Mr. Rufo, I have enormous respect and appreciation for your work. I am a college professor, and I wish you great success with the New College in Florida.
I subscribed to this Substack to have the opportunity to state my disagreement. Charlie Kirk is correct, but even he understates the case. It is not just that we have lost. The universities you cite as the intellectual heritage of the West were founded in order to preserve Western civilization. Modern academia is sworn to the destruction of Western civilization. They loathe it as they loathe nothing else in this world.
It is not possible to reform the system. There is a deep illness in our society, and it cannot be reformed; it must be excised. I appreciate your youthful exuberance. 30 years from now, you will realize that you have accomplished little. All the cognitive elite institutions - education, media, government, entertainment, big tech - are in the iron grip of the cultural marxist left.
The only way I see to save Western civilization is secession from the USA and starting over from scratch.
I agree that we need counter elites. In practice, that means networking between the tiny number of conservatives in elite institutions so we can help each other survive. That means we hire and promote each other. How do we start doing that?
Well said, Chris. The solution is not to be reactionary. We have to plant good seeds and patiently help them grow by giving them attention. It takes time but I am hopeful.
I say, the more pressure the university puts on Conservative students the stronger and more ardent supporters of Conservative ideology they will become or they will simply compromise and follow the Pied Piper crowd which the Liberal society has become. As Reagan once said Conservatism is always only one generation from extinction. This is always true and must be true because Liberals have no real strong values or “norms” because they believe in situational ethics and secular humanism. As Patrick Henry once said we have only yet to fight, so we will not back down, we will not give in, and we will not stop defending our freedom and principles!
I hate to bring up a tangential point. But many of us will never get to hear what you had to say because we just do not have an endless amount of time to listen to/watch everyone's casts and/or because we are visual/reading learners. Autotranscribers are free/cheap and, while imperfect, are plenty good enough. You would be doing a real service to run videos/podcasts through an autotranscriber and publish that as well -- you would increase your reach dramatically. Much to my delight, many/most other folks have, with nudging, started doing this and we are all appreciative.
The more important message here is embracing intellectualism and education rather than associating it with some kind of unobtainable sorcery done by leftists.
So often you see writers and influential people who are skilled with their words and very knowledgeable, but they tend to be left wing. I think it’s partially because that’s in vogue for the left, but the right doesn’t have this push for academic excellence, and it seems like people assume college is the only place to develop your intellect. College does not give you something you didn’t already have, it just forces you to cultivate it, which is something you can do on your own with enough discipline and curiosity.
Degrees are losing their value by the day because more and more people have them, and the institutions do not have the respect they once had, so if you don’t need the degree to do what you want to do in the world, then don’t waste your time.
I don't think that Rufo's memes, mean what he thinks they meme. A practical job that pays well without causing a worker to accumulate a huge debt, in "order" to obscurely regurgitate anciently refuted lies, is not a "meme". Former scholars who still live with their parents after being "educated" into uselessness are not "memes". They are the sad consequences of what Allan Bloom described as "The Closing of The American Mind" in 1987, about 3 years after Rufo's birth. Bloom would have noticed the subjects and topic of his book well before Rufo's conception, given the '60's "revolution for the hell-of-it crowd", pace Abbie Hoffman and the rest of the Chicago 7 (or 8 if you count Bobby Seale).
Bloom was an Academic elitist, who (among other more important things), similarly to Plato, thought that young people should not listen to "Rock Music" (with Plato it was "wrong poetry" or "wrong melodies", rather than "rock")! Ted Nugent, who likes controversy, almost as much as rock music or hunting, literally destroyed Bloom in a public debate on that particular topic. But Bloom was right in other criticisms, particularly his criticisms of American student laziness and functional illiteracy.
