become entangled in an underbrush ofrnmismatched concepts to which they,rntheir parents, and their future teachersrnwill be hard pressed to bring order.”rnThe minds damaged most by beingrndragged into this “underbrush of mismatchedrnconcepts” are those of boys.rnWhat is happening today in Americanrneducation is truly a bias crime if everrnthere was one, perpetrated with mindlessrningratitude. Who, after all, has generouslyrngranted inexperienced women entryrnto the professions they founded?rnWho have been the caring, demandingrnmentors to tens and hundreds of thousandsrnof women over the centuries? Fathersrnin particular are so notorious in thisrnbooster role that literature and literaryrnhistorv are replete with them; behind virtuallyrncverv high-achieving woman is arndoting dad.rnwho, conversely, are those brassyrnyoung singles out trolling for your husbandrnin the workplace, with no regard forrnyour happiness or your children’s welfare?rn(“Feminists think men are jerks,”rnsomeone noted, “and they all wantrnone.”) Whose heavy favoritism towardrntheir sons drives their daughters tornspeechless rage and lifelong depression,rnand whose negative criticism drives theirrndaughters to anorexia and bulimia, accordingrnthe Journal of Abnormal Psychology?rnWho are all those teachers supposedlyrnturning a deaf ear to girls’rncontributions in class? Who is mostrnthreatened by the dynamic new womanrnin the office or graduate department andrnwills her to fail? And who are all thosernmath idiots who voted Bill Clinton intornthe White House?rnIt is less the hostility of men thanrnwomen’s own marked preference forrnmales over females that blights their ownrnlives and the lives of girls. Mothers preferrnsons, daughters prefer fathers, and, asrnGregory Corso observed in his poemrn”Friend,” “The majority of friends arernmale / Girls always prefer male friends.”rnAs for the cause of the aforementionedrnpubescent “crash,” in which “Ophelia”rngoes mad and drowns her Self, in the absencernof common sense one might turnrnto Tolstoy, who described the phenomenonrnso beautifully in War andrnPeace: it is the green sickness that getsrnNatasha in its vise and makes her hystericalrnand almost ruins her, all becausernPrince Andrei does not marry her inrntime.rnTragically, teenage girls today may notrnmarry even if the}’ suffer the green sicknessrnunto death; they are considered toornyoung by modern social standards forrnthat most simple and humane of cures.rnAnd so they will continue to drown. Butrnnow, at least, they can take everyone elserndown with them, because surveys for thernfirst time show that more young menrnthan any other demographic sector reportrnthemselves “depressed.”rnMarian Kester Coombs writes fromrnCrofton, Maryland.rnThe LiechtensteinrnAcademyrnby Peter Lauriernf ^ouragc,” said the Philosopher,rnV_-^”is the prime philosophicalrnvirtue” (by which he meant the moralrnkind) “lacking which all the others becomernirrelevancies one has no nerve tornbring oneself to put into practice.” It is arnnotion from another time, in accord withrnwhich it came to pass that the philosophicalrncream of my own generation, guidedrnby enlightened self-interest, determinedrnto bring no children into this world. Therntrouble one saved oneself. The troublernone saved them.rnTrouble, of course, there has been.rnThough after each of our century’s dalliesrnwith mass death—reserving thosernongoing—sobriety has tended to shamernfrivolity awhile. Sometimes, it has evenrnseemed as if we were about to embracernthat modicum of what the wise oncerncalled wisdom, if only to preclude the interiockingrndisasters of a self-administeredrnextinction or the literal conflagration ofrnthe world.rnAlways, the impulse fades. It fades becausernthe absence of evil does not necessarilyrnmean the presence of good. Itrnfades because we cannot sec things asrnthey are, which is a necessary componentrnto doing anything at all.rnPerhaps now mere pragmatisms, euphemizingrnthe worid into market conditions,rnwhereas one might even with thernnaked eye make out a transoceanic oilrnspill, the industrial occultation of rainrnforests, may well succeed where pastrnmass death has failed. Our cycles of certitudernspew their virtual volcanoes of information,rnless and less about more andrnmore, more and more about less and less,rnon toward everything you ever wanted tornTELOSrnA Quarterly Journal ofrnCritical ThoughtrnDoei il siili nuih: seme to talk about Leftrnand Rii^? ifhat remains nj the communistrnproject after the cuttt^ie ufthe SavU^trnI’Mfiuc” I (us collectivism become ofhcialrnliberal iJeoloy}-” It’liat u the impcut ofrnUimmifif, anth ‘acism unci multiculturalrnisin on Americii’i trMlitions? Whtil hu^rnhu^ifKr,nl to the Amt’iKW Right u/ter mrnanii-irmimuniu ideology became o”sr>-rnletf’ Are palaxonxcrvalivet and neociintervativdirnnn the rcunepuliiical fide-‘rnH hilt does 11 muiin to fv u iwn.vt’rvH/’iVtrntiultiy’ d’hiJlrcmain. iH.AmericanpurlicuUirumrnin sliu uge of^hhotization? h thernfn«” ofcriiiMvytilisni but another ver.uoiofrntrie rriti* 01 lihtialism’rnThese questions are debated in the pagesrnof Telos by independent scholars unafraidrnto challenge various ideological establishments.rnRecent issues have re-examinedrnthe meaning of American federalism, thernpopulist legacy, the resurgence of nationalism,rnseparatism, etc. Future issues willrndeal with the crisis of European Unification,rnthe collapse of American education,rnthe disintegration of “humanism” and thernpossibility of religious alternatives.rnSmibffr lOfirnSpecial Issue on:rnRaasm, MiUtkultHndLsm atuirnGhbtdkaSonrnAdam: Anti-Semitism and RacismrnSnugmiki: I ester Finnic WardrnPels: Strange StandpoinbrnMichael: Making a StandrnKamoouh: On Drugs and Society?rnDe Benoist: On Glcihah/ationrnHunt: Tiic First Peoples and QuebecrnCombe: Freneli Historical ResearchrnPichstttck: C’i]])ili)lism or Sccul