ican culture, while they surely knew how to profit from Americanrncivilizahon. Among other things, they wished that therernwere more Greenwich Villages in this country. Well, nowrnthere are—sordid enclaves of barbarism, most of them. . . .rnThe signs of the breakdown of American civilization are allrnaround us. Their illustration would require an encyclopedicrnjeremiad. More and more people, all kinds of people, recognizernwhat is going on. Sensitive people already exist whose experiencesrnlead them to use the proper term—as, for example,rnJames Prothero, a public-school teacher in Southern California,rnin a recent article in the hiew Oxford Review. “Civilization hasrnceased to exist in the urban area around my high school.” . ..rnUnlike in the case of Greece or Rome, the barbarians are notrnat the gate (though some of them are pouring through). Theyrnare inside, and I do not only mean those coming up from thernsubway. Readers may now suppose that I am thinking only, orrnmostly, of blacks. I am not. The barbarism burgeoning acrossrnthis country has been propagated by the culture of whites, and Irndo not mean slavery. That is long gone. Wliat are not gone arernluovies, television, talk radio, books, magazines, music, a r t -rnyes, art—propagating juvenility, irresponsibility, loudness, corruptrnlanguage, sexual prowess, physical brutality, and pornographyrnand leading to a widespread decav not only of “values” andrnof standards of behavior but of iruagination. The worst barbarianrntalk I have ever listened to was the self-centered, endlessrnmonologue of an Italian-American taxi driver from Brooklyn tornManhattan. In 1870, William Dean Howells welcomed Italiansrnto America: “a race that is immemorially civilized.”rn”Scratch the mask of a modern Italian,” he wrote, “and you willrnfind a polite pagan.” The Irish were the barbarians: “Scrapernone of these Yankeefied Celts and you’ll find a savage.” Herncould not have been more wrong. He may have been rightrnabout those poor Italian immigrants 100 years ago. Wliat Americanrncrowd culture has made some of their descendants into isrnanother story.rnNeither rock nor porn was invented by blacks. (Nor werernblues and jazz: Those were fusions of black musical talent andrnsensitivitv’ with Anglo-Saxon forms of harmony and modernrnsyncopation, at a time when the ambition of American blacksrnamounted to more than emulation of whites, when their ambitionrnwas to acquire their rightful place within an American civilization.)rnThe pictorial and popular culture that celebratesrnphysicality, sexuality, juvenilitv’, self-indulgence, and primihveness,rnwhether in high art or low (including actors and singersrnand rock groups who call themselves “conservatives” or who arerntaken up enthusiastically by “conservatives”) are produced andrnrepresented and consumed by whites. (Think only of the happinessrnon Richard Nixon’s face when he had the privileged momentrnof wclcoiuing Elvis Presley in the Oval Office.) So are advertiseiuentsrnproduced by whites, including their half-nakedrnand stubble-faced vitelloni. . . . When primitiveness is prized,rnneed one be surprised that blacks prove to be good at it and thatrnwhites are afraid of them in the .streets-which, of course, is thernobverse of what white “racism” is supposed to be?rnThere is plenty of “culture” thrown at children in ourrnschools, but very little of civilization. We now have hordes ofrnyoung people to whom not only the notions but the very wordsrn”civilization” and “civilized” are hardly known — at a timernwhen more people mouth the word “culture” than ever before.rnAnd this has a special pertinence to the United States, wherernour forefathers were convinced of their duty to bring civilizationrnto the New World—a greater task even than its preservation ofrnthe Old….rnWhen a civilization funchons, so do its public inshtuhons. Arnhundred years ago, American public schools, public hospitals,rnetc., were among the best in the world. Since that time the veryrnsense of what is “public” has decayed: Our public schools, publicrnhospitals, public transportation are avoided and shunned byrnmany people. But at least in one important respect there is norndifference between those public schools where the youngrnmaim and occasionally murder each other and the most expensivernof private institutions. All American schools are hardlyrnmore than custodial institutions now—to keep young people offrnthe streets and away from home, and not only in the event thatrnboth of their parents are at work. . . . Wliether in an inner-cityrnschool or at Harvard, the young are not taught civilization. I dornnot mean the teaching of good manners—that disappearedrnsome time ago. (Though Goethe was right: There are no mannersrnwhich do not have a moral foundation somewhere.) Norrndo I mean the older American public-school practice of teachingrngood citizenship. I mean a respect for life, for an orderly lifernthat is inseparable not only from a respect for learning but fromrna respect for one’s provenance, for language, and for the abilityrnto read, write, and listen. Almost half of our young now spendrnnearly 20 years in schools, with the result that most of them cannotrnread and write and express themselves adequately.rnThis has something to do with the propaganda about the InformationrnE.xplosion. (“Explosion,” with its destructive connotation,rnis the mot juste.) There is a breakdown of communication,rnpart and parcel of the breakdown of civilization, anrninformation “culture” that has nothing to do with in-formation,rnfor that requires listening. Since entire generations no longerrnknow how to listen, we have this widening breakdown of communicationrn(and, thus, of civility) between parents and children,rnhusbands and wives, lovers, teachers and students, and sornon. Wlien “culture” can (as it already does) degenerate intornmere entertainment, “civilization,” too, can degenerate intornmere telephoning.rnCivilization includes paying attention to others. Rare that isrnnow, particularly in the world of scholarship—or, as the clicherngoes, in “the community of scholars.” There is no such community.rnThere is the old saw about the specialist who knowsrnmore and more about less and less. There was nothing veryrnwrong with that. What we now have are academic bloviatorsrnwho know less and less about more and more, while the majorityrnof their colleagues read less and less and write (or, rather,rnprocess words) more and more. If that is culture, then the hellrnwith it. Meanwhile, a professor who says something criticalrnabout a Mexican or a Chinese or a homosexual may be punished,rnhaving bucked multiculturalism. Another professor whornengages in carnal commerce with his students has done nothingrnwrong. Such judgments are products of a progressivelyrnbroadening “culture.” They are also the products of advancingrnbarbarism, not of civilization, as in sex education, which, too,rnhas nothing to do with the advance of civilization. It is publicrninstruction for mechanical and antiseptic, safe and sinless carnality,rnat a time when one of the marks of a broken-down civilizationrnis the decay of privacy—and of a sense of sin (that sensernof sin without which sex tastes like egg without salt).rnClothes do not make the man, or woman, but they do illustraternmany things. In the past young people looked forward tornthe day when they could acquire and wear the clothes (togetherrnwith other rights and privileges) of adults. Now the morern14/CHRONICLESrnrnrn