Religion & Law

In her column today, Peggy Noonan warns about this:

I started noticing in the 1980s, the growing gulf between the country's thought leaders, as they're called?the political and media class, the universities?and those living what for lack of a better word we'll call normal lives on the ground in America. The two groups were agitated by different things, concerned about different things, had different focuses, different world views.

But I've never seen the gap wider than it is now. I think it is a chasm.

Noonan's point -- that university professors and others among the cultural elite in the United States are preoccupied with matters that are viewed as politically correct extremism or ivory tower foolishness by others and thus have become disconnected from the world inhabited by our fellow citizens -- is difficult to dispute.

Every time I gather with neighbors or parishioners, or when I simply talk with others while waiting in line at the grocery store or walking around the lake at the local park, I am reminded by just how insular and narrow are academic perspectives on what is important, on moral values, on living a satisfying life, on politics, on economics, or even on hobbies and pursuits.  The gulf between what is conventional wisdom in academic circles and what is valued in most other settings is brought home to me in more direct terms when I travel to places other than college towns or urban centers on the left and right coasts.

A weekend spent with my now-elderly mother and her friends or my in-laws and the extended family across several generations, along with the lively conversations and debates that follow when we get together, serve as a cautionary note to me.  Even someone like me whose more conservative views and traditional religious beliefs depart from the academic norm can find himself shaped and constrained by the politically-correct academic mindset, starting to think that some points are obvious or some positions are indisputable.  But then I realize yet again how most universities have become echo chambers in which like-minded academics, whatever their discipline (and to some extent whatever their political party), confirm one another in their opinions (most of the time).

The question I want to pose to members and readers of the Mirror of Justice is this:  Are Catholic academics any better at reflecting the greater diversity of thought and breadth of perspective found outside of the typical university setting?  Do we pay better attention to the matters that are of greater concern to our fellow citizens, even if they are not the hottest topics in the faculty lounge or the trendy subject of an academic symposium?  Have we, or at least have those Catholic professors who take the Catholic legal and social thought projects seriously, done a better job of remaining connected to the real world?  If the Mirror of Justice is any indication, I think maybe we have, that our very disagreements on-line keep us better grounded.  What do you think?  Comments are open.