00:00:00
please join me in welcoming Camille
00:00:02
Paula yeah okay so I have this new book
00:00:09
okay you know I had thought I was done
00:00:13
with these subjects so I thought okay
00:00:16
that I had dealt I had stomped okay on
00:00:18
political correctness I went back to
00:00:22
teaching and writing I didn't have to go
00:00:24
back in public again I was writing on
00:00:25
poetry on arch on movies etc I felt so
00:00:29
liberated and now okay you know class
00:00:32
okay I'm back okay I have to come go
00:00:35
back on the heat on the road again okay
00:00:37
this enormous surge of political
00:00:39
correctness and it's gotten even worse
00:00:41
okay you know you know people attacking
00:00:44
speakers and Berkeley okay which is one
00:00:47
of the great influences on me okay when
00:00:49
I arrived in college 1964 fall of 64 it
00:00:53
just happened that spring Mario Savio
00:00:55
the Free Speech Movement okay huge
00:00:58
influence on me okay all right the
00:01:00
essence of the 60s the essence
00:01:02
okay was free speech you know for free
00:01:03
thought and free speech what the heck
00:01:05
happens okay you know we've got the
00:01:07
situation today where people go out they
00:01:10
have in their heads these boobies these
00:01:11
slogan words jargon words load low
00:01:14
determines or we're against racism
00:01:16
sexism homophobia who isn't okay and so
00:01:19
on all right all right and and we are
00:01:21
the forces of light they are the forces
00:01:23
of darkness what kind of like Manichean
00:01:25
you know if they're simplistic thinking
00:01:28
is this all of art and culture in the
00:01:30
u.s. is coming to a dead halt because of
00:01:32
this hysteria okay so anyway I'm back
00:01:34
and I'm back okay all right so all right
00:01:37
oh my god all right
00:01:42
so I was looking I've been looking
00:01:44
forward for years to getting Mike Mike
00:01:46
my third essay collection now my last
00:01:48
one was vamps and tramps in 1994 okay
00:01:50
I saw all these years have passed and
00:01:53
I'm so in my third essay collection was
00:01:55
part of the package deal with my
00:01:58
publisher cannot double they you know
00:02:00
with with glittering images so it's been
00:02:02
years I've been waiting finally I
00:02:04
thought I at last I'll get so many
00:02:05
essays which I've written important
00:02:07
essays I feel we are scattered all over
00:02:09
the world in one place at last you know
00:02:12
and but instead okay as I'm assembling
00:02:14
all the material my publisher says gee
00:02:17
all these things you know that you were
00:02:19
saying 20 25 years ago about sex and
00:02:21
gender seem like they're now they belong
00:02:23
now so they had this idea they invented
00:02:26
this idea they invented this book okay
00:02:27
they could be called these essays off of
00:02:30
the mass of the other things I wanted
00:02:32
out right ends and put it into this into
00:02:35
this book okay so it took me a long time
00:02:37
I had to have you know go through
00:02:38
everything I'd ever been written and
00:02:39
presented them the editors with this
00:02:41
pile of stuff and all on these subjects
00:02:43
of sex gender and feminism and then and
00:02:45
then they decided what would be you know
00:02:48
they thought would be most interesting
00:02:50
to contemporary readers because of how
00:02:51
prophetic I was you know but so many
00:02:53
issues including okay the you know the
00:02:56
growth of that parasitic you know master
00:02:59
class of administrators and college
00:03:01
campuses is one of my big themes okay I
00:03:03
was when the first thing you know send
00:03:04
up that oh I mean probably be first to
00:03:06
like send this warning shot up about it
00:03:08
I said watch out okay that this
00:03:09
bureaucracy you know that is slowly
00:03:12
expanding and getting his tentacles into
00:03:14
into into the operations of colleges and
00:03:16
universities and look what's happened
00:03:18
okay the faculty has totally lost power
00:03:20
the faculty are eunuchs okay the faculty
00:03:23
in this country have not yet what what
00:03:24
have they ever said where have they
00:03:25
stood up OK against against all these
00:03:27
incursions on free speech free thought
00:03:29
speeches nothing they're all they're all
00:03:30
think they pose as leftist none of them
00:03:32
are leftist this is like this is a
00:03:34
delusion okay they're bourgeois
00:03:36
careerists who latched on to leftism as
00:03:39
a wonderful badge
00:03:42
okay and I know because that when I
00:03:44
entered graduate school in 1968 okay
00:03:48
there weren't any leftists okay let's
00:03:50
just didn't go to graduate school are
00:03:52
you kidding me okay
00:03:53
alright if there was anyone who was
00:03:54
really you know kind of a radical they
00:03:57
dropped out after a semester or two okay
00:03:59
you know I mean I'll give you an example
00:04:01
but night when I my last year of college
00:04:03
I went to Harper College State
00:04:06
University of New York at Binghamton and
