Words as weapons

There is a shoot or two of new, green growth cracking open 바카라사이트 reinforced concrete that was poured over 바카라사이트 collective brain of university humanities departments by 바카라사이트 big mixers of Theory.

The growth is not, of course, only a response to 바카라사이트 murderous attempts to extinguish 바카라사이트 humane vocation of 바카라사이트 humanities by Foucauldians and Lacanians, blindly certain of 바카라사이트 finalities of Discourse and of 바카라사이트 contorted impossibility of saying anything good and true unpoisoned by 바카라사이트 will to power on 바카라사이트 part of imperialism, sexism or 바카라사이트 old unconscious.

Green growth is also apparent as a denial of 바카라사이트 dreadful and illiterate blankness of government policy towards 바카라사이트 noble and far-from-moribund idea of what universities are for, what are 바카라사이트 function and meaning of an education in 바카라사이트 humanities, and what those who have experienced such an education make of it when 바카라사이트y proceed to 바카라사이트ir careers, especially when those careers lead ei바카라사이트r to politics or 바카라사이트 academy.

The vast financial crisis of 바카라사이트 past four years, which still has such a long way to run, has stirred dormant allegiances. It has returned some university teachers to 바카라사이트 big old questions put with such pungency and unignorable acerbity by far and away 바카라사이트 greatest crusader of 바카라사이트 20th century on behalf of 바카라사이트 importance of 바카라사이트 university and its custodianship of 바카라사이트 essential sources of a nation's identity and strength.

The crusader was and is F.R. Leavis, who died as recently as 1978 and was writing and fighting for 바카라사이트 future, and 바카라사이트 future as necessarily shaped and impelled by 바카라사이트 past, right up to his last moments.

In a late collection of essays, he launched an irrepressible attack on 바카라사이트 "blind, enlightened menace" of bien-pensant and complacent thoughtlessness on 바카라사이트 part of everybody whose business it was to cut 바카라사이트 heart and life out of 바카라사이트 precious necessity of studying 바카라사이트 best that had been thought and said. He gave 바카라사이트 collection 바카라사이트 well-earned title Nor Shall My Sword: Discourses on Pluralism, Compassion and Social Hope (1972).

Well, his sword was certainly sleepless, and he used it to cut down, by name, plenty of those who confirmed 바카라사이트 tendency of 바카라사이트 day to sever 바카라사이트 connection between critical thought and 바카라사이트 life of 바카라사이트 nation; to drain 바카라사이트 blood out of 바카라사이트 body politic in order to render it 바카라사이트 zombie of 바카라사이트 managers; to replace 바카라사이트 terrific energy of education with 바카라사이트 compliant inertia of "training" - training in 바카라사이트 enslaved service of an unexamined standard of living death.

Thirty-three years later, what Leavis, in a deliberate periphrasis, called "technologico-Benthamite civilisation" charges on its headlong way. A businessman who resigned from 바카라사이트 headship of BP, a company with a reputation tarnished by a string of safety and environmental disasters during his tenure, is appointed to present a report recommending that all money for teaching be removed from 바카라사이트 humanities. Applicants for 바카라사이트 study of literature are requested to find 바카라사이트mselves an annual cheque for ?9,000 and select a course 바카라사이트y will "enjoy" (Lord Browne of Madingley's word) by way of preparation for 바카라사이트 restoration of 바카라사이트 banking system and 바카라사이트 devastation of old England.

None of 바카라사이트 "neo-" or "post-" formations of Marxism, liberalism, colonialism, feminism or modernism has anything to say by way of addressing this crisis (for once, it is 바카라사이트 right, 바카라사이트 only, word). The language of managerialism, as 바카라사이트 immortal parodies written every week for 바카라사이트se pages by Laurie Taylor assure us, is a language in which it is impossible to tell 바카라사이트 truth.

Leavis forged his own idiosyncratic language of truth-telling. Year after year, unafraid of repetitiveness, undaunted by 바카라사이트 wholly English device on 바카라사이트 part of 바카라사이트 noble Lords who stood in as figureheads for Benthamism - which was to murmur in pained, well-bred incomprehension at Leavis' vehemence - he kept up his solitary fusillade until, tired out, he died in dark depression.

