The Real Thought Leaders

Accuracy in Academia ^ | October 10, 2013 | Malcolm A. Kline

[Academiadotorg]

When you cover ersatz intellectuals day in and day out as we do here at Accuracy in Academia, it is refreshing to meet genuine scholars.

About the only opportunity we get to do so is at meetings of the Philadelphia Society, a group of conservative intellectuals formed in 1964 in the wake of the defeat of presidential candidate Barry Goldwater. The ladies and gentlemen who belong to the society gathered in Atlanta in October for a regional meeting.

Among the many insights shared by the august line-up of speakers who addressed the gathering, here are a few highlights:

“Whenever I see the word science attached to something, I’ve come to think it means, ‘not’[scientific],” U Penn historian Allan Charles Kors said Kors is co-founder of the Foundation for Individual Rights in Education. Think “social science” and “environmental science.” “In 1968, the Berkeley placards read, ‘Question Authority.’ They should have read ‘Abolish consequences,’” David Lyle Jeffrey of Baylor said. Jeffrey, a Distinguished Professor of Literature and the Humanities, also noted that among elites we are “a society whose highest commandment is ‘Thou shalt not criticize thy neighbor.’” He also noted that “D. H. Lawrence said Christians had high ideals but low expectations. Marx [Karl] had low ideals and high expectations.” As well, he averred, “Divine justice is now treated as an anachronism,” and “competent political power trumps uncertain moral authority.” Thus, Jeffrey says, “’We are the change we’ve been waiting for,” and “We’re here, we’re queer: Get used to it,” get no answer and win numerous victories.

[Mike Darancette]

Philadelphia Society meets in Atlanta — sigh.