Flirting with Tyranny

The title is intriguing, tempting, and ostensibly relevant in today's culture: The Treason of the Clerks (La Trahison des clercs), by 20th century French novelist and critic, Julien Benda. By clerks, Benda meant Medieval scribes, a small class of men who could read and write and understand what others read and wrote. The vast majority of men in that period, including many in the various ruling aristocracies, were illiterate. Roger Kimball, in his New Criterion 1992 article on the relevance of...