Classical music is a special taste like Greek language or pre-Columbian archeology, not a common culture of reciprocal communication and psychological shorthand.
Allan BloomRead
Students now arrive at the university ignorant and cynical about our political heritage, lacking the wherewithal to be either inspired by it or seriously critical of it.
Interpretation
What this quote means
The quote highlights the lack of understanding and appreciation among students for their political heritage.
Allan Bloom critiques the current generation of university students, suggesting that they enter academia with a sense of ignorance and cynicism regarding the political ideas and traditions that shape their society. He expresses concern that instead of being inspired by their political heritage or critically engaging with it, these students are disconnected, which undermines their ability to participate meaningfully in democratic life.
Themes
EducationPolitical HeritageStudentsCynicismInspiration
In practice
Example use cases
During a lecture on political theory, a professor might reference this quote to encourage students to engage more deeply with historical contexts.
More from Allan Bloom
All quotes βThe humanities are like the great old Paris Flea Market where, amidst masses of junk, people with a good eye found cast away treasures...They are like a refugee camp where all the geniuses driven out of their jobs and countries by unfriendly regimes are idling.
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Our Nation, a great stage for the acting out of great thoughts, presents the classic confrontation between Locke's views of the state of nature and Rousseau's criticism of them... Nature is raw material, worthless without the mixture of human labor; yet nature is also the highest and most sacred thing. The same people who struggle to save the snail-darter bless the pill, worry about hunting deer and defend abortion. Reverence for nature, mastery of nature- whichever is convenient.
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Reason transformed into prejudice is the worst form of prejudice, because reason is the only instrument for liberation from prejudice.
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There is no real education that does not respond to felt need; anything else acquired is trifling display.
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We are like ignorant shepherds living on a site where great civilizations once flourished. The shepherds play with the fragments that pop up to the surface, having no notion of the beautiful structures of which they were once a part.
Allan BloomRead
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