about how faculty are hired and retained. But it's worse than that.
And the culture of academia is one in which conservatives are openly mocked and leftists (not even liberals, I'm talking true leftists of the most anti-American ilk) are embraced.
For instance, I had a lunch today with three colleagues to discuss a project we are collaborating on. As one of the professors and I joked about the need to reinstitute literacy tests for voters (inspired by some stupid comments by our students and the poor quality of their writing) the Social Work professor quipped without missing a beat or batting an eye, "Yeah, we don't want those illiterate Republicans to vote."
She then went on to pontificate how she hates to register any one to vote who even looks like a Republican. White, male, driving an SUV--you know, illiterate hate-mongers.
The key to surviving academia for some one other than a liberal or leftists is this: Berkenstocks. Oh, and hemp shirts. And and Amnesty International poster on the wall. It also helps to quote Chomsky. Lots and lots of Chomsky.
And BTW, I've met Susan Estrich on several occasions. Not only is she not a good scholar, she's also not a scholar. Period. She's a law professor. With a big mouth. And an ego to match. You know, jsut in case you were wondering my opinion of her.
1
Definitely the birkenstocks. Mine even have a Jerry Garcia design.
Posted by: caltechgirl at April 08, 2005 05:10 PM (iCaDI)
2
Academia is a zone where all opinions are heard. Tenure is required to permit scholars to remain free of government pressure to conform to the party line. As a great example, Dr. John Makombe of the University of Zimbabwe is able to speak out against the Mugabe regime when others are jailed.
Posted by: Collin Baber at April 08, 2005 05:52 PM (fufbw)
3
"Academia is a zone where all opinions are heard."
Collin, come back to earth. We miss you.
Posted by: See-Dubya at April 08, 2005 06:20 PM (Ak3sk)
4
UGH...Susan Estrich. Tell me how such an annoying, fatuous person get to be teaching law after driving Mike Dukakis' presidential campaign onto the rocks.
Oh wait...Never mind.
Posted by: wavemaker at April 08, 2005 07:28 PM (2GyMB)
5
That's exactly why I prefer to call it "academentia".
Posted by: NOTR at April 08, 2005 09:19 PM (Djm/j)
6
"Academia is a zone where all opinions are heard."
Ahh......another Baber-ism. Every time I read one of your scintillating posts I feel like I've walked through the cow pasture bare foot. Oh the simple joys of life!
Posted by: Dan at April 08, 2005 11:03 PM (ra7KA)
7
"She then went on to pontificate how she hates to register any one to vote who even looks like a Republican. White, male, driving an SUV--you know, illiterate hate-mongers."
Maybe you didn't get the joke about how stupid you sounded for promoting a literacy test to vote, and were getting your just desserts.
Posted by: actus at April 09, 2005 09:16 AM (EQbuu)
8
Isn't it a hoot the way one's fellow academics always assume that everyone agrees with them? Actually, I've heard so many (unwitting) jokes about what an idiot I am that it has long ago ceased to be funny.
Posted by: gail at April 09, 2005 10:25 AM (47cun)
9
http://roomforrant.blogspot.com/2005/04/liberal-professor-nabbed-stealing.html
Posted by: Mr. K at April 09, 2005 10:48 AM (Kucaj)
10
>>>"Academia is a zone where all opinions are heard."
That was a joke right?
He's just trying to get our goat.
Posted by: Carlos at April 09, 2005 11:47 AM (UWO6N)
11
Get our goat, Carlos? But he has so many already ...
Posted by: Robin Roberts at April 09, 2005 03:48 PM (xauGB)
12
I feel bad for the goats...
Posted by: Young Bourbon Professional at April 09, 2005 05:07 PM (YTaaE)
13
My favorite leftists aren't the hippies (so predictable) but the ones dress in black with steel-toed boots, like the ones who kicked the ass of some Protest Weiners during the inauguration.
http://hq.protestwarrior.com/?page=/featured/HTTC/HTTC.php
PS- I think blogging anonymously is pretty courageous. Long live the armchair know-nothing pundit.
Posted by: Mike at April 09, 2005 08:10 PM (WPQyo)
14
I know of another law professor that isn't much of a scholar. I think he has a blog or something. "Ready-pundit" or "Instant-Pundit" or something along those lines.
Posted by: Jack "Redcorn" M. at April 09, 2005 09:38 PM (1W1ap)
15
Why yes, Mike, it's perfectly acceptable to assault (verbally and physically) those whose opinions you hold in contempt...as long as that illegitimate opinion is pro-American. Otherwise, even criticism of anti-American, pro-terrorism opinion is
verbotten.
:::sigh:::
It's going to be an interesting freshman year for my #4 daughter at San Francisco SU. We were up there this weekend for their "sneak preview days" and we all got a good giggle from some of the bumper stickers in the parking structure... still a handful of Kedwards ones and the usual "friends don't let friends vote Republican."