00:04:09
it's basically called Berkeley East as a
00:04:11
matter of fact it so many radicals with
00:04:13
all it's all these like incredibly
00:04:14
progressive Jews you know from from New
00:04:16
York City
00:04:17
oh my god I I was like I'm from upstate
00:04:20
a nob State girl so I'll do it the girls
00:04:22
you know they were they were dressed in
00:04:24
black leotards Martha Graham leotards
00:04:26
everything they knew about abstract arts
00:04:28
and so on I think we absolutely radical
00:04:29
it was there forever
00:04:30
anyway he's like so I know what a real
00:04:32
radical looks like seething real radical
00:04:35
looks like and when I was confronted by
00:04:38
the leader of the campus radicals in my
00:04:41
last semester of college and they said
00:04:44
we heard okay that you're going to the
00:04:47
Yale graduate school do one deal right
00:04:48
and I said yeah okay alright and they
00:04:52
said no you don't go to Yale okay in
00:04:54
fact you don't even go to graduate
00:04:55
school okay if you're gonna go to
00:04:57
graduate school you have to go to
00:04:58
Buffalo SUNY Buffalo know that now I
00:05:00
actually would have been like you know I
00:05:02
actually applied to Buffalo and would
00:05:04
have been very happy to have gone there
00:05:05
because it had Leslie Fiedler game who
00:05:07
was an extremely radical writer in the
00:05:11
forefront of all these studies about
00:05:13
racism sexism homophobia okay i huge
00:05:16
influence on me okay huge influence and
00:05:18
also there was Norman Holland's okay who
00:05:20
did psychoanalytic criticism at a time
00:05:22
when it was not you know fashionable and
00:05:24
during the period of the declining new
00:05:25
criticism all right so I would have gone
00:05:27
there but I chose Yale because of the
00:05:30
library and I made the right choice
00:05:31
because the library Sterling library was
00:05:33
indeed the basis of all of my work i
00:05:36
ransacked the stacks okay of that
00:05:38
library but I just want to point out to
00:05:39
you okay that's you know that my going
00:05:42
to graduate school was regarded as in
00:05:44
some way you know offensive to radical
00:05:46
politics right and my choosing of Yale
00:05:48
it was in particularly because it was an
00:05:50
intolerable right so this idea I mean
00:05:52
and then the people around me or my
00:05:54
fellow students
00:05:55
I mean they were they were progressive
00:05:57
tending I would say but the idea that
00:05:59
any of those people okay where actual
00:06:02
radicals is such a joke okay alright as
00:06:05
they as they you know as they trim
00:06:07
themselves to fit into the wonderful
00:06:09
career system moving up I well I thought
00:06:11
I was there I might buy my third year at
00:06:13
Yale as this stuff the French theory
00:06:17
started leaking in okay from from the
00:06:19
from the yearly visits from Derrida okay
00:06:22
right and it was brought in this plague
00:06:24
was brought in okay from Johns Hopkins
00:06:26
you know University
00:06:27
okay right so I saw it starting and I
00:06:30
said I remember saying to a fellow
00:06:31
student I said they're like high priests
00:06:34
murmuring to each other okay I saw the
00:06:39
disgusting elitism okay of
00:06:41
post-structuralism from the start the
00:06:44
idea that that is any kind of a leftist
00:06:47
system is absolute nonsense okay all
00:06:51
right so do you mean like well I don't
00:06:53
start naming names already doing don't
00:06:55
really want to all right what I've been
00:06:58
on the attack against the queen of
00:06:59
Gender Studies Judith Butler
00:07:02
okay now Judith Butler okay it's like
00:07:05
presents herself as the great leftist
00:07:07
who the Berkeley right now and so on and
00:07:08
so on but she practices post
00:07:10
structuralism okay this this labyrinth
00:07:12
in contorted jargon ridden thing the
00:07:15
most elitist system in the world what
00:07:17
does that have to do with leftism I mean
00:07:19
this is a woman okay who now I I knew
00:07:21
her because when I arrived at my first
00:07:23
job at Bennington College and nothing
00:07:25
was I was I was there right
00:07:26
undergraduate gold 1972 um and she
00:07:29
entered Bennington maybe a year or two
00:07:31
after that so I knew her okay as a
00:07:33
student and I and I mean she's like a
00:07:37
smart smart okay but what can I say okay
00:07:42
sweet and quirky individual okay in no
00:07:45
way
00:07:46
okay was Judith Butler ever okay an
00:07:48
opponent of any system never did she
00:07:50
challenge any system okay at all
00:07:53
okay whereas I was in constant trouble
00:07:54
if anything as a professor they finally
00:07:56
kicked me out of there after I'd like
00:07:58
you know seven or eight years
00:07:59
it was like one incident after another I
00:08:00
was either kicking someone and you know
00:08:02
we're having a fistfight or
00:08:03
doing some you know I always like this
00:08:05
end
00:08:06
was a police oh you know when I came on
00:08:08
the scene in people said oh she's too
