I
Still Have the Floorplan
We
look off
as
newborns look
into
other space
where
a door opens
onto
a room
&
farther doors
to
further rooms
of
the infinite house
where
others live
whether
we know
them
or not —
known
space
we’re
hoping to
resurrect
from
first memory
every
time we
reconnect
to
our
commonplace.
 |
| Cornel West [Evan Agostini] |
the
Enlightenment worldview held by Du Bois is ultimately inadequate, and
in many ways antiquated, for our time. The tragic plight and absurd
predicament of Africans here and abroad requires a more profound
interpretation of the human condition — one that goes far beyond
the false dichotomies of expert knowledge versus mass ignorance,
individual autonomy versus dogmatic authority and self-mastery versus
intolerant tradition. Our tragicomic times require more democratic
concepts of knowledge and leadership that highlight human fallibility
and mutual accountability, notions of individuality and contested
authority that stress dynamic traditions and ideals of
self-realization within participatory communities.
The
second fundamental pillar of Du Bois’s intellectual project is his
Victorian strategies — namely, the ways in which his Enlightenment
worldview can be translated into action. They rest upon three basic
assumptions. First, that the self-appointed agents of Enlightenment
constitute a sacrificial cultural elite engaged in service on behalf
of the impulsive and irrational masses. Second, that this service
consists of shaping and molding the values and viewpoints of the
masses by managing educational and political bureaucracies (e.g.,
schools and political parties). Third, that the effective management
of these bureaucracies by the educated few for the benefit of the
pathetic many promotes material and spiritual progress. . . .
In
fact, Du Bois’s notion . . . is a descendant of those cultural and
political elites conceived by the major Victorian critics during the
heyday of the British empire in its industrial phase. S. T.
Coleridge’s secular clerisy, Thomas Carlyle’s strong heroes and
Matthew Arnold’s disinterested aliens all shun the superficial
vulgarity of materialism and the cheap thrills of hedonism in order
to preserve and promote highbrow culture and to civilize and contain
the lowbrow masses. . . .”The Negro race, like all races, is going
to be saved by its exceptional men.” . . . The patriarchal
sensibilities speak for themselves. They are unargued for, hence
unacceptable.
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