The most timid, frightened, conservative defenders of the status quo—of
the intellectual status quo—are today’s liberals (the leaders of
the conservatives never ventured into the realm of the intellect). What they
dread to discover is the fact that the intellectual status quo they inherited
is bankrupt, that they have no ideological base to stand on and no capacity to
construct one. Brought up on the philosophy of Pragmatism, they have been
taught that principles are unprovable, impractical or non-existent—which
has destroyed their ability to integrate ideas, to deal with abstractions, and
to see beyond the range of the immediate moment. Abstractions, they claim, are
“simplistic” (another anti-concept); myopia is sophisticated. “Don’t polarize!”
and “Don’t rock the boat!” are expressions of the same kind of panic.