Debauching the Poor

Like any dominion in its decadence, the social sciences today are rich in the rococo. Ripening on the campuses, sweeping through the media, and overflowing into our politics are the improbable findings of overwrought research in behalf of absurd doctrine (the gaiety of perversion, the stimulating effects of taxes, the obsolescence of moral law, the destructiveness of sex roles), all delphically expounded and blindly elaborated, and ever more widely held, no matter how self-evidently foolish.

Conservatives usually resist these fancies. But in recent years some have begun to capitulate, looking yearningly toward each bandwagon as it passes, following warily until it slows down, and then clambering aboard just before it collapses. The usual rationale is to save us from some horror more extreme: to avoid Bella Abzug, we are to embrace Betty Ford and the Equal Rights Amendment; to escape George McGovern, we are to exult in Daniel Patrick Moynihan and his Family Assistance Plans; to confound Marxism, we are to celebrate Keynesianism (as in President Nixon’s statement, “We are all Keynesians now,” which preceded a mass flight from Keynes and from the dollar).

About the Author

George Gilder

Mr. Gilder is a founder of the Discovery Institute, a venture capitalist, and the author of 15 books, including The Israel Test.

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William F. Buckley Jr.

Like any dominion in its decadence, the social sciences today are rich in the rococo. Ripening on the campuses, sweeping through the media, and overflowing into our politics are the improbable findings of overwrought research in behalf of absurd doctrine (the gaiety of perversion, the stimulating effects of taxes, the obsolescence of moral law, the destructiveness of sex roles), all delphically expounded and blindly elaborated, and ever more widely held, no matter how self-evidently foolish.

Conservatives usually resist these fancies. But in recent years some have begun to capitulate, looking yearningly toward each bandwagon as it passes, following warily until it slows down, and then clambering aboard just before it collapses. The usual rationale is to save us from some horror more extreme: to avoid Bella Abzug, we are to embrace Betty Ford and the Equal Rights Amendment; to escape George McGovern, we are to exult in Daniel Patrick Moynihan and his Family Assistance Plans; to confound Marxism, we are to celebrate Keynesianism (as in President Nixon’s statement, “We are all Keynesians now,” which preceded a mass flight from Keynes and from the dollar).