00:08:10
much oh my god I am a shadow okay by 99
00:08:13
when I came on the scene 1990 I was a
00:08:14
shadow of what I was
00:08:15
Amazon feminist you know in the in
00:08:19
anyway so I know Judith Butler okay and
00:08:22
you know and she wasn't even in my
00:08:24
classes but I had her her girlfriends
00:08:28
you know in my classes and so anyway she
00:08:30
transferred to Yale she transferred to
00:08:32
yell in the middle of the band and it
00:08:34
Bennington at that moment was in the
00:08:35
David Bowie
00:08:36
you know transgender okay you know
00:08:39
flamboyant moment huge influence on me
00:08:42
enormous David Bowie yeah I mean over
00:08:44
that period she transfers to you okay at
00:08:47
the very moment as post-structuralism
00:08:50
is the hip thing to do okay it's very
00:08:53
hip in no way was it some sort of a act
00:08:56
of defiance or resistance okay
00:08:58
she adapted herself to the smoothly
00:09:01
careerist thing post-structuralism which
00:09:04
has destroyed the humanities okay
00:09:07
absolutely destroyed it and my prescient
00:09:09
book there is a reprint of what I wrote
00:09:11
for The Chronicle of Higher Education
00:09:12
which was a review about
00:09:15
2013 maybe okay they asked me to review
00:09:18
three new books by women young women
00:09:21
academics and the trendy new fate thing
00:09:24
of a bondage and you know and damage in
00:09:27
bondage and domination okay and these
00:09:29
are books from University presses so I'd
00:09:32
like to know what what to expect and my
00:09:35
essay which is a lengthy and detailed
00:09:36
essay in the book okay
00:09:38
demonstrates that how post structuralism
00:09:41
has destroyed and destroyed a whole
00:09:44
generation of young scholars maybe two
00:09:46
generations now alright these these
00:09:48
young women each one of their voices you
00:09:50
can feel their personalities okay these
00:09:53
are lively women okay you know lively
00:09:55
optimistic idealistic women and and that
00:09:58
horrible freight they have to carry in
00:10:01
order to try to get a job okay in this
00:10:03
profession with so many so few jobs you
00:10:05
know because there's all kind the the
00:10:07
bottom dropped out of the teaching
00:10:08
profession like in the 1970s basically
00:10:10
okay so in order to preserve any kind of
00:10:13
job opportunity for them so they have to
00:10:14
mouth platitudes about Foucault as
00:10:17
Foucault so powerfully said okay
00:10:20
on and on and on I mean you can't
00:10:22
believe these books are ruined okay
00:10:24
there's what this one book in particular
00:10:25
that I really love meant in this essay
00:10:27
okay which is about dominatrixes okay of
00:10:30
big city Braavos so can she wouldn't did
00:10:32
actual you know field research you know
00:10:34
it if happens book that should have been
00:10:36
published by it by a trade in a press
00:10:38
didn't hear to it to a general audience
00:10:40
with all but the crap that's in there
00:10:42
okay
00:10:43
the couldn't gobbledygook okay all right
00:10:45
like actually even in the preface you
00:10:48
know this young woman says and I want to
00:10:51
thank my professor blah blah blah at
00:10:53
Princeton okay for for telling me that
00:10:55
possibly pure okay had much to say of
00:10:59
know about dominators I had nothing to
00:11:02
say about dominators this okay that guy
00:11:04
has which is a con he's come he's
00:11:05
absolutely required reading for
00:11:07
undergraduates
00:11:07
the guys are fraud okay he knows that
00:11:09
this is a guy who knows nothing about
00:11:11
about the history of the earth they like
00:11:13
the base like this Oh II please
00:11:15
pretentious theory people the amount of
00:11:18
time that students are wasting at the
00:11:20
undergraduate and graduate level okay
00:11:22
reading this crap okay this post post
00:11:25
structuralist cramp okay and then we
00:11:27
having to read critics in English trying
00:11:30
to imitate the contorted sound of a
00:11:33
translated you know into English version
00:11:35
of a French original okay that's what
00:11:37
that's what's out there right now okay
00:11:38
I mean and they all go to conferences
00:11:40
and then they Mir back you know to each
00:11:42
other and this the same discourse and oh
00:11:44
oh wait and as a whole style you have to
00:11:47
get this is slightly it's a kind of a
00:11:49
superior there's a superior kind of
00:11:52
snide style you have to get very knowing
00:11:57
slightly smirking
00:12:00
Serperior okay I mean it it's sick it's
00:12:05
an absolute sickness okay
00:12:06
parents are bankrupting themselves okay
00:12:09
to send their kids to the Ivy League to
00:12:12
have this junk inject it into their
00:12:14
heads okay and then we wonder why
00:12:16
okay the arts are the American arts are
00:12:18
so boring even the popular arts are not
00:12:20
boring okay
00:12:21
even the popular arts can't get it right
00:12:23
like right you know like this week I've
00:12:25
listened spaz tweak in despair okay this
