Mind disciplined in specified ways to overcome Difficulty

From The House of Intellect by Jacques Barzun. Page ix.

It is interesting to me to see these sentiments expressed in this book from 1959 and which so clearly echo common sentiments of today. The Teacher, as always, was right, "there is nothing new under the sun." The elder thinkers in every generation are cautiously skeptical of those that are coming after them. Sometimes that skepticism is well merited, sometimes not.

The thought to which Barzun gives voice (and a thought which has a tradition going back centuries), is perhaps not ever one of a specific concrete concern, but more of a general rallying cry to the idea that we should protect that which apparently has brought us so far. In our case, the sentiments and motivations of the Enlightenment. We may not correctly identify the specific elements within our traditions which make the most difference, but the general sentiment to be cautious of changing that which has worked so well is not misplaced. A recent example of the native and unreflecting hostility shown by our leaders to basic rights (freedom of speech, freedome of religion) demonstrates just how pervasive has become the isolation of broad segments of the chattering classes, and what passes for their thinking, from the traditions of the Enlightenment.

So here, from 52 years ago, is a contemporary complaint.

The most obvious feature of the phase of civilization we are in is the flattening of the merit curve. It is almost level - a wobbly line. The demand for competence is weak. This is acknowledged in the cliche 'decline of standards,' which applies to every institution, from schooling to the professions and from manners to language. Error, often born of indifference, is accepted, indeed saluted, as a proof of 'being human.' The word 'elitism' has arisen to condemn any expression of desire for what is in any way high. All these attitudes are validated to the possessors by the conviction that to display and act upon them is 'democratic.'

Clearly, every impulse behind this general surrender is inimical to Intellect, since it is mind disciplined in specified ways to overcome Difficulty. This discipline implies things now abhorred - rigor, power, authority, superiority.