Espionage at I-House

marlowe1
Fri, 01 Nov 2019 22:33:03 +0000

I don’t think the world ever had much to worry about in the form of totalitarian violence at the hands of Hutchins or his acolytes. He may have been inspirational, but he led no armies and incited no mobs. He may not have been Jesus, but neither was he Mao. I doubt that many who heard those words failed to form families or have friends or enter professions. These aren’t esoteric objectives. The commitment to finding the truth may be.

Hutchins was prone to whimsicalness. That was part of his charm. He could be using “corruption” somewhat unseriously, or he could be using it as a technical term. Then again, this may have been a cri de coeur out of the experience of a bad marriage to a fashion-plate of a wife unhappy to find herself in the midwest, or the treachery of false friends or the stormy relations with career-minded academics. Flawed as he may have been, he is our Hamlet.