PC Views Now Dominate Key Intellectual Groups

I recently received my Phi Beta Kappa magazine. Phi Beta Kappa is the standard “honor” society for students scoring well in college. I became a member in 1963 at Tulane and have been reading, from time to time, the magazine ever since. Over the years, I’ve noted a tendency for the articles and books selected to become ever more PC, ever more consistent with the view that western civilization is — in various ways — non-sustainable, non-egalitarian, a failure. Diversity issues have been a theme for many years and, more recently, Malthusian views have become salient. The latest (Spring 2007) contains reviews of books by Lester Brown – the venerable prophet of decline – and by Kerry Emanuel (Divine Wind: The History and Science of Hurricanes) which endorses the global warming views (and the consensus view “now that essentially all scientists agree on the looming crisis of global warming”). Intellectuals are herd animals and there are very few isolates surviving. Sigh.