evident throughout the 1960’s, when hundreds of thousandsnof young Americans, celebrating their individualism,nconverged in such places as Woodstock; young people who,nin Belloc’s words,n. . . take their manners from the ApenTheir habits from the Bear,nIndulge the loud unseemly jape,nAnd never brush their hairn— The Bad Child’s Book of BeastsnThe title of Belloc’s book is telling, since an enduringnproblem with American manners is the result of thenAmerican cult of youth. Good manners are the fruit of ankind of moral discipline, or of a maturation of mind; hencenthe cult of youth holds little promise for good manners. Nonuse to blame that on the 1960’s; many people had observednits perils earlier. Youth is competitive rather than tolerantn(Louis Kronenberger in Company Manners, 1954: “Thenkey slogan is no longer ‘playing the game,’ it is ‘knowing thenscore.'”) Young minds are imitative rather than original,nwhich explains the obsession of young people with prevalentnfashions. But fashions and manners, like appearance andnbehavior, are not the same things. Neither are the eccentricnand the weirdo. What we need is more of the former andnfewer of the latter. Young people are seldom capable ofndiscriminating between them; but a well-mannered societynwill allow opportunities for the enjoyment of eccentricninterests and embellishments of civilized life.nBecause of the cult of youth, we can find at least onenconstant in the history of American manners: Americannchildren, by and large, are among the worst behaved in thenworld. They, wrote Nicolson in 1955, “are accorded anlicence without bond or bound …. The pert, pampered,nand loud-voiced infants of the great Republic are [fornus] . . . incomprehensible.” One reason for that conditionnis the hesitation of a democratic people to assert authority.nThis tendency confuses the young, and obscures an essentialncondition of their psyche: not only do young people needna certain kind of authority, but they want it, too. In thenevolution — or in this case, the devolution — of Americannmanners, the cult of youth reverses the natural order,naccording to which young people eventually adopt thenmanners of older people. An example of such a reversal isnthe recent habit whereby people unknown to each other willninstantly call each other by their first names. At first thisnhabit seems to be yet another extension of the democratizationnof manners, of American friendliness, and the desire tonput people at ease. But the result is yet another illustration ofnthe human mistake of pushing a thing to its extreme, so thatnit becomes its very opposite. For calling a hardly-knownnperson by his first name not only reduces the respect due tonhim; it is also a drastic reduction of a personal individualitynthat is embedded in one’s family name.nThis is yet another example of our contemporary paradox:nthe breakdown of authentic communication at a timensome silly people are trumpeting “the communicationsnexplosion.” What this means is the decay of listening, whichnis a serious matter. When a man curses someone, he is atnleast aware of that person’s existence. But when he does notnlisten to someone he has, for all practical purposes, excludednhim from the human race and from this world. Onenhundred years ago Americans were able and willing tonlisten — considering the length of the sermons of theirnpastors and politicians, one would say for unconscionablenlengths of time. One hundred years later the drasticnshrinking of the American attention-span has resulted inn(rather than caused) the inability or the unwillingness of annincreasing number of people, brought up in the televisionnage, to listen.nListening is not merely a good habit that makes conversa-nThe National Association of Scholars invites you to its First General Conference of Fellows, Members, and FriendsnRECLAIMING THE ACADEMY:nRESPONSES TO THE RADICALIZATION OF THE UNIVERSITYnFriday, November 11n12:00-2:00 pm Registrationn2:00 pm Introductory Remarks:nHerbert I. London, Chairman, N.A.S.nStephen H. Balch, President, N.A.S.n2:30-5:00 pm Panel: “Academic Freedom, IntellectualnTolerance, and the New Orthodoxies”nParticipants:nJohn H. Bunzel, Hoover InstitutionnLeslie Lenkowsky, Institute fornEducational AffairsnAlan C. Kors, University ofnPennsylvanianBarry R. Gross, Yorii College, CUNYn(Moderator)n5:00-6:30 pm Reception for Fellows, Members andnGuestsn7:00-9:00 pm N.A.S. Business DinnernSaturday, November 12n8:30-9:30 am Registrationn9:30 am-Noon Panel: “The Transformation of AcademicnCulture, 1964 -1988″nNovember 11, 12 and 13, 1988 The Hotel Roosevelt, New York Cityn- Schedule of Events -nParticipants:nPaul Hollander, University ofnMassachusettsnStanley Rothman, Smith CollegenAaron B. Wildavsky, University ofnCalifornianJeffrey Paul, Social Philosophynand Policy Center, Bowling GreennState UniversitynMargarita R. Levin, Yeshiva Universityn(Moderator)n12:30-2:00 pm Banquet LuncheonnAddress: John R. Silber,nPresident, Boston Universityn2:30-5:00 pm Panel: “Does the Curriculum Havena Core?”nParticipants:nWalter Berns, American EnterprisenInstitutenChester E. Finn, Jr., AssistantnSecretary, U.S. Department ofnEducationnPeter Shaw, SUNY, Stony Brook,nEmeritus (Moderator)n5:30-7:30 pmnJ. Rufus Fears, Boston UniversitynThomas L. Short, Kenyon CollegenRound-tablesnSunday, November 13n8:00-9:00 am Registrationn9:00-10:00 am Address: The Honorable Jeane J.nKirkpatricknIntroduction; Irving Louis Horowitzn10:00-12:30 pm Panel: “The Politicization of thenDisciplines”nParticipants:nOscar Handlin, Harvard UniversitynJames W. Tuttleton, New YorknUniversitynIrving Louis Horowitz, RutgersnUniversitynCarol lannone. New YorknUniversity (Moderator)nPlease contact: The National Association of Scholars, Suite 244, Twenty Nassau Street, Princeton, NJ 08542 (609) 683-7878nnnNOVEMBER 19881 13n