>Tom, How did New York City literary debates--is that what we're having,
>btw?-- cost Harris Wofford his election?
From the Umberto Eco piece posted the other day:
>3. Irrationalism also depends on the cult of action for action's sake.
>Action being beautiful in itself, it must be taken before, or without,
>reflection. Thinking is a form of emasculation. Therefore culture is suspect
>insofar as it is identified with critical attitudes. Distrust of the
>intellectual world has always been a symptom of Ur-Fascism, from Hermann
>Goering's fondness for a phrase from a Hanns Johst play ("When I hear the
>word 'culture' I reach for my gun") to the frequent use of such expressions
>as "degenerate intellectuals," "eggheads," "effete snobs," and "universities
>are nests of reds." The official Fascist intellectuals were mainly engaged
>in attacking modern culture and the liberal intelligentsia for having
>betrayed traditional values.
Doug