Yeah...
there's diversity for ya! Good little acolyte, good little acolyte..now give the bad apostate a bloody nose ...
Posted by: Darleen at April 10, 2005 10:29 AM (FgfaV)
16
Good job Mike, celebrate the thugs - its all you got left.
Posted by: Robin Roberts at April 10, 2005 04:11 PM (xauGB)
17
“We can’t expect the American People to jump from Capitalism to Communism, but we can assist their elected leaders in giving them small doses of Social-ism, until they awaken one day to find that they have Communism.” --Nikita Khrushchev ++ “The American people will never knowingly adopt Social-ism. But under the name of ‘liberalism’ they will adopt every fragment of the Social-ist program, until one day America will be a Social-ist nation, without knowing how it happened.” --Norman Thomas
Here on Long Island the President of Stony Brook University, Shirley Strum Kenny has this to say. “ I can speak up for evolution, but that’s because I’m the grateful resident of a blue state.” Newsday, Wed. April 6, 2005.
I guess we are destroying ourselves to make room for a new species.
Note: Had to hyphenate a couple of the ists and isms. The content blocker kept finding the name of a pharmaceutical.
Posted by: Dennis at April 10, 2005 05:12 PM (QDNVv)
18
'"White, male, driving an SUV--you know, illiterate hate-mongers."'
Of course... people like William F. Buckley or John Leo.
Personally, I see nothing wrong with literacy tests as a condition for the sufferage. Democracy only works when the the electorate is literate and politically engaged; else it is nothing but mob rule.
Making the feat of avoiding death for 18 years the sole qualification for full citizenship is ludicrous on its face. Otherwise, one may as well extend the sufferage to geriatric cats and dogs, as well as the goats mentioned above.
However, it is not difficult to see the Social Democrats, would not prefer to have things remain as they are; it is manifest that a truly literate and objectively informed electorate would do little to help advance their agenda.
Posted by: LUCIUS SEVERUS PERTINAX at April 10, 2005 05:16 PM (u3Qln)
19
A Communist is a Social-ist with a machine gun.
Posted by: LUCIUS SEVERUS PERTINAX at April 10, 2005 05:19 PM (u3Qln)
20
" Democracy only works when the the electorate is literate and politically engaged; else it is nothing but mob rule."
the literate are perfectly capable of acting like a mob.
Posted by: actus at April 10, 2005 05:58 PM (EQbuu)
21
actus,
agreed. Education has NOTHING to do with a people's decency and humanity. Pre-war Germany was the most educated and sophisticated nation in the world, and look what it got us.
I'll take a god-fearing redneck over an art-loving Liberal any day of the week.
Posted by: Carlos at April 10, 2005 06:53 PM (8e/V4)
22
Carlos,
Sharp intelligentsia, members of the "Rational Technician Class", amorally subordinated to a paranoid Hubris-Nemesis leader is a very dangerous mix, indeed.
Posted by: Collin Baber at April 10, 2005 07:29 PM (FV4oJ)
23
That was silliness, Collin.r
Posted by: Robin Roberts at April 10, 2005 10:23 PM (xauGB)
24
Dear Robin,
Actually, there are precedents for rational technicians acting as efficient producers under a Hubris-Nemesis leader. Have a read of MR461 and you'll see.
Posted by: Collin Baber at April 10, 2005 11:07 PM (FV4oJ)
25
Rusty:
I've decided that joining academia on my own terms is the only way I want to get there, but I don't fault others for doing something different. Once you get tenure, screw 'em. But on the up side, I think academia has to level out because parents are now going to take greater care in choosing a school, which will hit universities in the wallet. They'll also start to lose endowments, etc. So there's going to be a big market correction.
And the sooner schools can convert to acquire a reputation for excellent conservative scholarship the more market share they'll be able to command. That's where all the opportunities lie.
Posted by: Demosophist at April 11, 2005 12:33 AM (Dfdj0)
26
Hmmm, let's start our own university. Untapped market-share....
Posted by: Rusty Shackleford at April 11, 2005 11:17 AM (JQjhA)
27
Great idea.
You could call it, "The George W. Bush University Of Reeducation". Surround it with concertina wire and fill it with dissidents and have "professors" like David Horowitz and Daniel Pipes. You could start the day by pledging allegiance to Israel and then spend the rest of the day teaching Creationism.
Posted by: greg at April 11, 2005 11:50 AM (/+dAV)
28
greg,
your "conservative university" is a caricature that can only exist in your mind.
But today's Liberal universities are real life cartoons. They really exist.
Posted by: Carlos at April 11, 2005 12:44 PM (8e/V4)
29
Maybe the problem is that there aren't enough intelligent conservatives in the world to staff an entire University.
Posted by: greg at April 11, 2005 01:25 PM (/+dAV)
30
greg,
do you really think "intelligence" is what separates Liberals from conservatives? I've been to DU and Daily Kos, so I know for a fact otherwise.
