Duke and the Faun

It seems that every time something pertaining to the social and sexual exploits of members of the Duke student body goes awry, the same alleged conundrum is bound to surface somewhere. How is it, parents and administrators alike ask, that the students here, some of the most intelligent and soon-to-be influential in the world, can possibly behave in the way that they do?

There are, I think, two problems with the formulation of that question, the first being that it assumes that any relationship between intellectualism and raucous behavior must be an inverse one, if it can even exist at all. The second problem, which might be just an integral component of the first, is that in designating the mutual presence of these two “contradictory” traits as paradoxical, an observer refuses to entertain the notion that they may be strongly correlated, if not causal, and thus fails to get to the root of the issue which he or she is lamenting.

Many of the individuals that make up the student body here are unfailingly bright and unendingly perceptive, and where so many others would be content to merely appreciate the accomplishments of great men like Thomas Jefferson, John F. Kennedy and the recently celebrated Martin Luther King, Jr.—men whose contributions to society will remain invaluable in perpetuity, to say the least—perhaps Duke students are among those who consider as well the extramarital dalliances shared by so many among the ranks of those mentioned above. These are the sorts of similarities that might escape some, that might masquerade as mere entertainment when they appear in shows like Mad Men and The Sopranos, but that are readily apparent to the eyes of intellectuals, and are quite possibly ever present in their minds.

But the standard of sexual “misbehavior” among the entitled stretches back further than Emmy winners and the infidelities of relatively recent public figures, and takes its roots in an antiquity that is today heralded as a pinnacle of culture in world history. The works of ancient Rome and Greece, still highly esteemed in intellectual circles, elevate widely expressed sexual endeavors to modes of innocent exploration, as represented by the figure of the faun, that are probably still entirely unfathomable to our rigid Judeo-Christian notions of contemporary sexuality. Unlike modern religions, which largely equate virginity with holiness and purity, these belief systems celebrated the leaders of their gods as sexually indulgent beings with a taste for drink and, far from being forgotten, actually made their way into the American canon early enough to ensure their influence over it in longevity. Nathaniel Hawthorne called his last romance The Marble Faun, while William Faulkner, debatably the most celebrated writer in all of American literature, employed the symbol of the faun in much of what he wrote in order to advocate for the classical view of sexuality over the contemporary.

Between the ancient classics and their contemporary counterparts, then, a considerable portion of the educated home’s bookshelf is devoted to universally acclaimed works that subtly advise against sexual repression. And, as previously mentioned, the abundance of high earning and high profile archetypes of masculine American success abound not only in the media, but in the pages of schoolbook history as well. Furthermore, the term “masculine” applies increasingly to only the historical figures themselves, as contemporary feminine celebrities and professionals are equating themselves more and more to the specifications of these models. This aspiration system, in conjunction with the role of sexually liberated classic literature in education, represents the foundation of the phenomenon in question: Students here are asked to study works that advocate for the innocent freedom of sexuality in order to better prepare them to occupy positions of leadership and power, which seem to breed at some level this behavior.

Whether or not this sexual behavior, offensive in its carnal honesty to some, can be considered a faithful channeling of the liberties of history’s most endowed men and women is the subject of another discussion. So is the place that this concealed platform of entitled intellectualism is forced to maintain within the overcrowded realm of contemporary moral arbitrage. What is not in question, however, is the validity of their pursuit within the context of upbringing, as it is both the means and the end of children raised in the couched intellectualism of entitled homes that lead them to view the world in the way that they do. And that is not something to be looked down upon (not to mention entirely disregarded), least of all by those whose condescension rests upon nothing more than their own feebly self-founded prescriptions for the ways in which others should behave.

For now, let it suffice to consider that perhaps Duke students behave in the manner that they do because of their brand of intelligence, not in spite of it, and that they are entitled to those perspectives. They’re taking them from some of the most influential figures of all time, anyway.

Chris Bassil is a Trinity junior. His column runs every Friday.