColleges that used to have segregatedrndormitories and curfewsrnfor women are now bordellos, and thernadministrators little better than panders.rnThey do have codes, of course,rnbut they are all concerned with controllingrnspeech and thought.rnThere is probably no practical measure we can take thatrnwould arrest the decline of the American character. Homeschoolingrnprotects children from some vices, but many homeschooledrnchildren are terribly spoiled, unable to endure the rigorsrnof competition. Even homeschooling families willrnundoubtedly continue to pour their treasure into the sewer ofrnhigher education. We all want our children to have the goodrndegree that means a good job. Knowingly or not, we are surrenderingrnmany, if not most of them, to the enemy.rnThe modern university is like the blood tribute the Turksrnlevied on conquered Christians and Jews. Every year, millionsrnof conservative Christians send their children to colleges wherernthey will be taught to despise everything their parents holdrndear. Among the worst are the Catholic and evangelical colleges,rnwhose second-rate professors have just enough energy tornhold on to the back of the bandwagon. The only exceptions Irncan think of are the tiny experimental schools like ThomasrnAquinas in California, Thomas More in Texas, and Rose Hill inrnSouth Carolina.rnInstead of forcing their way to the table, American reactionariesrnshould have made some effort to displace the degeneraternelite with which we are “saddled and hampered and addled.”rnThis would have meant the creation of colleges, notrnthink tanks; the publication of books, newspapers, and magazines,rnnot pamphlets, newsletters, and background reports. Irnunderstand the impatience of so-called patriots who think yourncannot make an omelet without breaking a few eggs, but so farrnas the American right is concerned, no one has thought to buyrna chicken or build a henhouse. <6>rnSEPTEMBER 1997/13rnrnrn