"To educate educators! But
             the first ones must educate
             themselves! And for these I write."
             Friedrich Nietzsche
            
             The overarching goal of existentialist thought is to question the common understandings of the virtues of freedom and responsibility. Maintaining that the free will is an intrinsic part of human life, and its capabilities of being exercised to its fullest extent of freedom, whereby one is truly a freethinker. This is all capable of becoming accomplished without any adherence to environmental, genetic, or psychological factors that one might experience throughout ones life.
             If we are to discuss existentialism as social philosophy, perhaps it is allowed that we might be able to discuss a writer who has had a tremendous influence on contemporary social, political and educational philosophy. Allan Bloom is ultimately in pursuit of the existential ideal of the freewill. The discrimination of right from wrong, truth from falsehood and the endeavor to live by the 'truth', for Bloom, is the heart of true autonomy. This essay will explore the ideas and the criticisms expressed by Bloom, with some emphasis on his parallels with Friedrich Nietzsche.
             The criticism is of modern liberal democracy and its apparent misconception of "openness", which can also be described as unquestioning, dogmatic, and self-contradictory cultural relativism, is what his project is, in "The Closing of the American Mind". To provide an educational system that encourages true autonomous thought is his ultimate goal, for it will ultimately lead to the creation of a truly autonomous society.
             The main criticism begins with Bloom's assessment of his own students. Being an educator, his experience of what modernity's children are thinking, and as a result, what modern thoughts are, is first-hand.
            
             There is one thing a professor can be absolutely certain of: almost every student entering the university...