As Rufo asserts (post "meme" assertions), somewhat inaccurately, quote, "First off, from a PRACTICAL MATTER, we've had universities in the west for a thousand years, since they were first started in France and Spain and then Italy, some of those great original medieval universities to the founding of our country. You have universities that date back four or five hundred years in America that have always been the training ground for the elites in business, law, government, administration, et cetera."
Considering Plato's Academy, Aristotle's Lyceum, ancient Indian and ancient Chinese schools it's more accurate to say over 2000 years of educational institutions. But it's no "practical matter" to assert the fact of schools of an advanced academic kind. Aristotle pointed out 24 centuries ago that the necessities of life had to be obtained before arts, that do not aim at either utility or necessity, could be developed, quote
ARISTOTLE: "But as more arts were invented, and some were directed to the necessities of life, others to recreation, the inventors of the latter [recreation inventors; e.g. musicians or dramatists KB] were naturally always regarded as wiser than the inventors of the former [necessity inventors; e.g. farmers or goatherders; utility inventors; e.g. shoe makers or cloth weavers KB], because their branches of knowledge did not aim at utility. Hence when all such inventions were already established, the sciences which do not aim at giving pleasure or at the necessities of life were discovered, and first in the places where men first began to have leisure. This is why the MATHEMATICAL arts were founded in Egypt; for there the priestly caste were allowed to be at leisure.
"We have said in the ETHICS what the difference is between art and science and the other kindred faculties; but the point of our present discussion is this, that all men suppose what is called WISDOM to deal with the first CAUSES and the PRINCIPLES of things; so that, as has been said before, the man of experience is thought to be wiser than the possessors of any sense perception whatever, the artist wiser than the man of experience, the master worker than the mechanic, and the THEORETICAL kinds of knowledge to be more of the nature of Wisdom than the productive [e.g. computer chip fabrication today or horse shoes in ancient times KB]. Clearly then, WISDOM, is knowledge about certain principles and causes." [Metaphysics; Bk I, Ch. 1.; 981b line 16 to 982a line 1]
So, even though Mr. Rufo [b. 1984] describes himself as, quote "Leading the fight against the left-wing ideological regime.", it is more likely that a mathematician named James Lindsay [b. 1979; Cynical Theories published 2020] followed the leads of both Jonathan Haidt [b. 1963; The Coddling of The American Mind; published 2018 ] and Allan Bloom [b. 1930; The Closing of the American Mind; published 1987], when he [James Lindsay] and 2 friends had "hoax papers" published in Academic Journals on modernly dubious academic subjects. As a mathematician, turned martial artist and massage therapist, Lindsay arguably had the required leisure (noted by Aristotle long ago) to think-up 20 counter-examples to pseudo-academic subjects. My favourite earlier Lindsay paper was titled: "The Conceptual Penis as a Social Construct", arguably because I am toxically masculine [b. 1948]. However I actually self-identify as a young black transgendered male who can "pass" [Kidding!].
Rufo's thesis, contrary to his alleged "memes", is that Conservatives ought to attend College in America, because Colleges have trained American "elites" for the last 400 years. Great. Which college trained Ben Franklin? Henry Ford? Thomas Edison? Orville and Wilbur Wright? Howard Hughes? Bill Gates? [Correct answer = No College.] There is evidence that Edison, Hughes and Gates took courses at higher institutions in subjects that piqued their interests. But no College degrees were obtained. Of course, Ben Franklin established one (maybe more?) Colleges although his own higher schooling consisted of 2 years of Latin instruction followed by much work and reading. Thus a few counter-examples to Mr. Rufo's thesis.
