Russell Jacoby - Culture Quotes

4 Sourced Quotes

View all Russell Jacoby Quotes

The disdain for culture expressed by Johst and Fanon is not identical, however. Both despise the deceit of culture, but for opposite reasons. For Johst, culture is in itself a fraud, the cheap talk of weaklings; for Fanon, culture deceives by reneging on its promises. Johst and the Nazis hated culture itself; Fanon hated its hypocrisy, a very different notion.

Russell Jacoby

The left once dismissed the market as exploitative; it now honors the market as rational and humane. The left once disdained mass culture as exploitative; now it celebrates it as rebellious. The left once honored independent intellectuals as courageous; now it sneers at them as elitist.

Russell Jacoby

Multiculturalism relies on an intellectual rout, the refusal or inability to address what makes up a culture.

Russell Jacoby

Endless discussions of multiculturalism proceed from the unsubstantiated assumption that numerous distinct cultures constitute American society. Only a few historians or observers even consider the possibility that the opposite may be true: that the world and the United States are relentlessly becoming more culturally uniform, not diverse.

Russell Jacoby