Word: knowed
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Dates: during 1950-1959
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Agreeing with Thomas Mann that modern man defines himself in political terms, Mills vehemently asserts that "This world is political." He demands political thought and activity from intellectuals: "In slowly drifting periods of man's history, it was possible that leaders be mediocrities and no one know it or care: "What great difference did it make? But in periods which are neither slow nor necessarily drifting, the fact is that leaders may very well make the difference between life and death...
...Know the truth, and it shall make you free." According to this theory, the job of the university is to promote knowledge and wisdom, to guard our cultural heritage much as a primitive priest guards the tribal legends. The scholar's job is to record and to order the hopes and fears, facts and fancies, anecdotes and dreams, which compose our cultural mythology. Even more important, he must keep adapting this legacy to the demands of a fluid society. The ritual called "research and publication" is thus the scholar's way of keeping the myth up to date...
Such recruiting is fraught with perils. The unwashed youngsters must not only be trained to dedicate their lives to the game, but also be taught to play the game skillfully. Perhaps equally important, they must be taught to play the rules. Their potential employer wants to know that his hirelings will be responsible, hardworking and clever, but he also wants assurance that they will violate middle class mores with enough guile so as not to cause a scandal...
...values developed over the years by the concentrated effort of some of our finest minds. Though Bicker's history scarcely ranks with Britain's in terms of length, the two stand together as monuments of principle. No less resolute than Mr. Churchill in 1940, the boys of Bicker know full well the consequence of yielding to that which is foreign. If Mr. Churchill was busy thwarting the idea of a Master Race, and if the Bicker boys now seem intent on preserving it, no matter; it is a question of principle...
...Alfred Kazin's review of Breakfast at Tiffany's in the Reporter: "I liked it. Except I didn't understand the last two lines. What does he mean by 'public vice or private tears'? I don't know what that means...