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Advertisements  Conformity's Newest Guise  By Keith C.
BurrisKeith C. Burris is an editorial writer for the Hartford
Courant in Hartford, Conn. / July 29, 1991  THE neoconservative
critique of campus orthodoxies is not a criticism of the idea of
intellectual smugness per se - but of the wrong smugness. The
real fight on campus now is not over classical substance versus
relativist fluff, but over who gets to establish the codes of
acceptable thought. The critics who deplore dogmatic leftists
apt to shut down debate on the campus are the same ones who have
shut down debate in other circles. They dictate the orthodoxies
of the magazines, the political parties, the foundations, and
the think tanks. On the campuses it may be politically correct
to favor race-norming, gender norming, abortion, feminism, and
all manner of disarmament. But among American yuppies and
managers, affirmative action is out, conspicuous compassion is
laughable, and quick and di