1 Boring Old Man

A year or so, I gave the graduation talk for several of our Psychoanalytic Candidates. My talk was about Skepticism [from a Greek noun, skepsis, which means examination, inquiry, consideration], the philosophy of Pyrrho of Ellis, and his opposition to the prevailing philosophy of Dogmatism. The Dogmatists of ancient Greece were on a search for The Truth. Pyrrho taught that truth was always elusive, always relative, never clear. I welcomed our graduates to the world of never being sure, always questioning. It was the talk of a retired, aging liberal – and I enjoyed giving it.

Earlier this year, I ran across Lynn Cheney‘s Politics in the Classroom, a talk derived from her book, Telling the Truth: Why our culture and our country have stopped making sense–and what we can do about it. It’s an attack on the post-modernist trends in American academia, trends that are very close to the philosophy of my friend Pyrrho from the early Greeks. I hated her article for two reasons. First, she writes with the same "I know what’s right" arrogance that sends me out of the room whenever her husband appears on the T.V. screen. Second, her argument is that people "need" truth to anchor them – to me an almost Machiavellian argument. But, let’s face it, I’m a retired, aging liberal. Not many of us would go for much Lynn Cheney had to say – even "pass the butter." 

But today, I read an incredible article in The American Scholar by Nick Bromell who teaches English at The University of Massachusetts, Amherst. It was called Scooter and Me and it’s about his lifelong friendship with I. Lewis Scooter Libby. It’s a wonderful exploration of his personal struggles with his own liberalism and his friendship with Libby. He even gets into Lynn Cheney’s article. It’s the "talk" I wish I’d been able to give at that graduation ceremony. If you’re a person who is reading this blog, you’re a person that needs to read Bromell’s  article.

Bromell is not only Scooter’s friend, his father was a diplomat in the Middle East, and a C.I.A. Agent…