Re: The Unintelligence of Intellectuals

I know what you mean , Nathaniel.

Last week in Princeton, First Things contributor Mary Eberstadt spoke at a conference hosted by the Love and Fidelity Network (called ” Sexuality, Integrity, and the University “). Perhaps her most insightful and provocative remark was the comparison she made between the sexual revolution and the Soviet revolution. As in the case of communism, she argued, intellectuals faced with the overwhelming evidence that libertine sexual ethics has been disastrous have engaged in Panglossian rationalization. She called this attitude, borrowing Jeane Kirkpatrick’s phrase , the “will to disbelieve.”

The will to disbelieve is strong, but we should not lose heart. Speaking after Mary Eberstadt, Prof. Robert George extended the Cold War comparison. We can trust, he said, that imperial libertinism will collapse just as the Soviet Union collapsed. As John Paul II knew, anything built on a lie will fall if it is resisted by the truth.