The Importance of the Avant-Garde

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Culture creating class ultimately doesn't really matter very much because the real business is happening elsewhere. The real material form of society is being shaped by business by science and medicine by government and so forth. In recent years in particular I mean we've really seen quite a turn progressive ideology has escaped from the humanities departments where I first encountered it when I started graduate school 34 years ago. COVID policy was hugely influenced by progressive cultural assumptions or cultural attitudes or cultural enmities.

William Deresiewicz is an American author, essayist, and critic. He taught English at Yale University from 1998 to 2008. He is the author, among other books, of Excellent Sheep: The Miseducation of the American Elite and the Way to a Meaningful Life.

In this week’s conversation, Yascha Mounk and William Deresiewicz discuss how the intensely meritocratic nature of elite universities prioritizes striving over deep learning; the instrumentalization of traditional pursuits to the detriment of mastery; and how broader cultural transformations frustrate deep immersion in art, friendship, and learning.

This transcript has been condensed and lightly edited for clarity.

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