Our University-Culture, Chapter 9: Our Undisciplined Culture

PREVIOUS: Introduction; Chapter 1 (Part 1); Chapter 1 (Part 2); Chapter 2; Chapter 3 (Part 1); Chapter 3 (Part 2); Chapter 4 (Part 1); Chapter 4 (Part 2); Chapter 5 (part 1); Chapter 5 (Part 2); Chapter 6 (Part 1); Chapter 6 (Part 2); Chapter 7; Chapter 8

I. On Discipline

You cannot teach without discipline, but discipline makes little sense in an egalitarian society. Egalitarianism is fine among those who are truly equal. And we are all equal in a variety of ways — or should be. We should be equal before the law, for example. Yet there is an inherent inequality between teachers and students — the teacher, necessarily and by definition, knows more than does the student. If you know more than I, then you are the teacher and I am the student; if I know more than you, you are the student and I am the teacher. Yet egalitarianism rejects this basic hierarchy — as it rejects all hierarchies. While it is good to question hierarchies and to flatten certain kinds of hierarchies (like hierarchies of political power), others are necessary and natural. The communication of knowledge from the knower to the ignorant creates a necessary and natural hierarchy. Yet, postmodernists have tried to apply egalitarian principles to the teacher-student relationship, with disastrous results.