The Reason Teaching Has To Go On

Criticism Will Need An Injection Of Humility That Is, A Recognition Of Its Role As Ancillary To The Arts, Needed Only Occasionally In A Temporary Capacity. Since The Critic Exists Only For Introducing And Explaining, He Must Be Readily Intelligible; He Has No Special Vocabulary: Criticism Is In No Way A Science Or A System.

A Person Is Not A Democrat Thanks To His Ignorance Of Literature And The Arts, Nor An Elitist Because He Or She Has Cultivated Them. The Possession Of Knowledge Makes For Unjust Power Over Others Only If Used For That Very Purpose: A Physician Or Lawyer Or Clergyman Can Exploit Or Humiliate Others, Or He Can Be A Humanitarian And A Benefactor. In Any Case, It Is Absurd To Conjure Up Behind Anybody Who Exploits His Educated Status The Existence Of An "elite" Scheming To Oppress The Rest Of Us.

Maxims In Times Of Danger Are Useless, Experience Is Incommunicable. The Knotted Strands Of Life, Desire, Assumptions, And Moral Codes Cannot Be Unsnarled; They Can Only Be Cut, Which Is What Happens When An Air Raid Occurs, With A Silencing Fortissimo Like The Finale Of A Beethoven Symphony.

Everybody Keeps Calling For Excellence - Excellence Not Just In Schooling, Throughout Society. But As Soon As Somebody Or Something Stands Out As Excellent, The Other Shout Goes Up: "elitism!" And Whatever Produced That Thing, Whoever Praises That Result, Is Promptly Put Down. "standing Out" Is Undemocratic.

Above All, The Ability To Feel The Force Of An Argument Apart From The Substance It Deals With Is The Strongest Weapon Against Prejudice.