00:12:28
much-touted series okay starring Susan
00:12:31
Sarandon whom I love okay Jessica Lange
00:12:33
a great actress okay Joan Crawford
00:12:35
versus Betty Davis yet they can't even
00:12:37
get that right okay
00:12:38
I mean the films are there they invade
00:12:40
if like the production that the clothing
00:12:43
the sets the direction the writing every
00:12:47
single thing shoddy crappy okay this is
00:12:50
what we're surrounded by this is why I
00:12:51
only watch now Turner Classic Movies the
00:12:53
great things of the past to watch a
00:12:55
great production values alright r.i.p
00:12:59
robert osborne okay you know when one of
00:13:01
the great kind of sirs a film my
00:13:04
goodness alright at any rate okay
00:13:06
I've been out for 25 oh my god how long
00:13:09
I've been going on about these things
00:13:11
and you're both the left and the right
00:13:14
are guilty of ignoring the problems of
00:13:16
the universities okay I blame you know
00:13:19
you know William F Buckley okay as well
00:13:21
okay they need none of them took it
00:13:23
seriously and they said all
00:13:25
post-structuralism
00:13:26
it's a fad it'll go away I kept warning
00:13:28
and warning like my own mentor Harold
00:13:30
Bloom okay when I was writing my expose
00:13:33
about a post structuralism junk bonds
00:13:36
and corporate raiders you know they took
00:13:37
six months to do it began is just a
00:13:39
review of two books of you know of
00:13:41
classics books by and by right these gay
00:13:44
guys Foucault you know followers and so
00:13:46
on I had no idea that's all just gonna
00:13:48
give them a positive review and then I
00:13:49
saw this - horror okay no was a full
00:13:52
coat world and I spent six months doing
00:13:54
this even my mentor Harold Bloom you
00:13:56
said to me you're wasting your time okay
00:13:59
you're wasting your time this is this
00:14:01
was the attitude of the senior
00:14:02
professors yeah you're right you're
00:14:04
wasting your time to try to reform the
00:14:06
Academy okay right so the entire
00:14:09
professorial okay the Liberals and the
00:14:11
Conservatives ignored this
00:14:13
can this thing it's gonna go away it's
00:14:14
gonna go away well no it didn't UK
00:14:16
because once the job we want to let you
00:14:17
know the body fell out of the job market
00:14:18
for in 1970s suddenly you had the system
00:14:21
okay where you have you know essentially
00:14:24
a system of servitude where a young
00:14:26
faculty members have got to talk the
00:14:29
talk okay I've got to show okay that
00:14:31
same that they believe in the same
00:14:32
things that their superiors right now
00:14:34
you know where I really noticed the
00:14:36
drop-off and quality of scholarship was
00:14:38
when I was doing glittering images my
00:14:39
last book which came out five years ago
00:14:41
okay so for that I chose like you know I
00:14:45
it was like some of the 29 works of art
00:14:46
whatever okay and for each each work I
00:14:49
ended up with I read through all of the
00:14:51
available scholarship and writing
00:14:54
comments Haryana okay so I would begin
00:14:57
chronologically and I would work through
00:14:58
okay at or to the present every single
00:15:01
case okay
00:15:02
oh my god it was so obvious okay my
00:15:05
great period is that of the late 19th
00:15:08
century into the mid 20th century the
00:15:10
great period of German philology in
00:15:11
British classical scholarship which had
00:15:14
like a great woman Jane Harrison won one
00:15:16
of the you know important figures of the
00:15:18
Cambridge School of anthropology and so
00:15:19
on I love that period I love the
00:15:21
wonderful lucidity of the prose of those
00:15:24
great British classicists of the first
00:15:26
part over the you know of the 20th
00:15:28
century and so on okay so that's my
00:15:30
period so I went into wouldn't we knew
00:15:31
anything about that for you know for the
00:15:33
older works of our my goodness okay
00:15:35
the incredible you know depth of and
00:15:38
breadth of the air you dition and the
00:15:40
ability to articulate you to use as
00:15:42
graceful English that has that has
00:15:44
lasted Tuesday alright so I wouldn't
00:15:45
move through and without fail in every
00:15:49
single case okay by the time I mean the
00:15:51
last thing worth reading okay in art
00:15:54
history you know about anything okay
00:15:56
it's like it's like the 1960s okay the
00:15:59
70s okay it starts to weaken by the 80s
00:16:02
that you know the horror of post
00:16:04
structuralism has has set in okay and by
00:16:06
the ninety it's a complete crap you
00:16:08
cannot believe the books that are
00:16:10
published and you know it's open know
00:16:13
there will be books okay there are good
00:16:15
quality scholarship in a very narrow
00:16:16
area you you will find good monographs
00:16:19
that by specialists okay in this last
00:16:22
period but the entire broad learning the
00:16:26
broad vision that you need to be an
00:16:28
undergraduate teacher and I point out
