Re: however, this is a tragic situation

I think both John and Luke miss the point a bit - the article is about
Ivy League Schools, not most U's in the country. So I believe John;
there are probably quite a few conservatives in his department. I also
believe the article's description about the Ivy's, though.

That whole thing about the irrelevance of the academy is pretty silly.
No one of any intelligence in the US thinks they have a bright future
without a college education, and most feel they need at least a Master's
degree in order to really get anywhere.

Next step is to ask yourself, "Who is teaching all these future BAs and
MAs, and how can they possibly be irrelevant since _everyone_ has to go
through them to get their degree."

I will say I've spent my entire academic career as a conservative in a
University setting, and haven't found any shortage of people who enjoyed
my participation in class and worked to help me advance to the next
level. Some positively enjoyed it -- there was a great deal of
entertainment value in it for them. A conservative in the middle of a
tediously politically correct parade livens things up quite a bit.

I'd also add that political ideology isn't the only important thing to
professors, and with many it's not important at all. Creativity and
intelligence and personality and hard work have a lot to do with it too.

Jim

jlsmith3@earthlink.net wrote:

> While the article identifies a situation in which a political
> conservative might consider himself a victim, it's telling that the
> writer does not exhort conservatives to action based on such a victim
> status. Indeed, "conservative" might lose its highly political
> connotations in a university setting where liberal activism is at the
> center of the political spectrum. In such a setting, a student not
> particularly interested in the same political issues or activist
> methods might be a conservative if a label is necessary. The
> consequence of "conservative" meaning somehwat apathetic, or
> uninterested in collective action, is clear: Even on campuses
> committed to intellectual diversity, rarely will people whose opinions
> and/or backgrounds truly represent a contribution to this kind of
> diversity challenge the university's claim to live up to its
> principles. Perhaps this is the best thing. Academia is irrelevant to
> a great many people in our society, and to challenge it based on the
> notion that it even should live up to a higher standard than one would
> expect in general society flatters it far too much. luke
> -----Original Message-----
> From: Omlor@aol.com
> Sent: Sep 27, 2003 7:48 AM
> To: bananafish@roughdraft.org
> Subject: Re: however, this is a tragic situation
>
> Awwwwww,
>
> Poor oppressed conservatives. My perpetually bleeding heart now
> bleeds for them.
>
> And I do get to teach Plato's The Republic, just like in sad,
> underprivileged little Harvard Ph.D. Gary's dreams.
>
> Won't you send us just one dollar day, and adopt one of these poor,
> starving conservative academics? You can make a hungry young Ivy
> League scholar's dreams come true....
>
> I guess life is just so much easier for those of us who weren't born
> on the wrong side of the tracts.
>
> This whole article is, of course, silly. There are a great number of
> conservatives just in my hallway alone. Our Medievalist makes George
> Bush look like Gene McCarthy. But I guess it's always good policy to
> make yourself the victim, even for those who decry the new popularity
> of victimhood everywhere else.
>
> What hypocritical nonsense.
>
> --John
>
>
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Received on Sat Sep 27 10:21:11 2003