A Word From Eugene Genovese On The Irrationality of Academia

“Today we face the dangerous irrationality of a self-styled postmodernism. It is more dangerous than the pretense of ethical neutrality in social science and historical scholarship because, despite all pretense, it quickly passes into nihilism. Normally, cynicism and fanaticism combat each other and represent, as it were, opposing heresies. Yet, marvelous today, they now march in lockstep. we are being told that since objectivity rests only with a God who does not exist, we should scorn it as the ideology of the oppressors.
 
 

Those who denounce objectivity as a fraud in the service of oppression are offering flagrant mendacity as a Higher Law. And since just about everyone, except non-Hispanic, heterosexual, white males, is today a victim of oppression, we are invited to present our subjectivity — our ‘feelings,’ which usually appear as hatreds — as a substitute for a non-existent truth. I make no apology for the harshness of these remarks. In accordance with the fashion of parading one’s feelings as a contribution to every discussion of every subject, I shall admit to being outraged at hearing endless whines about oppression from American intellectuals — black as well as white, female as well as male. For since they (we) rank among the top one or two percent of the world’s most privileged people, the whines, may fairly be judged as obscene. But then, I suppose, I am merely revealing my own status as an oppressor by invoking an untenable standard of statistical objectivity, when I should be demonstrating my sensitivity to the precious feeling of the insulted and injured. Unfortunately, never having met a human being who did not feel insulted and injured in this vale of tears, my capacity for compassion has been badly stunted. Atheist that I am, I learned that much from Christian teaching on original sin and human depravity, which has been confirmed by all historical experience of which I am aware, even if it is no longer in fashion in mainstream Christian churches.”

Eugene Genovese
The Southern Front; History and Politics in the Culture War

 

Author: jetbrane

I am a Pastor of a small Church in Mid-Michigan who delights in my family, my congregation and my calling. I am postmillennial in my eschatology. Paedo-Calvinist Covenantal in my Christianity Reformed in my Soteriology Presuppositional in my apologetics Familialist in my family theology Agrarian in my regional community social order belief Christianity creates culture and so Christendom in my national social order belief Mythic-Poetic / Grammatical Historical in my Hermeneutic Pre-modern, Medieval, & Feudal before Enlightenment, modernity, & postmodern Reconstructionist / Theonomic in my Worldview One part paleo-conservative / one part micro Libertarian in my politics Systematic and Biblical theology need one another but Systematics has pride of place Some of my favorite authors, Augustine, Turretin, Calvin, Tolkien, Chesterton, Nock, Tozer, Dabney, Bavinck, Wodehouse, Rushdoony, Bahnsen, Schaeffer, C. Van Til, H. Van Til, G. H. Clark, C. Dawson, H. Berman, R. Nash, C. G. Singer, R. Kipling, G. North, J. Edwards, S. Foote, F. Hayek, O. Guiness, J. Witte, M. Rothbard, Clyde Wilson, Mencken, Lasch, Postman, Gatto, T. Boston, Thomas Brooks, Terry Brooks, C. Hodge, J. Calhoun, Llyod-Jones, T. Sowell, A. McClaren, M. Muggeridge, C. F. H. Henry, F. Swarz, M. Henry, G. Marten, P. Schaff, T. S. Elliott, K. Van Hoozer, K. Gentry, etc. My passion is to write in such a way that the Lord Christ might be pleased. It is my hope that people will be challenged to reconsider what are considered the givens of the current culture. Your biggest help to me dear reader will be to often remind me that God is Sovereign and that all that is, is because it pleases him.

One thought on “A Word From Eugene Genovese On The Irrationality of Academia”

  1. He was an atheist when he wrote that, but was on his way to conversion, which, though he sought the Lord in the Roman church like many of his Italian forefathers, I have a little hope for believing it to be genuine.

    It is fascinating to read/hear him, and see the progression from committed Marxist, to Southern/Christian sympathizing atheist, to Christian (at least hopefully).

    The subject of his life’s research? The master/slave relationship in the antebellum South. Studying it closely converted him after being a committed atheist, who was an academician, no less.

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