Volume 11, Number 12 · January 2, 1969
The Menace of Liberal Scholarship
By Noam Chomsky
No More Vietnams?
edited by Richard M. Pfeffer
Harper & Row, 292 pp., $5.95
In a recent essay, Conor Cruise O'Brien speaks of the process of 'counterrevolutionary subordination,' which poses a threat to scholarly integrity in our own counterrevolutionary society, just as 'revolutionary subordination,' a phenomenon often noted and rightly deplored, has undermined scholarly integrity in revolutionary and post-revolutionary situations. He observes that 'power in our time has more intelligence in its service, and allows that intelligence more discretion as to its methods, than ever before in history,' and suggests that this development is not altogether encouraging, since we have moved perceptibly towards the state of 'a society maimed through the systematic corruption of its intelligence.' He urges that 'increased and specific vigilance, not just the elaboration of general principles, is required from the intellectual community toward specific growing dangers to its integrity.'[1]
Review, 11532 words
To read the full text of this piece, please choose one of the following options:
|
If you are already a subscriber to the Review's electronic edition, please sign in: |
To subscribe to the electronic edition, please press the button below. |
To purchase access to this article for $3, please press the button below. |