hurlers, big-talking nothing-doing rioters who shut downnuniversities and disrupted the Democratic Convention innChicago, 1968. I thought then and I continue to think ofnthem as spoiled children who, if they could not have thisncountry on their own terms, would do anything they couldnto destroy it.nThey were, by and large, repulsive people: Tom Hayden,na man willing to live off his wife’s earnings until she bootednhim out; Jerry Rubin, who now prances around the countryncelebrating his version of free enterprise and debating withnhis old pal, the recently deceased Abbie Hoffman — a classicn60’s nerd, widess and shameless, who in later years turnedninto a drug-dealing con-artist with an appetite for womennunder 21.nSome of the 60’s kids have wised up, and Americans, asnalways, have been quick to forgive them. I don’t see why wenshould. The Christian doctrine of forgiveness is very clear:nthe sinner must confess his faults, ask forgiveness, andnresolve to sin no more. I’m still waiting for these ex-radicalsnto beg forgiveness, and even when they do I’m not sure thatnany sensible person is particularly eager to hear theirnopinions on politics, literature, religion, or American history,nbecause — and this should hardly come as a surprise — mostnLoving one’s own people does not imply andiminished regard for the rest of the humannrace. On the contrary, a man who does notncherish his family and fellow-citizens andnnational traditions is probably incapable ofnloving anyone or anything.nof them have not changed as much as they would have usnbelieve.nWhat did they believe then? That the history of Americanwas in domestic affairs a record of atrocities against blacks,nIndians, Jews, immigrants, women, “sexual minorities,” andnagainst nature itself; in foreign affairs it was a story of whitenChristian capitalist imperialism against meek and virtuousnnative populations. It would take, so they said, a revolutionnto clean up this sinful and polluted land.nWhat do they believe now? Those who call themselvesnconservative have dropped a few items of the indictment.nThey no longer oppose capitalism — at least in the sense ofnwelfare state capitalism — and have lost their sympathy fornIndians, homosexuals, and the environment, and many ofnthem have come to realize that the Third Worid includesnviolent Muslims whose principal aim in life is to destroynChristian America along with the state of Israel. But that isnabout as far as it goes.nOf course, they no longer talk so loftily about the criminalnrecord of the United States, but that is because they actuallynhad their revolution in the form of a civil rights movementnthat destroyed the autonomy of state and local governmentnand elevated a radical leftist (if not worse) satyr to the top ofnthe American pantheon. Unlike the serious left, they do notnneed to rewrite American history, because they already havenrewritten it as the march of democracy and equality, firstnacross America and now across the world.nWhatever they call themselves—leftists, liberals, ornconservatives — the 60’s radicals still hate the United Statesnas it actually was and is, and in all their pretended patriotismnthey are as sincere as the Anglican clergymen who say, yes,nthey believe in the Christian doctrines summed up in thenNicene Creed, because there is a sense in which Cod couldnbecome man, which is to say that every man has it withinnhimself to attain to a purer spirituality, and in a sense Godncould be said to have created the universe, etc., etc. It is innthis same sense that the flag-burners of 1968 are the reallynloyal and patriotic Americans.nPerhaps they are right. Cultural leftisrn, in both its benignnand malignant forms, is now the dominant ideology innthe US. The malignant form is easiest to comprehend,nbecause it is an open attack on all that is best in the traditionsnof the civilized West. The radical cultural leftists are againstnGreek and Latin, Christianity, and the languages, history,nand literature of Europe. On one flank, they are rewritingnthe syllabuses of humanities and history courses at all levelsnof instruction; on the other, they are tearing down allnobstacles to mass migrations from the Third World. Thesentwo movements are part of a concerted effort to destroy anynresidual sense of what America owes to its European past.nI never heard it more clearly expressed than in anthrow-away remark delivered by a University of Texas lawnprofessor at a philosophy conference in Atlanta. Commentingnon the furor over changes in the Stanford humanitiesncurriculum, the professor (whose salary is paid by the goodnpeople of Texas) asked what all the fuss was about. Sure, thenold curriculum had good things in it, but it also includednexamples of Christian bigotry — writers like Dante andnMilton. As a Jew, he said, he was glad that Stanford studentsnwould no longer be required to read such authors. The samenman agreed with several Ivy League professors, who expressednsome trepidation about being in so dangerous andnbigoted a city as Atianta. Compared with what, I asked; NewnHaven? This all took place on the grounds of a Methodistsupportedncollege.nIn the context of American universities, the UT lawnprofessor hardly counts as a radical, and it is hard tonunderstand what is going on in American education if onenfails to realize that such opinions are mainstream. With verynfew exceptions, even the opposition to malignant culturalnleftism shares most of its fundamental assumptions. This isnwhy I refer to it as the benign form of the cancer, althoughnbenign is not quite the mot juste. (“Temporarily in remission”nmight be a more accurate term.) For example,ndefenders of the Stanford humanities curriculum arguednthat even if Western civilization was rooted in bigotry andnoppression, what better way was there to learn about suchnthings? Besides, the only important thing to know aboutnAmerica is its openness to all forms of experience. Accordingnto educationists like Diane Ravitch, schools can havenThird World humanities and the classics. And anyway, withnunrestricted immigration the ruling classes will need somenform of introduction to turn these people into obedientnnnJULY 1989/9n