00:16:30
okay that's what you absolutely you need
00:16:31
the big trans historical vision okay the
00:16:34
whole but no no no the narrative of art
00:16:37
history is now declared specious okay so
00:16:39
couldn't that now we have this new
00:16:40
things things like new New Historicism
00:16:42
where you take like a little thing here
00:16:44
you just choose one thing at random here
00:16:45
choose one thing at random here
00:16:47
one thing you random there and then you
00:16:48
mix them all together and you make some
00:16:50
a few clever gestures toward it and
00:16:52
that's your form of oh it's fraud an
00:16:55
absolute fraud okay alright until you
00:16:58
know what they've abandoned they've
00:17:00
abandoned the great those great survey
00:17:03
courses the art history survey courses
00:17:05
first semester you know Stone Age that
00:17:08
you know happened I'm going half way all
00:17:10
the way down second semester to
00:17:12
modernism to Abstract Expressionism and
00:17:14
so on
00:17:14
they've abandoned that okay all right
00:17:16
it's considered naive too naive for our
00:17:19
super sophisticated post-structuralist
00:17:21
okay you're saying oh no we don't want
00:17:23
to do that okay
00:17:24
all right please all right so what we
00:17:26
want to do is our narrow little
00:17:28
specialty areas like that so you can't
00:17:30
even find faculty members who you know
00:17:32
young faculty who are trained to think
00:17:33
in these great historical periods like
00:17:37
that so what's the end result is that
00:17:39
students have absolutely no historical
00:17:42
sense whatever okay they're in it we
00:17:46
reflected with what's called present ISM
00:17:49
okay that is this focus on the present I
00:17:51
mean I'm always complaining like Susan
00:17:53
Sontag you know I always say Susan
00:17:55
Sontag knew nothing before the
00:17:56
Enlightenment that's it's okay but
00:17:58
post-enlightenment fine okay post-french
00:18:01
revolution better okay but she had no
00:18:03
broad vision of anything the old the old
00:18:06
universal scholarship or the aspiration
00:18:09
toward universal scholarship is
00:18:10
completely gone this is ridiculous it's
00:18:12
absolutely ridiculous right I mean
00:18:14
that's those survey courses in the
00:18:17
timeline the timeline of it is very
00:18:20
helpful to young people to get a sense
00:18:22
of human history okay all right so
00:18:24
that's another reason why young people
00:18:26
get so upset by current politics okay
00:18:29
it's because they have no sense that you
00:18:31
know you know what the history of the
00:18:33
world has been Empire is rising
00:18:36
empires falling nothing but ruins and
00:18:38
this huge cycle of things happening and
00:18:41
so an election that happens in a
00:18:43
temporary election it's not the end of
00:18:44
the world it's not the apocalypse okay
00:18:46
regroup and try again hello okay all
00:18:49
right yeah yeah everyone says oh no
00:18:51
there's nothing but the present nothing
00:18:53
or or or more speak more spacious okay
00:18:56
is like once there was a utopia in fact
00:18:59
everywhere but here everyone but here in
00:19:01
America is a utopia okay and therefore
00:19:03
there are there are problems with
00:19:05
America okay hello okay the no say the
00:19:12
horrors of history have been totally
00:19:14
hidden from from young people do you
00:19:16
know that yes the banality of public
00:19:19
school education today absolute
00:19:21
emptiness okay sorry I don't I'm gonna
00:19:23
definitely all right so the banality
00:19:26
okay did this picture of human life
00:19:29
everyone nice very nice Ness okay is the
00:19:32
answer in the public schools you get no
00:19:35
bullying okay alright let's treat
00:19:37
everyone nice be actually open and
00:19:38
tolerant make never make any judgments
00:19:40
etc but the actual hard facts of human
00:19:43
history and world geography and my point
00:19:46
out all right they know nothing they
00:19:47
know nothing okay all right
00:19:50
I think me and Ivan a good position you
00:19:52
seem to judge this because I am NOT
00:19:54
teaching X hen okay I am NOT just from
00:19:57
teaching thank God I'm not teaching at
00:20:00
any of the big elite schools where they
00:20:02
get the you know the feeders coming from
00:20:04
all the private schools and the best
00:20:05
suburban school so they're getting the
00:20:06
best of the best of the brightest of
00:20:08
eager beaver's everyone perfect everyone
00:20:10
but they're very good you know it all
00:20:11
that and say no I'm getting like
00:20:13
aspiring artists who come from a huge
00:20:15
variety of educational backgrounds so I
00:20:18
have people from good suburban school
00:20:20
districts I also have you know you know
00:20:22
people from inner city brilliant dancers
00:20:25
jazz musicians and so on I have people
00:20:27
from farms you know in North Carolina
00:20:30
and so on okay so I'm able to judge the
00:20:33
general degeneration
00:20:35
okay of American public school education