Posted by: Carlos at April 11, 2005 02:03 PM (8e/V4)
31
Conservatives just aren't geared to academia. They say stupid things like, "those who can do and those who can't teach". So I think the problem is that conservatives don't enter the arena becuase their parents don't encourage them to. Having been in academia myself I know for a fact that one's politics never even enters the discussion in University hiring committees.
Posted by: greg at April 11, 2005 02:11 PM (/+dAV)
32
"Hmmm, let's start our own university. Untapped market-share...."
Its called Bob Jones. Turns out some great minds.
Posted by: actus at April 11, 2005 02:26 PM (CqheE)
33
I believe inter-racial dating is against the policy at Bob Jones U. What a fine institution that is!
Posted by: greg at April 11, 2005 02:32 PM (/+dAV)
34
greg,
you may be right that most conservatives would rather DO than teach, thus it's possible fewer conservatives will choose academia. But I'm afraid you've reached the wrong conclusion based on that.
A conservative's choice to DO is separate and distinct from his ability teach. Don't get "choice" and "ability" mixed up. They're different.
Nor does their choice to DO rather than teach reflect on the validity of their ideas. For example, just because a fool and a con artist chooses to teach doesn't mean his ideas are better than a wiser man who's instead chosen to build furniture for a living.
Now, given that fewer conservatives end up in academia (for whatever reason), like fewer ethnic minorities do, where is the affirmative action for conservative thinkers? Is "diversity" merely a function of skin color? What about diversity of thought, and why do universities go out of their way to avoid diversity of thought.
Posted by: Carlos at April 11, 2005 02:57 PM (8e/V4)
35
"Now, given that fewer conservatives end up in academia (for whatever reason), like fewer ethnic minorities do, where is the affirmative action for conservative thinkers?"
My Ph.D. is in Molecular Biology. As a scientist I could care less whether one is a “conservative” thinker or a “liberal” thinker so no “affirmative action” is required. All I care about is the quality of ones science. Now you might address your question to a Political Scientist or a Sociologist and get a different answer. It may be that in the humanities the conservative/liberal paradigm has some meaning. But not in science and engineering.
Posted by: greg at April 11, 2005 03:16 PM (/+dAV)
36
hey greg, the Federal Reserve pays back to the Treasury all the interest it earns from it's loans to the government. So it makes no money from those loans. That puts a big hole in your paranoid conspiracy theory and I thought you should know.
Cheers
Posted by: Carlos at April 11, 2005 04:27 PM (8e/V4)
37
"hey greg, the Federal Reserve pays back to the Treasury all the interest it earns from it's loans to the government. So it makes no money from those loans."
We the American people are paying interest on our national debt. There's no need for this since we could just as easily print money to service the debt and pay no interest at all.
Posted by: greg at April 11, 2005 04:48 PM (/+dAV)
38
True, but then we'd have hyperinflation.
Posted by: Rusty Shackleford at April 11, 2005 05:16 PM (JQjhA)
39
Rusty's right, and that's the whole purpose of the Fed, to keep politicians from ruining the economy by doing exactly what greg suggested.
Posted by: Carlos at April 11, 2005 06:25 PM (8e/V4)
40
Shit: I'm white, male and have two SUV's.
Posted by: greyrooster at April 12, 2005 12:02 AM (CBNGy)
41
"True, but then we'd have hyperinflation."
WRONG! Instead of paying interest, we could be making payments on principal so there would actually be less inflation.
Kennedy tried to do this with the Silver Certificate dollars. He was assassinated 6 months later.
Posted by: greg at April 12, 2005 08:11 AM (/+dAV)
42
May I suggest a couple of books on the subject:
1) "The Creature from Jekyll Island : A Second Look at the Federal Reserve"
by G. Edward Griffin – right winger
or
2) "Secrets of the Temple: How the Federal Reserve Runs the Country" -- by William Greider
If I had to pick one I'd pick Griffin's book.
Posted by: greg at April 12, 2005 08:45 AM (/+dAV)
43
The problem is the US Government, which has built up so much debt that it taxes people and businesses to the point of being unable to compete in a global marketplace. As a result, American products are too costly, and are value-engineered (built as cheap as possible) to the point of being inferior to foreign-made products. The so-called "service economy" (the laughable notion that you can prosper a nation by doing each others' laundry for a fee) is starting to collapse as modern technology allows even service jobs, such as call centers and data processing, to be outsourced to other countries.
Look around. What does America make that anyone wants in enough quantity to support a country on?
Is this why we have adopted "home invasion" as a way of propping up our economy?
Posted by: greg at April 12, 2005 10:06 AM (/+dAV)
44
greg,
I own Secrets of the Temple, written by an insider, and have read most of it. There's nothing conspiratorial about it, so no offense but I think you're blowing hot air.
Posted by: Carlos at April 12, 2005 02:07 PM (8e/V4)
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