[rrpjr]

I quote George Orwell writing in 1941 ("England Your England") about the state of Leftism in his native country.

"England is perhaps the only great country whose intellectuals are ashamed of their own nationality. In left-wing circles it is always felt that there is something slightly disgraceful in being an Englishman and that it is the duty to snigger at every English institution.

"All through the critical years (before the war) many left-wingers were chipping away at English morale, trying to spread an outlook that was sometimes squashily pacifist, sometimes violently pro-Russian, but always anti-British.

"A modern nation cannot afford (this). Patriotism and intelligence will have to come together again. It is the fact that we are fighting a war, and a very peculiar kind of war, that makes this possible."

Yes, Geoge Orwell.

Both my brothers went to college in Cambridge, and I remember some lively times there. I remember anti-Communist refugees and Marxists, black radicals and old southerners, arguing wildly into all hours of the night. There was fury but also a lot of joy. The nights ended in exhaustion and respect. But I saw two things develop there over the years – a slow closing of the mind allied with a slowly growing anti-Americanism. A creeping assumption of America’s invidiousness, and a refusal to hear any challenge to it, seemed to spread over the insulated culture of the academy. How odd, I remember thinking. Wasn’t the essence of both America and "liberal arts" the love and appreciation of free expression? Leftism seemed to be drawing a wall about itself, within which they huddled in an echo chamber of ideas and assumptions they considered simply beyond challenge, with a growing meanness toward those who might challenge them.

Now, years later, I find the condition even worse. I visit Berkeley several times a year. I see the same problem there, but writ much larger, across a monolithic liberal community completely uninterested and even hostile to intellectual challenge or to patriotism. In 15 years of extended visits there, in many conversations with affluent and educated people, people who have done very well in America by every standard we have for success, I have not met one – NOT ONE -- who has ever volunteered a kind word for his country. This is only half of it. When pressed, by me, not one has even conceded that America was basically a good country. All right. Let’s assume America is terrible. Is it irredeemable, too? Are they willing to admit to nothing that persuades them to keep living here? Apparently not. Moreover, though I am able to engage people in debates on the issues, the debates are always reach an impassable wall. One can almost hear the clank of their big, beautiful minds closing down like bank vault doors around the treasure of their hallowed assumptions.

I also spend a good amount of time in the South, in the Carolinas, and I can say without the least tongue in cheek that I find the average North Carolina redneck more open to an unorthodox idea than the average liberal of Berkeley. Not as capable of debating with you, perhaps, but more willing to hear you out, if only from some antiquated courtesy.