30 I CHRONICLESnOPINIONSnA Half-Open Mind by Paul Gottfriedn”The discussion is concerned with no commonplacensubject but with how one ought to live.”n—PlatonThe Closing of the American Mindnby Allan Bloom, New York: Simonnand Schuster.nDuring the month of June, AllannBloom’s observations on the statenof American education climbed theirnway dramatically toward the peak ofnthe New York Times nonfiction best-nseller list. Why would such a booknengage a mass readership? Bloom’snprose is neither light nor graceful, andnPaul Gottfried is a senior editor ofnThe World and I and author of ThenSearch for Historical Meaningn(Northern Illinois University Press).nhis horror stories about the counterculturenare certainly not fresh. Thesenstories thematically overlap withnMidge Decter’s Liberal Parents, RadicalnChildren (1975), in which Decterntold of adolescents and young adultsnfrom permissive or experimentingnhomes who complicated their lives innquest of self-actualization.nThe people described by Decter doncorrespond to types that Bloom (likenmyself) may have encountered as anprofessor, but it is hard to see why hisnreminiscences about burnt-out kidsnand their swinging parents should occasionnsuch ecstatic approval from ThenNew Republic, Commentary, Insight,nThe Nation, the Washington Post, andnnnNational Review.nBloom never lets us forget that henwas a student of Leo Strauss at thenUniversity of Chicago and had takennfrom this master a world view as wellnas a way of reading texts. The ancients,nPlato and Aristotle, are praised forntalking about virtue and truthn—although it is never clear whethernBloom believes in either. He doesnargue that the most important contributionnof classical philosophy was tonhave raised critical questions about thennature and ends of Man, whereasnmodern thought generally treats suchnquestions as irrelevant. By a series ofndescents (what Straussians call “crises”),nthe Western world moved fromnclassical morality through the scientificnmaterialism of the Renaissance andnEnlightenment, down to the outrightnnihilism of the Nazis. “Value-free”nsocial science, existentialism, andnpopular culture are all seen as symptomaticnof the worsening crises that havenengulfed Western culture even now innrebellion against classical thought.nThis Straussian picture of gloomynand progressive decadence evoked bynBloom is broken by one ray of light.nThough John Locke and Jean JacquesnRousseau are classified as modernists,ndisciples of Leo Strauss see one or thenother as a virtuous pagan. Locke isnpraised as the Father of the Americann(democradc secularist) regime, whilenRousseau is admired for combining andemocratic and contractual understandingnof government with a civicnreligion of sentiment. Most Straussians,nincluding Bloom, try to incorporatenone or the other into their pantheonnof preferred sages. Despite theirnmaterialist views of human nature,neither Locke or Rousseau is held up asna proponent of democratic — andntherefore good—modernity. Straussiansndivide between the partisans ofnLocke and Rousseau, but Bloom tran-n