The vitriol bounced off the letters page of The Chronicle, directed toward an op-ed quoting C.S. Lewis's famous line from The Abolition of Man: "We make men without chests and expect of them virtue and enterprise. We laugh at honor and are shocked to find traitors in our midst. We castrate and then bid the geldings to be fruitful." The furious reply assailed the (female) op-ed author's intelligence, and questioned the relevance of Lewis's archaic thoughts on current moral questions.
His quote from a half century ago seems to be spot on, again, during the lacrosse debacle. Viewing this exchange from more than a decade's distance (it was published in either '93 or '94), I can still remember the slight embarrassment of attending a highly regarded university that apparently could not produce a better response than an ad hominem attack on the two authors. This along with other factors at the time (notably among them, the "construction" of a deconstructionist English curriculum) led me to the cheerless conviction that unless there was a significant course change, my children would not attend Duke.
The events of the past weeks have done nothing to change this view. At the risk of not crediting the academics who present the merits of objective morality and truth, Duke's professorial media magnets still appear to be unwilling to promote anything but moral relativism and group rights at power-tipping moments. After all, who are we to judge another's actions (unless, of course, we have the power to denounce a whole group of oppressors and effect "positive change")?
Without the lacrosse scandal, which inevitably has produced the greatest condemnations by those who dismiss the very idea of universal moral truth, the hypocrisy is not as evident. We should expect to see many shocked, but only after a derisive chuckle.
Wayne Wilkins
Fuqua'94
Get The Chronicle straight to your inbox
Signup for our weekly newsletter. Cancel at any time.