The Closing of the American Mind - Allan Bloom

Like it or not, Allan Bloom's work shook, at least momentarily, American higher education when it was released in 1987. Bloom takes to task American universities for a litany of sins - some perhaps a little more real than imagined. It must be stated that at times he feels like little more than a cantankerous, out of step, conservative, clinging to some idealized past. Bloom's critical perspective on the social movements of the 1960s and 1970s surely continue to earn this work many well-deserved aspersions. "How," we might ask, "is the view through that brilliant mind, from that most comfortable of positions in the most ivory of towers?" It is striking to reflect that in specifically calling higher education to task for failing to play a necessary role in the further development of the hoped-for perfectability of the social sphere, Bloom dismisses out of hand the efforts of so many people who might believe that they are working to embody and create exactly the type of examined morality he sees as so lacking.

That being said, the arguments of the book cannot be ignored. Bloom is a careful reader of many of the works which serve as the foundation of western culture. His knowledge was never in question (perhaps this is what caused so many to focus on his tone). It must be noted that many of the currents Bloom traced persist in higher education. While his approach may be reactionary and relatively intolerant (if such a thing is possible) he is right to recognize that much of the foundations of the American academy have been dismissed as no longer relevant to our contemporary context. Bloom recognizes that efforts in the pursuit of wisdom are all-too-frequently subsumed by a type of creeping relativism and unexamined pragmatism. At its core Bloom's work orbits around the questions, "what is the role of the University in democratic society? What ought it to be?" Bloom defends his conservative proclivities in charging the University to be specifically outside of the mainstream of society; to provide a balance to the tyranny of the social majority - whatever form that may take. In essence the university intellectual is meant to be a thoughtful and careful iconoclast. Better yet, the university should strive to help students explore their questions and desires to make sense of themselves and the world. For Bloom, this mission must be informed by a type of rigor and wisdom of experience which has been painstakingly developed through the ages. It is on this ground which the University's mission is supposedly founded.

Aspects of Bloom's critique remain timely - while his tone, dismissal of others, and inability to recognize different reservoirs of value, remain striking. The type of question Bloom is asking - are our universities properly serving their students and pushing them to develop themselves towards the ever-receding horizon of the good - is one that a healthy society will always ask of itself. Who is to educate the young? Who is to be responsible for their development? These should be issues at the forefront of public concern. Perhaps it is something which we could lend greater care to.