Reasonable people can disagree about the merits of David Horowitz’s proposed Academic Bill of Rights, but the liberal response to it is occasionally confusing in an interesting way.
For example, Joan Wallach Scott, a historian at the Institute for Advanced Study in Princeton, speaking at a panel on “Academic Freedom and Middle East Studies” sponsored by the Princeton Middle East Society, claimed that Horowitz’s proposal, as well as Daniel Pipes’ Campus Watch,
have promoted an atmosphere of fear that leads to self-policing by professors and administrators. She described their efforts to bring the judiciary and legislature to bear on hiring, grading, and class content as “affirmative action for the conservative agenda.”
I’m confused. I thought liberals thought affirmative action was a good thing. Maybe it’s a good thing only for liberals.
Even in a free society, people can’t do and say exactly as they please. We’d be a nation of toddlers if we did. So what happens, in order of preference, is that people exercise self-restraint, or there is policing within a group, or there is policing from outside the group. If college professors are having to hold each other to some kind of standard, isn’t that better than the legislature having to step in, as Erin O’Connor’s blog has repeatedly chronicled?
“I’m confused. I thought liberals thought affirmative action was a good thing. Maybe it’s a good thing only for liberals.”
well, the academy, probably the most intellectually diverse institution of american society, hasn’t had 300 years of exclusion by force and law against conservatism. The chicago school would be quite surprised if that was the case.
“… hasn’t had 300 years of exclusion by force and law against conservatism”
True enough, but certainly nobody would find fault with not waiting around 300 years for someone else to stand up for them.
“True enough, but certainly nobody would find fault with not waiting around 300 years for someone else to stand up for them.”
And once those 300 years have passed, we would pass some anti-discrimination laws, proclaim equality achieved, and pat ourselves on the back for being such good liberals.
“well, the academy, probably the most intellectually diverse institution of american society,”
There’s an eye opener. I wonder how many people believe this?
Once you divorce the “left” from “liberals” (the left is not liberal), this might make more sense to you.
well, the academy, probably the most intellectually diverse institution of american society [. . .]
mj, my eyebrows went up at that one too. Personally, I think you’d find more fundamentally differing views on any number of basic questions among the workers in a meat-packing plant than you would in a UC/Berkeley humanities department. (Just a guess, of course; I’ve experienced the second environment first-hand, but not the first.) But I suppose actus’s point is that if you’re going to be “intellectually diverse,” it’s helpful to be an “intellectual” first.
“There’s an eye opener. I wonder how many people believe this?”
I really don’t see any other institutions where you still have things as diverse as a liberal feminist all the way to the james madison program at princeton, and probably much more. There’s even some old guy at chicago university that regularly writes about how uppity girls are these days.
Of course, expanding the academy to include corporate and wealthy funded “think tanks” outside of universities will give you even more viewpoints. But I think those will say mostly the same thing, with a few exceptions.
“Personally, I think you’d find more fundamentally differing views on any number of basic questions among the workers in a meat-packing plant than you would in a UC/Berkeley humanities department”
Why limit it to 1 department in 1 school?
And while you may find very different viewpoints among people, you won’t find people expressing those viewpoints as opposed to just packing meat at a meatpacking plant. They may be more concerned about working and keeping their jobs. Then again, they may well be speaking spanish too.
Leon Kass is the guy at chicago, and you’ll get a kick out his “The End of Courtship”
actus,
Why limit it to 1 department in 1 school?
Perhaps because I thought your “the academy,” American Institution, was painted with rather a broad brush? There is no “The Academy,” thank God, though there are are a couple dozen institutions that think they are.
And while you may find very different viewpoints among people, you won’t find people expressing those viewpoints as opposed to just packing meat at a meatpacking plant. They may be more concerned about working and keeping their jobs. Then again, they may well be speaking spanish too.
Ah, yes. Viewpoints don’t matter so long as they are not expressed. But that isn’t what we we were talking about, was it? It was what the viewpoints actually were, or at least whatever you mean by “intellectual diversity.”
“Once you divorce the “left” from “liberals” (the left is not liberal), this might make more sense to you.”
I would agree that the academy includes the range of liberal to left. Why you think these two viewpoints constitute abnormally high diversity is a mystery.
“I suppose actus’s point is that if you’re going to be “intellectually diverse,” it’s helpful to be an “intellectual” first.”
I suppose you’re right. But this makes the comment little more than a tautological conclusion, and even then it’s still wrong if you expand the definition beyond strict academics.
“Viewpoints don’t matter so long as they are not expressed.”
You’ll find it hard for them to matter if they’re not expressed in some way. At least matter to the rest of us.
“But that isn’t what we we were talking about, was it? It was what the viewpoints actually were, or at least whatever you mean by “intellectual diversity.””
What I mean by intellectual diversity is a range of ideas being expressed, promoted, and put before others in open. I don’t think you really see that in most other institutions in our society.
‘well, the academy, probably the most intellectually diverse institution of american society’
That must account for the voter registration patterns.
“That must account for the voter registration patterns.”
It is a side-effect of disunity among the democrats that there be more diversity among 100 democrats than among the same numbers of republicans.
actus,
It is a side-effect of disunity among the democrats that there be more diversity among 100 democrats than among the same numbers of republicans.
Now that is certified b.s., whatever else you say. I’ll wager that libertarian hawks and social-conservative protectionist isolationists both voted in droves for Bush in 2004. Have those two cohorts anything at all in common beyond detesting the alternative? You want “diversity,” you got it.
“I’ll wager that libertarian hawks and social-conservative protectionist isolationists both voted in droves for Bush in 2004. Have those two cohorts anything at all in common beyond detesting the alternative? You want “diversity,” you got it.”
But are they republicans?
And within democrats we have the free trade neoliberals of clinton and the fair trade protectionists of UNITE. Whatever.
But when people tell me the democrats are of several minds on the issue of say, the war, then they tell me that there is more diversity of opinion within democrats.
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