Victimhood in the Ivory Tower.
Mary Madigan of Exit Zero describes the goings-on at a conference sponsored by New York University, entitled, “Academic Freedom in the Age of Permanent Warfare.†The title of the conference is just a teensy bit suggestive of its content and caused me to wonder just who the enemies of academic freedom might be.
Mary reports that the keynote speaker answered that question when he identified the enemies of academic freedom to “include the ‘rabid right’ and/or ‘Republicans, conservatives, the elderly, and the uneducated.’â€
Sounds like a real fun guy.
Read the whole thing, all the way to the end. The final sentence is priceless.
I thought about getting a PhD in English at one point in my education. I decided not to, because of what I’d have to endure as a conservative. You see, it is really funny (not ha ha) that the people who scream that they are being censored or silenced (while having a university paid-for lunch and other goodies) would be the first to shout down and ridicule ANYONE who thinks differently than them.
Our study of the humanities has crashed because of the garbage some high school teachers and 99 percent of the college academics shove down the throats of students as gaia truth (I’d say God-forbid, but that would threaten their well-being, eh?). People aren’t encouraged to think for themselves. The nutjobs want to do the thinking and preaching (how funny that they are just like the stereotype they project onto conservatives).
This world is just crazy on a loop.
Comment by RT — April 13, 2008 @ 12:56 pm
I don’t get it, dude.
The Constitution is a fine document, but I have to confess that there are just some days when the whole “Congress shall make no law…abridging the freedom of speech, or of the press†part of the First Amendment irritates the hell out of me.
Why should peeps be allowed to maliciously and vociferously spread anti-American rhetoric, such as what seemed to be on tap at this “Academic Freedom†conference and get away with it? Ayyy, ohhh…trying to run a country here! Should undermining Amerikkka, and weakening her in the eyes of her enemies (talking to you, Nancy & Jimmah!) also be included in our First Amendment rights?
Reminds me, I always see peeps wearing buttons that say, “It’s patriotic to dissent.†Well! It’s also patriotic to not burn and shit on American flags (a Left Coast favorite pastime), and burn effigies of our president and the Troops, who they want so badly to come home (WTF? Logic? Uh, buh-bye).
It was a great piece (I love FrontPageMag!), as much as it disgusted me. Bravo to Mary Madigan for being brave enough to stifle her gag reflex and trudge through the murk to get such a great story.
Comment by Erica — April 13, 2008 @ 1:45 pm
ACADEMICS IN ENGINEERING AND THE HARD SCIENCES FELT NO SOLIDARITY WITH THE HUMANITIES.
Geez, how could they. Hard science accepts the fact that there are absolutes. The humanities, dealing largely with human behavior, has evolved to the point they preach that there are no absolutes. This is probably the reason courses in logic have almost disappeared from the university campus. Logic gets in the way of their baseless, largely emotion driven, agenda.
Personally, I hope it stays that way. After all, who wants to cross a bridge designed by a PHD in Ethnic Studies?
Comment by Tbird — April 13, 2008 @ 5:52 pm
You know… funny what Tbird is quoting. Everyone talks about the Liberal Professors and for the longest time I have thought, “Oh, those OTHER institutions” because I surely didn’t see them at mine. But… majoring in the hard sciences, I wouldn’t.
Comment by Bou — April 13, 2008 @ 10:57 pm
Whoo boy the libs were entrenched at every school I attended post-high-school. En. Trenched. their ideologies are a virulent cancer infecting the young malleable minds before they’ve had a chance to see “the other side.”
I have spoken.
Comment by dogette — April 14, 2008 @ 9:12 am