On the Inculcated and the Inculcators
The victim of skillful inculcation not only comes out thinking what the inculcator wants him to think, but is altogether positive that he has arrived at his position by independent intellectual exertion. Such a man is, predictably, outraged at the suggestion that he is flesh-and-blood tribute to the success of his indoctrinators, and gets really sore when you cite his yelps of protest as still additional evidence of how good a job was done on him. In debating with James Wechsler recently at Harvard, on the question “The Non-Conformist: Liberal or Conservative?”, I encountered the usual halfamused, half-sullen exasperation with me for venturing to predict just what would be the audience reaction to the subject Mr. Wechsler and I were going to talk about. I could make a prediction with robust certitude for so simple a reason as that I have a general knowledge as to what goes on in representative American colleges and universities, and I happen to know they are staffed largely by Liberal indoctrinators, and expert ones at that. (By the way, an indoctrinator is not necessarily ignorant or superficial. Socrates was one; so was Rousseau.)
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