00:20:37
and I'm able to compare it with to
00:20:41
contrast it with the European public
00:20:44
school education okay so when I go to
00:20:46
Europe there's a sense of general
00:20:47
cultural now I don't
00:20:48
like you know enshrine Europe you know
00:20:50
III think we're far more open in society
00:20:54
than the Europe is nevertheless the
00:20:56
level of education okay of general
00:20:59
cultural education that is that a
00:21:01
standard for India in Europe okay it
00:21:04
puts to shame what's happening in the
00:21:06
United States okay alright the students
00:21:08
know absolutely nothing okay I mean I
00:21:10
mean literally nothing I'm sorry I
00:21:12
remember standing on this stage of made
00:21:14
from one from one of my books and and
00:21:17
talking about the you know my shock when
00:21:19
let me just tell that story okay and
00:21:22
it's getting it's getting worse
00:21:24
this happened making out maybe fifteen
00:21:26
years ago I have a course which I
00:21:28
invented called the art of song lyrics
00:21:31
and I have a section of the course
00:21:34
that's on the great Negro spirituals of
00:21:36
the late 19th century okay so I was I
00:21:38
was new and one of my favorite ones for
00:21:41
them and go down Moses okay and which
00:21:43
I've done many times so I give him the
00:21:45
lyric we listen to it you talk about the
00:21:47
lyric and then we you know listen to it
00:21:50
again
00:21:50
okay so one that's one case like a one
00:21:53
you know I was going on and on I thought
00:21:55
I was feeling something something's
00:21:56
wrong I could tell I wasn't
00:21:58
communicating and I didn't know why why
00:22:00
and it suddenly hit me to my heart they
00:22:03
did not recognize the name Moses okay
00:22:08
and that's what's happened secular
00:22:10
humanism is a big bust I'm telling you
00:22:12
now okay alright because with me if you
00:22:15
take religion away and politics becomes
00:22:18
a religion okay
00:22:19
dogma becomes comes a religion and
00:22:22
that's what's happened okay all these
00:22:23
enlightened parents want to to raise
00:22:25
their children without any you know
00:22:27
religious contacts and the end result is
00:22:30
inability to recognize the great myths
00:22:33
you know the great stories the great
00:22:34
legends of the West
00:22:36
okay so that was very disturbing but
00:22:38
then I recently in the past fall I you
00:22:42
know and I you know I was normally you
00:22:45
know I'm talking I'm talking I'm talking
00:22:46
to the class I'm always reading you know
00:22:48
their faces and so on and I suddenly had
00:22:51
this sense that's not the terror class
00:22:55
but a good proportion of the class was
00:22:59
not recognizing the name Hitler
00:23:04
okay
00:23:05
and I thought afterward why should they
00:23:09
why should they think of it these are
00:23:11
kids born 1718 years ago right okay so
00:23:15
we're talking about the turn of the
00:23:16
century Hitler for them 30s and 40s that
00:23:20
would be like World War one for me who
00:23:23
grew up you know after world war ii and
00:23:25
way and we didn't we know nothing about
00:23:27
World War one so why should they know
00:23:30
about Hitler okay but you know excuse me
00:23:35
okay this is like should be the basic
00:23:37
knowledge but the public schools don't
00:23:40
want to teach that because that would be
00:23:41
upsetting they don't want it you don't
00:23:43
want to ever upset young people no we
00:23:45
don't like to upset them with anything
00:23:46
so we'll have happy talk okay in the
00:23:48
school about the universally you know
00:23:50
universal benevolence of mankind not a
00:23:53
good idea okay my view I I think
00:23:56
students should be exposed to the
00:23:58
horrors of history okay okay and to the
00:24:00
disasters of history I think it's
00:24:02
exactly what they need
00:24:03
okay and so the people wonder how do we
00:24:05
get this snowflake generation where they
00:24:06
can't tolerate anything it's because of
00:24:08
the again the pablum that they're being
00:24:10
taught at the public school level okay
00:24:12
all right it's an entire system that now
00:24:14
is devoted to like grinding everything
00:24:17
down into gruel okay we don't want to
00:24:20
offend anyone okay all right so I'm
00:24:23
always saying you know my prescription
00:24:25
for education always is start in the
00:24:27
most distant pink antiquity in case they
00:24:30
love the stories of ancient Egypt and so
00:24:33
on show the great empires you know with
00:24:36
all the artworks and mean everything and
00:24:38
talk about the great trajectories you
00:24:40
know of history and I and I've also been
00:24:42
saying and I'm an atheist I've been
00:24:44
saying are the best multiculturalism the
00:24:48
optimal one it puts comparative religion
00:24:51
the world great world religions at the
00:24:53
center I have been saying that for 25
00:24:55
years that's you know that to the true
00:24:59
world understanding will only come from
00:25:01
