Happy Hutchinsland

After two years of living and working in Southern California (for the Ford Foundation). ex-Chancellor Robert Hutchins of the University of Chicago had begun to feel that he was not the same old Hutchins: he was suffering from an "intellectual deterioration" that suggested itself by "a kind of involuntary mellowness." Last week, when he returned to the university to deliver a series of lectures on education, he proved himself mellowed in part. Instead of lambasting U.S. education directly, he contented himself with painting a picture of a Hutchinesque Utopia--a land where everyone knows that "a university is a center of independent thought" and that "a university that is not controversial is not a university."

Said Hutchins: "In Utopia, if there were a House Committee on un-Utopian Activities, as of course there is not, it would dedicate itself to seeking out and exposing those elements in the community which were trying to put an end to difference and hence to that discussion which the Utopians regard as the essence of true Utopianism. In Utopia the rich and the conservative agree that, looking at matters only in terms of their own selfish interests . . . the preservation of free discussion and criticism is the best guarantee against violent attacks upon Utopian institutions . . . The only kind of university that could be popular with the Utopians is one in which the most lively controversy was continuously under way. The award for the Most Controversial Person [of the year] is usually won by a professor of the University of Utopia. . . .

"The real academic crime is indoctrination, which is only slightly worse in Utopia than the crime of refusing to discuss . . . The educational system is supposed to be a continuing discussion of important subjects. The people want this discussion continued. They see no limits that must be set to discussion. Therefore, the question whether the educational system is discussing improper questions does not arise.

"The only question that arises is whether the discussion is being conducted with sufficient vigor and sufficient representation of different points of view."

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