It is certainly true that you must obtain a College degree to be a medical physician or lawyer. America has had at least one great lawyer --- Abe Lincoln. But, whoops, Abe never obtained a law degree. He just read "the law" and associated with some lawyers until he was credentialed. Then there all the degreed lawyers like Nixon, Spiro Agnew and all those Watergate lawyers, followed by rascally Bill Clinton and his forgiving spouse. Wow for such "elites". Overseas, long ago and far away, a major number of the French Revolutionaries who voted to guillotine Louis the 16th [and then each other as well as "everybody else" from all 3 Estates --- 1. Lords Spiritual, 2. Lords Temporal (notably including Antoine Lavoisier --- a Chemistry mentor of mine) and 3. Commoners!] had law degrees. A full two thirds of the French 3rd Estate (commoners) had law degrees (1/3rd) or legal training (1/3rd). Lenin had a law degree [First Class Honours St. Petersberg]. So much for degrees --- especially law degrees, even though I know that Lavoisier had a law degree! Who didn't in 18th century France? [Kidding again!]
So, Mr. Rufo argues, conservatives should go to college to become a "counter-elite", quote:
RUFO: "I think conservatives need to spend more time creating what for the time being would be a counter elite that has the intellectual capacity, that has the organizational structure, and has the potential for leadership that eventually when we start taking back institutions, when we start winning elections and making sure that those things actually translate into policy and institutional reforms ... "
The above is where Mr. Rufo has got it all wrong. Athens had the same institutions, Courts [better Courts than Americans with 500 citizens as judges and jurists --- no "elites" allowed] and even policies as modern Americans. But the Athenians still "hemlocked" Socrates and ran Aristotle out of town on the same trumped up charges as some few "elites" brought against Socrates. France had the same institutions (Churches and Courts) as early America, when French "elites" turned Joan of Arc over to the enemy-English to be burned at the stake on trumped up charges of witchcraft because she was a "non-elite", successful female-General of France's armies --- armies which were totally demoralized before Joan showed up.
So Rufo is wrong. America needs reformed followers (not leaders) and not reformed institutions or organizations. America has plenty of organizations, run by "elite" scoundrels and fatal "femmes"! But Rufo is right about universities or colleges. They're not going to disappear. Americans should be like Ben Franklin, Abe Lincoln, Howard Hughes, James Lindsay or even Mr. Rufo himself. Make some money, take some courses, do some politics --- but save up first and then spend money on useful courses and learning. [I have a part 2. So I'll reply to this boring tome if possible.]
Does one absolutely need a college degree to lead? Many business founders and leaders have done so without one. Why not develop trade schools that specialize in the leadership role a student wishes to pursue? A business school, a government school, an entertainment school, etc. I believe we should withdraw public funding from all universities and establish taxpayer funded higher education ESAs with complete school choice. Only the universities that operate on merit and produce students who achieve at high levels in their chosen endeavors will survive.
Reinventing The University, me thinks is wrong. In my very first Liberal Arts course, the very first assignment was a paper on Cardinal Newman's book "The Idea of a University." The learning became: there are student's who need a vocational education; and there are students who desire a liberal arts degree ... because they have no need for a vocation.
I think once you plant that seed, maybe revisit it on the first day of every liberal arts course, you'll achieve your goal.
I have a classically trained high school junior that I’d love to go to the Hillsdale of the South. And I’m excited about what Gov.
Desantis and you are trying to do at New College. But I’m worried that you’re too early on the curve to make the experience meaningful for an incoming class in Aug 2024 - that as long as the professors are from the old guard that the administration won’t make that much of a difference.
Am I wrong? How long do you think it will take to make meaningful inroads on the path to a classical and conservative-friendly environment?
I do think a moderate Republican president could enforce the Constitution, i.e. there is no good descrimination and actually support free speech, not forced totalitarian echo chambers that much of the unconstitutional Wokeism professes across the country and certainly on campuses, including K-12. Any school that gets Federal dollars could be held accountable which I think is what Chris was doing before the regime change. Question is can we elect a moderate Republican or not?
Mr. Rufo, I have enormous respect and appreciation for your work. I am a college professor, and I wish you great success with the New College in Florida.
I subscribed to this Substack to have the opportunity to state my disagreement. Charlie Kirk is correct, but even he understates the case. It is not just that we have lost. The universities you cite as the intellectual heritage of the West were founded in order to preserve Western civilization. Modern academia is sworn to the destruction of Western civilization. They loathe it as they loathe nothing else in this world.