an exploration of the religious
00:25:03
background you know of the peoples of
00:25:05
the world that's the you know the main
00:25:07
texts the main belief systems that the
00:25:09
holy spots the your the artifacts they
00:25:11
it's a great the great you know
00:25:13
interdisciplinary way
00:25:14
to teach culture ok invite me by talking
00:25:17
about you because because that oh
00:25:18
nothing I'm always saying is that that
00:25:20
was actually the essence of the 1960s
00:25:22
that's been lost until one of those
00:25:24
essays that I was hoping to finally get
00:25:26
out front and one be cool next year now
00:25:27
is this essay I wrote and it's now G was
00:25:31
my probably 2003 when the last when it
00:25:33
was published and it's called cults and
00:25:36
cosmic consciousness the religious
00:25:39
vision of the American 1960s which has
00:25:42
been completely forgotten all people
00:25:44
look back and all they see is the
00:25:45
politics of the 60s they don't see the
00:25:47
cosmic perspective okay and the way the
00:25:50
whole generation turned away from the
00:25:53
career system turned away from
00:25:54
materialism okay and sought spiritual
00:25:57
enlightenment
00:25:58
alright that was bigger than politics
00:26:00
okay all right so what's happened that's
00:26:01
all that's left in the 60s is this idea
00:26:04
of social reform which is very important
00:26:06
okay but that's not the whole of human
00:26:08
life if you for people who are not
00:26:09
religious or come from a secular home
00:26:11
they don't have any of this the
00:26:13
metaphysics okay of the cosmic vision
00:26:15
okay so that's why I think teaching
00:26:17
religion is a very good idea it and by
00:26:20
the way if that if if my prescription
00:26:22
had been adopted we wouldn't have all
00:26:24
this chaos and confusion about Islam
00:26:27
today people would know about it they
00:26:29
would know the holy texts and be able to
00:26:31
talk about it you know yeah
00:26:33
contradictions in the text or this group
00:26:35
follows this part or this group calls
00:26:36
that part okay so everybody is like you
00:26:38
talking in this blank zone of total lack
00:26:42
of knowledge of these very passionate
00:26:44
belief systems that are out there okay
00:26:46
and I'm always warning I've been warning
00:26:48
for years okay that the West should not
00:26:51
repeat the mistake of the Roman Empire
00:26:53
okay you know the Roman Empire got very
00:26:56
comfortable and tolerant in his late
00:26:59
phases I mean very sophisticated they
00:27:02
open to homosexuality into all you know
00:27:04
all kinds of things you're very except
00:27:06
and and there was nothing there was
00:27:07
nothing at the heart of it okay there
00:27:09
was there was no passionate belief at
00:27:11
the heart of Imperial Roman culture
00:27:13
except political power you know by by
00:27:15
Rome itself right so into that vacuum
00:27:17
what came hello class what came from
00:27:20
Palestine okay this you this of two very
00:27:23
passionate belief system right Chris
00:27:26
Jannetty okay came and spread because of
00:27:29
the hollowness of that very tolerant
00:27:32
secular lifestyle of Imperial Rome and
00:27:34
here we are two thousand years later and
00:27:36
Christianity is thriving so well I'm
00:27:38
always warning okay you know if you have
00:27:40
if you believe in nothing okay
00:27:42
nothing but a certain comfort level and
00:27:45
you're tolerant to everything and
00:27:47
there's a system out there that is
00:27:49
passionate and militants okay it's the
00:27:52
passion okay
00:27:53
the belief system you know that is
00:27:55
passionate that's core there's going to
00:27:56
win so I'm warning so for me the remedy
00:28:00
is always education better education
00:28:02
broader education deeper education okay
00:28:05
and anyway okay now what else okay right
00:28:09
which I was telling you okay don't just
00:28:12
put together the book okay and you know
00:28:15
there are things in here in the book
00:28:17
okay which some things people would know
00:28:19
but other things I've been writing in
00:28:21
the last few years
00:28:22
okay you know for like for like Time
00:28:23
magazine and so on op eds
00:28:25
and one in particular your issue that
00:28:28
that nobody is talking about but me
00:28:29
apparently is this stupid age 21 law
00:28:33
okay that there was passed you know in
00:28:35
the in the mid 1980s were young people
00:28:38
in America I can't go out and buy a beer
00:28:40
okay alright if they have to in
00:28:42
meanwhile okay what did that well in
00:28:44
what did that / - you know the only
00:28:46
countries in the world that have a
00:28:48
strict a rule about that are very
00:28:51
repressive Muslim regimes and Qatar and
00:28:54
so on all right
00:28:55
I mean that in Europe young people can
00:28:57
buy alcohol they're 1415 they learn how
00:29:00
to drink right now the disastrous
00:29:02
cultural effects of that law I point out
00:29:06
okay is that is once young people in
00:29:10
