Masters of the culture

Moreover, we ourselves--many of us in the academy--have long since forgotten our main purpose is to teach: strictly to transmit what is already known, not as a sideline of our entrepreneurial R & D or as gurus of Change. We are neither geniuses nor apostles. We should be highly trained masters of the culture, in its variety of special respects. Unless we ourselves achieve this mastery, the chain of intellect cannot be forged in varieties of respect for unequals. How can we expect true disciples, in real disciplines, when we ourselves have never met a master, but only office managers and more less celebrated critics of whatever might be construed as reverence?

-Philip Rieff, Fellow Teachers, 1973