It is not possible to reform the system. There is a deep illness in our society, and it cannot be reformed; it must be excised. I appreciate your youthful exuberance. 30 years from now, you will realize that you have accomplished little. All the cognitive elite institutions - education, media, government, entertainment, big tech - are in the iron grip of the cultural marxist left.
The only way I see to save Western civilization is secession from the USA and starting over from scratch.
I agree that we need counter elites. In practice, that means networking between the tiny number of conservatives in elite institutions so we can help each other survive. That means we hire and promote each other. How do we start doing that?
Well said, Chris. The solution is not to be reactionary. We have to plant good seeds and patiently help them grow by giving them attention. It takes time but I am hopeful.
I like the Conservative principles provided by Republican Congressman Mike Johnson:
1) individual freedom; 2) limited government: 3) the rule of law; 4) peace through strength; 5) fiscal responsibility; 6) free markets; 7) human dignity.
https://mikejohnson.house.gov/7-core-principles-of-conservatism/
OK, work from the Inside But how to get kids through the exposure to indoctrination without losing them?
I say, the more pressure the university puts on Conservative students the stronger and more ardent supporters of Conservative ideology they will become or they will simply compromise and follow the Pied Piper crowd which the Liberal society has become. As Reagan once said Conservatism is always only one generation from extinction. This is always true and must be true because Liberals have no real strong values or “norms” because they believe in situational ethics and secular humanism. As Patrick Henry once said we have only yet to fight, so we will not back down, we will not give in, and we will not stop defending our freedom and principles!
I hate to bring up a tangential point. But many of us will never get to hear what you had to say because we just do not have an endless amount of time to listen to/watch everyone's casts and/or because we are visual/reading learners. Autotranscribers are free/cheap and, while imperfect, are plenty good enough. You would be doing a real service to run videos/podcasts through an autotranscriber and publish that as well -- you would increase your reach dramatically. Much to my delight, many/most other folks have, with nudging, started doing this and we are all appreciative.
The more important message here is embracing intellectualism and education rather than associating it with some kind of unobtainable sorcery done by leftists.
So often you see writers and influential people who are skilled with their words and very knowledgeable, but they tend to be left wing. I think it’s partially because that’s in vogue for the left, but the right doesn’t have this push for academic excellence, and it seems like people assume college is the only place to develop your intellect. College does not give you something you didn’t already have, it just forces you to cultivate it, which is something you can do on your own with enough discipline and curiosity.
Degrees are losing their value by the day because more and more people have them, and the institutions do not have the respect they once had, so if you don’t need the degree to do what you want to do in the world, then don’t waste your time.
I don't think that Rufo's memes, mean what he thinks they meme. A practical job that pays well without causing a worker to accumulate a huge debt, in "order" to obscurely regurgitate anciently refuted lies, is not a "meme". Former scholars who still live with their parents after being "educated" into uselessness are not "memes". They are the sad consequences of what Allan Bloom described as "The Closing of The American Mind" in 1987, about 3 years after Rufo's birth. Bloom would have noticed the subjects and topic of his book well before Rufo's conception, given the '60's "revolution for the hell-of-it crowd", pace Abbie Hoffman and the rest of the Chicago 7 (or 8 if you count Bobby Seale).
Bloom was an Academic elitist, who (among other more important things), similarly to Plato, thought that young people should not listen to "Rock Music" (with Plato it was "wrong poetry" or "wrong melodies", rather than "rock")! Ted Nugent, who likes controversy, almost as much as rock music or hunting, literally destroyed Bloom in a public debate on that particular topic. But Bloom was right in other criticisms, particularly his criticisms of American student laziness and functional illiteracy.
