Nightmares, Daydreams, and Prof. Shils

Bergson once wrote about the man who, when asked why he didn’t weep at a sermon which reduced everyone else to tears, replied: “I don’t belong to the parish.” Bergson felt that what that man had said of tears was even more true for laughter: those who refuse to join in our merriment are perturbing, they spoil the fun. This may be why the enthusiastic participants in the American Celebration are so perturbed by the handful of dissenting critics who refuse to join them. And it may also explain their eagerness to prove that if these critics decline to cheer there must be something wrong with them —since, manifestly, there can be very little wrong with American culture. Hence the need to refer to the alleged personal sources of the critics’ discontent. Not the cultural situation needs scrutiny, but the motives of the critics. If these evil spirits can be successfully exorcized with the help of psychoanalysis, the sociology of knowledge or whatever other t...