intellect, wins the day and changes thenwodd.nTake, for instance, geology — a fieldnfor students who were lazy jocks andndumb time-servers until, around thirtynyears ago, some wild genius discoverednplate tectonics and made the theorynstick. Now, if you’re running “thenplace where they send the geniuses,”nas IAS thinks of itself, your job is tonknow that geology has a genius. So youngo and try to bring that genius tonIAS—but then you do not go on inngeology, unless there is another revolutionarynfigure to appoint.nWhen the great moment of geologynhas run its course, with your open chairnin geology, you have to identify not thennext-best, or a distinguished, or thenmerely presentable (house-broken) geologistnto succeed. You should try tonlearn what other field, that day, isnexploding, and build there.nThe alternative is to have a routinenschool of geology (or math, or historicalnstudies), and then you’re competingnnot with the ages but merely withnother departments at other universities.nSo you get not geniuses — there maynnot be any to fill your slot in math orngeology or history that day—but justnanother department. (Even if there arengeniuses around, you may not wantnthem because they don’t bathe, andnPrinceton is a place where everybody isnrich and smells good. Culture is, well,nyou know, cultured.)nAnd the geniuses you do get—notnbeing self-absorbed men, who carenmostly for what they’re studying — arengoing to be awfully pleased with themselves,ntreading in the footsteps of thenlikes of Einstein, Von Neumann, andnOppenheimer. But Einstein didn’tnknow he was Einstein. He was too busynthinking about whatever Einsteinsnthink about. For the geniuses don’tnnotice. Only the others do. Here, inngeneral, they do. They really do: WhonGets Einstein’s Office is the tide of anbook about the Institute.nIf you want to see the long-termnresults of believing your own pressnnotices, look at the library of IAS,nwhich must be the most eccentric —nthe most pointless — public collectionnof books in the world. The Institutenorders what the permanent staff wants,nand since up the road there is PrincetonnUniversity’s library, with upwardsnof seven or eight million volumes, IASnreally doesn’t have to form a policy.nConsequently the acquisitions policynis pure caprice. I checked the IASncollection under the Library of Congressnletters BM, which stand for Judaism,nDS, Jewish history, and PJ, Hebrewnand Aramaic. What shocked menis not what they don’t have, since Inexpected little, but what they do have,nwhich is, to put it charitably, mostlynjunk. I told the director that no smallntown synagogue library in WesternnPennsylvania would want half thenephemera that IAS shelves under Judaism.nMy advice was, throw it out andnstart over. Fat chance.nWhat got me curious about thenlibrary was the rather odd selection ofnmagazines for general reading in thenCommon Room. Being a denizen ofnthe intellectual right, I went in searchnof my three favorite magazines, NationalnReview, Commentary, andnChronicles. I even looked for some ofntheir British counterparts. No suchnluck. The Common Room displaysnnone of them (they do have the Economist),nand the library periodicals room,nonly Commentary. I wrote to the librariannand offered to contribute subscriptionsnto all three for the CommonnRoom.nHe never answered. I didn’t expectnhim to.nBut then, either (a) I’m the genius,nand you don’t try to respond to angenius, you just smile benignly and donwhatever he wants; or (b) he’s thengenius, and then he doesn’t have tonrespond to anybody anyhow.nI don’t think I am, and I don’t thinknhe is. But if I had to bet, I’d guess henwould check box “b.”nBut, as Safire asked me, isn’t thisnwhere they send the geniuses?nSometimes. Sometimes not.n—Jacob NeusnernTHE NEA is back to business-asbeforen— if anybody thought our electednrepresentatives had any intention ofnlistening to the will of voters, thenrecent NEA wafHe and the newlynrevived congressional pay hike wouldnsquelch those fantasies. Under pleasnfrom both parties not to make the paynhike a “partisan” issue, an increase fornthe folks who brought you the trilliondollarndeficit is back, and John E.nFrohnmayer, the new chairman of thennnNational Endowment for the Arts, hasnshown his mettle first by caving intonone, then to another party in Congress.nInitially the NEA was going to fundn”Witness: Against Our Vanishing,” annAIDS show at New York’s ArtistsnSpace that includes “images of homosexualnacts,” as the papers put it. Thennthe NEA wasn’t going to fund it, sincenthe show might “offend the language”n(that very watered-down language) ofnthe 1990 Appropriations Act. The artncommunity predictably exploded, andnMr. Frohnmayer immediately backedndown, making (if I remember correctly)nan unfortunate but all-too-apt comparisonnbetween himself and JohnnKennedy during the Cuban MissilenCrisis. In other words, when presentednwith Mapplethorpe II, the NEA didnwhat is has always done: funded badnand politicized art.nThe pertinent issue is what is properlynthe business of government, andnboth logically and constitutionally, thenUS government has no business fundingntraveling puppet theaters. The generalnwelfare clause of Article I of thenConstitution, under which the NEAnwas funded, was never intended toncover such an expense. The explicitlynstated duties of Congress that follownthat clause include the right to levyntaxes and declare war; there is nothingnabout funding the Whitney or anynpassage that remotely points to such anthing.nMy wish is for no NEA. I would,nhowever, compromise. America hasnmany artistic institutions of which itnshould be justifiably proud: declarenthem national treasures, then, and appropriatensome money for their support.nFund the Metropolitan Museum,nand the Chicago Symphony, and letnthe NEH continue to fund some historicalnpapers projects for figures innAmerican history in which the governmentncan justifiably claim an interest.nWe will not all agree on the list, and itnwill be an elitist list, funding big, establishedninstitutions in the big cities, andnprobably more heavily weighted towardsnthe East Coast, but then we arentalking politics here amd politics is nevernfair or close to perfect. At least innthis the art community gets some money,nand the taxpayers get some reliefnMake these general support grants, andnleave it at that.nFEBRUARY 1990/7n