As Rufo asserts (post "meme" assertions), somewhat inaccurately, quote, "First off, from a PRACTICAL MATTER, we've had universities in the west for a thousand years, since they were first started in France and Spain and then Italy, some of those great original medieval universities to the founding of our country. You have universities that date back four or five hundred years in America that have always been the training ground for the elites in business, law, government, administration, et cetera."
Considering Plato's Academy, Aristotle's Lyceum, ancient Indian and ancient Chinese schools it's more accurate to say over 2000 years of educational institutions. But it's no "practical matter" to assert the fact of schools of an advanced academic kind. Aristotle pointed out 24 centuries ago that the necessities of life had to be obtained before arts, that do not aim at either utility or necessity, could be developed, quote
ARISTOTLE: "But as more arts were invented, and some were directed to the necessities of life, others to recreation, the inventors of the latter [recreation inventors; e.g. musicians or dramatists KB] were naturally always regarded as wiser than the inventors of the former [necessity inventors; e.g. farmers or goatherders; utility inventors; e.g. shoe makers or cloth weavers KB], because their branches of knowledge did not aim at utility. Hence when all such inventions were already established, the sciences which do not aim at giving pleasure or at the necessities of life were discovered, and first in the places where men first began to have leisure. This is why the MATHEMATICAL arts were founded in Egypt; for there the priestly caste were allowed to be at leisure.
"We have said in the ETHICS what the difference is between art and science and the other kindred faculties; but the point of our present discussion is this, that all men suppose what is called WISDOM to deal with the first CAUSES and the PRINCIPLES of things; so that, as has been said before, the man of experience is thought to be wiser than the possessors of any sense perception whatever, the artist wiser than the man of experience, the master worker than the mechanic, and the THEORETICAL kinds of knowledge to be more of the nature of Wisdom than the productive [e.g. computer chip fabrication today or horse shoes in ancient times KB]. Clearly then, WISDOM, is knowledge about certain principles and causes." [Metaphysics; Bk I, Ch. 1.; 981b line 16 to 982a line 1]
So, even though Mr. Rufo [b. 1984] describes himself as, quote "Leading the fight against the left-wing ideological regime.", it is more likely that a mathematician named James Lindsay [b. 1979; Cynical Theories published 2020] followed the leads of both Jonathan Haidt [b. 1963; The Coddling of The American Mind; published 2018 ] and Allan Bloom [b. 1930; The Closing of the American Mind; published 1987], when he [James Lindsay] and 2 friends had "hoax papers" published in Academic Journals on modernly dubious academic subjects. As a mathematician, turned martial artist and massage therapist, Lindsay arguably had the required leisure (noted by Aristotle long ago) to think-up 20 counter-examples to pseudo-academic subjects. My favourite earlier Lindsay paper was titled: "The Conceptual Penis as a Social Construct", arguably because I am toxically masculine [b. 1948]. However I actually self-identify as a young black transgendered male who can "pass" [Kidding!].
Rufo's thesis, contrary to his alleged "memes", is that Conservatives ought to attend College in America, because Colleges have trained American "elites" for the last 400 years. Great. Which college trained Ben Franklin? Henry Ford? Thomas Edison? Orville and Wilbur Wright? Howard Hughes? Bill Gates? [Correct answer = No College.] There is evidence that Edison, Hughes and Gates took courses at higher institutions in subjects that piqued their interests. But no College degrees were obtained. Of course, Ben Franklin established one (maybe more?) Colleges although his own higher schooling consisted of 2 years of Latin instruction followed by much work and reading. Thus a few counter-examples to Mr. Rufo's thesis.
