..but a reader points out a rare instance, an appropriately scathing review of a childishly stupid book by a childishly stupid author, one Jonah Goldberg (about whom we had occasion to comment in passing long ago). The passage in question:
Goldberg falsely saddles liberalism not just with
relativism but with all manner of alleged errors having nothing to do
with liberalism. At one point, he exhumes the likes of Derrida and
Foucault in order to pummel them once more for introducing
postmodernism, deconstruction, and other continental horrors into the
world. What this tiresome routine has to do with liberalism escapes the
reader. From the outset, liberals opposed these fads as fiercely as
conservatives. Just ask Ronald Dworkin or Brian Leiter. Goldberg, like
many movement conservatives, grossly overestimates the influence of
postmodernism, doubtless because avowed nihilists make such good straw
men (if not good theater, as Derrida and Foucault well knew).
Of course, it always make me sad to see Foucault, a genuinely learned man and creative intellect, lumped together with the charlatan Derrida. But the reviewer is clearly correct that Derridean silliness has nothing to do with liberalism, and precious little to do with anything in the modern university.



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