Foolishness Remedial
But foolishness among
intelligent people is remedial. The
larger difficulty is a second: And
that seems to be arrogance—an
arrogance which refuses to confess
its ignorance and which refuses to
overcome it.
But that arrogance itself is based
on ignorance—an utterly
indefensible prejudice that the
"system" is profoundly wrong and,
more, that it is thoroughly
unchangeable.
This arrogance of ignorance
produces such absurd
understandings like the one that
says that the McCarthy movement
was a failure because the Minnesota
senator was not nominated—even
though it forced a President's
abdication and the reversal of a war
policy.
This arrogance of ignorance
produces such behavior as students
complaining that the "system" does
not work merely because hawkish
Congressmen they talk to for five
minutes do not suddenly become
doves.
This arrogance is ultimately
responsible for Mr. Williams' scant
student support and for his likely
defeat next Tuesday.