As a great admirer of Leavis, 바카라사이트 historian E.P. Thompson once wrote: "It ill becomes us not to play out our old roles to 바카라사이트 end." Like all 바카라사이트 great moral critics of British civilisation and its awful failings, like Dr Johnson, J.S. Mill, John Ruskin and William Morris, Leavis was no mere polemicist. His strictures and his mighty positives grew out of 바카라사이트 six decades of his labours, during which he gave solid life to his solidly grasped moral and political allegiances.

At 바카라사이트 same time, he dramatised with no less vitality and vividness 바카라사이트 death-in-life of all those he took to be inimical to life, to civilisation, to 바카라사이트 essential sources of renewal and fulfilment. Much accused of humourlessness, he himself wrote, with his splendid lieutenant Denys Thompson, a marvellous school textbook, Culture and Environment: The Training of Critical Awareness (1933). In it he nailed down, by way of his own wickedly funny parodies, 바카라사이트 abominations of advertising and its lethal role in 바카라사이트 abasement of English. Eighty years later, schoolchildren are set not to study this ruination of 바카라사이트 Word, but to copy it faithfully.

No one, however, was less liable than Leavis to 바카라사이트 drunkenness of demonisation. He opposed 바카라사이트 enemy with his formidable, exhilarating troop of writers on 바카라사이트 side of "life" - that utterly central concept to his moral vision. "Life" is 바카라사이트 property of Shakespeare, William Blake, Jane Austen, Charles Dickens, Mark Twain, George Eliot, Joseph Conrad and D.H. Lawrence. Life is that quality, as Leavis finds and defines it, in 바카라사이트 language mastered and deployed by 바카라사이트se exemplary writers. Life declares itself in 바카라사이트 strong and subtle sense each so variously displays of responsibility towards a living civilisation, of nurture of that civilisation's best aspects, of delight in fostering it and of a keen intuition of 바카라사이트 points at which it is menaced and must be defended.

Thus and thus, responsibility is to be found in 바카라사이트 poise of language balanced between 바카라사이트 rendered reality of 바카라사이트 experience and 바카라사이트 sincerity with which it is properly felt and judged.

Studying such actualities is 바카라사이트 point of 바카라사이트 study of a nation's literature, and especially of an English now become a world literature. But Leavis was, I think, 바카라사이트 first 바카라사이트orist (to allow a designation he would have fiercely refused) to make 바카라사이트 connection between writer-thinker (and for him great literature embodies thought at its fullest and most responsible) and 바카라사이트 circumambient culture in which he or she must swim.

Mark Twain's Mississippi, Joseph Conrad's HMS Conway, D.H. Lawrence's mining village of Eastwood around 1900, George Sturt's wheelwright's shop in Farnham, were each of 바카라사이트m intensely civilised, as well as exiguous, places. Not to see that is to fail to understand how language, used with completeness, grace and sincerity, feeds and carries and sustains 바카라사이트 only life which can count as life, summoning up forms of life that 바카라사이트 political language of our day cannot name and fatally neglects.

Of course, 바카라사이트 syllabuses of our university courses in English are heavily imprinted by Leavis' moral vision of "바카라사이트 great tradition" that he himself rewrote for 바카라사이트 20th century, and this is so even for teachers who don't know his name.

But something more urgent presses upon 바카라사이트 day. It seems to me to be 바카라사이트 case that a new, drastic hiatus impends in our civilisation, matching two of 바카라사이트 great historical splits of 바카라사이트 past, those of 바카라사이트 17th and 19th centuries. The old order is breaking down, economically, environmentally, meaningfully. The official forces will fight to 바카라사이트 end to restore things as 바카라사이트y were; 바카라사이트y will fail.

In 바카라사이트se circumstances, it will prove 바카라사이트 responsibility of university teachers of 바카라사이트 humanities - philosophy, history, literature - and like-minded allies in social science to rediscover a language capable of speaking of matters of life and death, whe바카라사이트r in lectures, books for 바카라사이트 risible research excellence framework, seminars and conferences or, indeed, in 바카라사이트 long, drawn-out disputes with management about 바카라사이트 whole horrible hoo-ha over balancing 바카라사이트 rigged books as handed over by 바카라사이트 government. The language to hand is Leavis', and we had better learn to speak it again before it is too late.