college could go men and women could go
00:29:13
to a bar sit at a table in a public
00:29:17
place over a cheap beer and flirt with
00:29:20
each other learn how to converse in
00:29:22
adult context in a protected zone what
00:29:24
happened the minute that law happened
00:29:26
you know Mothers Against Drunk Driving
00:29:28
we married your own business is what I
00:29:30
glad I say to them okay I mean all right
00:29:32
so what was the end result okay the
00:29:35
fraternity parties keg parties okay I'm
00:29:38
fistic ated elfish Dionysian routes okay
00:29:42
that's what happens okay big kid now
00:29:45
they're all drinking like this and so on
00:29:47
what kind of conversation what kind of
00:29:49
sophistication are you gonna get at a
00:29:51
noisy fraternity party okay the whole
00:29:53
art of conversation of flirting gone
00:29:56
immediately what happened in the 80s the
00:29:59
date-rape furor started immediately all
00:30:02
of a sudden by the late 80s you're
00:30:04
getting all this confusion okay wait
00:30:08
wait do it again do it again
00:30:09
how many minutes oh three minutes all
00:30:11
right okay all right all right
00:30:13
so I say no don't it's gonna be the Q&A
00:30:16
don't okay so I say okay all right this
00:30:20
is redic young people need okay to you
00:30:25
know step over into delirium in some way
00:30:28
okay and so what you'd be again getting
00:30:31
the pills okay all right right
00:30:33
Molly all that stuff okay things from
00:30:35
off the streets okay they're all
00:30:37
wonderful okay that was that's a big
00:30:39
improvement okay all right you start
00:30:41
getting the raves and so on pencil the
00:30:43
brains our pickles from that crack
00:30:44
what's wrong with alcohol it goes back
00:30:46
thousands of years
00:30:48
okay beer wine and not today your
00:30:51
margaritas
00:30:52
it's a scotch and sodas whiskey sours
00:30:56
and so on all right all right and
00:30:59
another thing you know you like you get
00:31:01
drunk it's too much okay
00:31:04
you know you don't want to hunter goal
00:31:05
you know bottle of tequila okay but what
00:31:07
I'm saying is there's a hangover it goes
00:31:09
okay all that other crap stays in the
00:31:12
brain okay the kids are great their
00:31:14
brains are pickled from all that stuff
00:31:16
and now adding with the antidepressants
00:31:18
you know the entire professional class
00:31:19
of Manhattan is on all this
00:31:20
antidepressants go get a beer okay is
00:31:24
what I say
00:31:25
yeah I can remember okay you know and I
00:31:29
was recently I was looking at say like
00:31:32
this 1940s movies and I would see like
00:31:34
the men would go into the bar to have a
00:31:36
beer and it'll be like little 6 ounce
00:31:38
glasses 6 ounce and that's what we had
00:31:40
in college so I actually went on Amazon
00:31:42
and I found them okay I found the 6
00:31:45
ounce glass and I thought this is great
00:31:46
ok because you know you know today with
00:31:48
the mugs they give you a big mug hope I
00:31:50
could turn you to half way it's warm who
00:31:52
wants the warm half of the so if you
00:31:54
have the six ounces okay you keep
00:31:56
getting the nice frothy you know nice
00:31:58
cold beer and so I thought let's go back
00:31:59
to the six ounces that that's what we
00:32:01
had you know in college right and so
00:32:03
that's how young people learn to be
00:32:06
adults okay and actually you know wrote
00:32:10
this one of my my gate engage students
00:32:13
said to me how he lamented the that
00:32:17
particular law okay because he said in
00:32:19
the old days he said obviously older gay
00:32:22
men okay were you know a great help you
00:32:25
know to the younger gay men the younger
00:32:27
gay men learned about gay culture
00:32:29
through conversations in bars now you
00:32:32
know he said young gay men that here's
00:32:34
here is in the gate the gate overheard
00:32:36
you know that in the gay district is
00:32:38
where my university is and so on and and
00:32:40
to get sex or to or to flirt with anyone
00:32:43
it's being done on tinder right
00:32:45
all of a sudden you're like you're
00:32:46
matching up to have sex okay in but
00:32:49
there's no conversation okay
00:32:50
conversation is gone now that is a
00:32:52
cultural disaster okay to to Americans
00:32:55
young people not to have environments
00:32:59
adult environments where you can just
00:33:01
take the edge off with a little alcohol
00:33:02
okay and converse okay in a rational way
00:33:05
okay it's going on all the time that's
00:33:07
one for heaven's sakes existentialism
00:33:09
you know all those things began in
00:33:11
Parisian you know places are people are
00:33:13
drinking a glass of wine etc so it again
00:33:15
to provincialism of our culture okay I
00:33:18
want that rule ok abolish it's they're
00:33:22
selling marijuana in Colorado okay and
00:33:24
you can't get it and young people can't
00:33:25
walk into a bar here in Philadelphia
00:33:27
it's outrageous I want you to be
00:33:29
outraged
00:33:30
all right okay anyway