It is certainly true that you must obtain a College degree to be a medical physician or lawyer. America has had at least one great lawyer --- Abe Lincoln. But, whoops, Abe never obtained a law degree. He just read "the law" and associated with some lawyers until he was credentialed. Then there all the degreed lawyers like Nixon, Spiro Agnew and all those Watergate lawyers, followed by rascally Bill Clinton and his forgiving spouse. Wow for such "elites". Overseas, long ago and far away, a major number of the French Revolutionaries who voted to guillotine Louis the 16th [and then each other as well as "everybody else" from all 3 Estates --- 1. Lords Spiritual, 2. Lords Temporal (notably including Antoine Lavoisier --- a Chemistry mentor of mine) and 3. Commoners!] had law degrees. A full two thirds of the French 3rd Estate (commoners) had law degrees (1/3rd) or legal training (1/3rd). Lenin had a law degree [First Class Honours St. Petersberg]. So much for degrees --- especially law degrees, even though I know that Lavoisier had a law degree! Who didn't in 18th century France? [Kidding again!]
So, Mr. Rufo argues, conservatives should go to college to become a "counter-elite", quote:
RUFO: "I think conservatives need to spend more time creating what for the time being would be a counter elite that has the intellectual capacity, that has the organizational structure, and has the potential for leadership that eventually when we start taking back institutions, when we start winning elections and making sure that those things actually translate into policy and institutional reforms ... "
The above is where Mr. Rufo has got it all wrong. Athens had the same institutions, Courts [better Courts than Americans with 500 citizens as judges and jurists --- no "elites" allowed] and even policies as modern Americans. But the Athenians still "hemlocked" Socrates and ran Aristotle out of town on the same trumped up charges as some few "elites" brought against Socrates. France had the same institutions (Churches and Courts) as early America, when French "elites" turned Joan of Arc over to the enemy-English to be burned at the stake on trumped up charges of witchcraft because she was a "non-elite", successful female-General of France's armies --- armies which were totally demoralized before Joan showed up.
So Rufo is wrong. America needs reformed followers (not leaders) and not reformed institutions or organizations. America has plenty of organizations, run by "elite" scoundrels and fatal "femmes"! But Rufo is right about universities or colleges. They're not going to disappear. Americans should be like Ben Franklin, Abe Lincoln, Howard Hughes, James Lindsay or even Mr. Rufo himself. Make some money, take some courses, do some politics --- but save up first and then spend money on useful courses and learning. [I have a part 2. So I'll reply to this boring tome if possible.]
Kevin
Does one absolutely need a college degree to lead? Many business founders and leaders have done so without one. Why not develop trade schools that specialize in the leadership role a student wishes to pursue? A business school, a government school, an entertainment school, etc. I believe we should withdraw public funding from all universities and establish taxpayer funded higher education ESAs with complete school choice. Only the universities that operate on merit and produce students who achieve at high levels in their chosen endeavors will survive.
Reinventing The University, me thinks is wrong. In my very first Liberal Arts course, the very first assignment was a paper on Cardinal Newman's book "The Idea of a University." The learning became: there are student's who need a vocational education; and there are students who desire a liberal arts degree ... because they have no need for a vocation.
I think once you plant that seed, maybe revisit it on the first day of every liberal arts course, you'll achieve your goal.
Why are there not more private colleges like Hillsdale? Conservatives need to get together, get funding, and start more private colleges.
Chris -
I have a classically trained high school junior that I’d love to go to the Hillsdale of the South. And I’m excited about what Gov.
Desantis and you are trying to do at New College. But I’m worried that you’re too early on the curve to make the experience meaningful for an incoming class in Aug 2024 - that as long as the professors are from the old guard that the administration won’t make that much of a difference.
Am I wrong? How long do you think it will take to make meaningful inroads on the path to a classical and conservative-friendly environment?
I do think a moderate Republican president could enforce the Constitution, i.e. there is no good descrimination and actually support free speech, not forced totalitarian echo chambers that much of the unconstitutional Wokeism professes across the country and certainly on campuses, including K-12. Any school that gets Federal dollars could be held accountable which I think is what Chris was doing before the regime change. Question is can we elect a moderate Republican or not?
Thank you for this opinion - very thought provoking.
Love the videos! Keep them coming.