Commentary
At age 24, at the commencement of his teaching career—coincident with the appearance of multiculturalism, postmodernism, the idea that Western civilization is just one approach—this author understood that the career before him would be in the service of a system in decline.
He could have withdrawn and chosen not to serve; instead, he followed through and paid the price. At times badly treated, as a libertarian among progressives, he thought he could work independently. Like the industrialists in “Atlas Shrugged,” his mistake, then, was to work within the system.
Like those industrialists, he did not recognize that the integrity of his own work would be used against him; for example, while he was made to feel unwelcome, his successful concerts were used to showcase how well his schools “appeared” to be doing….