Eating Harvard’s Lunch

Why is Harvard’s motto in Latin? On the current coat of arms, printed on three open books, is the inscription VE-RI-TAS: “Truth.” Through Harvard’s history, there have been several other mottos, including in Christi Gloriam and pro Christo et Ecclesia (sometimes appearing alongside the original Veritas). The current one-word version, stripped of references to Christianity, was adopted in the early 20th century.

Advertisement

Would it be so surprising, given its current trajectory, if Harvard finally decided to remove the word entirely, like an annoying wisdom tooth? While the Trump Administration’s recent ultimatum to Harvard has drawn critiques not just from the Left but even the New Right, there is still broad consensus that something must be done to halt the decay of America’s prestige institutions.

However cringe it may seem to some, the administration’s demand that Harvard implement “viewpoint diversity” in admissions and faculty appointments at least recognizes, in official print, that our nation’s reputedly elite institutions have largely put themselves in service of a left-leaning political patronage industry. It is hard for many people to see how this conduces to Veritas.

Instead, what these institutions seem to aim at is what R.R. Reno, in Return of the Strong Gods, describes as the “open society consensus.” The term comes from Karl Popper’s 1945 Open Society, with its influential screed against “closed society” proponents like Hegel, Marx, and Plato(!). Reno describes this “consensus” as a broad movement in post-war America (and Europe) to weaken the credibility of every meaningful institution—state, nation, religion, metaphysics, heck, why not the family too?—which might strengthen the supposed authoritarian tendency latent in all humans.

Advertisement

Join the conversation as a VIP Member

Trending on HotAir Videos

Advertisement
Advertisement
Advertisement