Controversy continues at Duke University. Some students are claiming that there is bias against conservatives, and that there isn’t enough intellectual diversity among the faculty (in the history department there are 32 registered Democrats to 0 Republicans, for example). There is more here, where you can find the chair of the philosophy department saying this amazing thing: "We try to hire the best, smartest people available. If, as John Stuart Mill said, stupid people are generally conservative, then there are lots of conservatives we will never hire.
Mill’s analysis may go some way towards explaining the power of the Republican party in our society and the relative scarcity of Republicans in academia. Players in the NBA tend to be taller than average. There is a good reason for this. Members of academia tend to be a bit smarter than average. There is a good reason for this too."
Critical Mass has a lot more and is following it in more detail than I am willing to. I don’t find all this surprising (I’ve been around too long!) and I do find the Liberals’ predictable reactions and lies brazen; as is said to Falstaff,"Give me leave to tell you you lie in your throat." I hope the mischief by the students continues, and I hope that the professors--who are as false as water--are at least made uneasy by the questioning.
A fellow graduate student in my philosophy department forwarded me this very article once it was published. It provided some interesting conversation.
Those in the pro-affirmative action camp used to argue for their position by appealing to a theory of justice where affirmative action is justified as a means of reparation for past injustices. However, this argument, for many reasons, has become unfashionable. Arguing for affirmative action by appealing to "diversity," whatever that means, is the only argument heard today by students and professors. It is almost taken as an a priori truth that diversity, whatever this might be, is necessary to become educated.
Yet it is acceptable to those who embrace diversity to oppose more diversity in academia by leveling out liberal influences of liberal professors (and I had no idea how much liberal indoctrination can occur in the classroom until I started graduate school). When I suggested that their premises entailed that we ought to hire more conservatives at this university, possibly even granting "extra consideration" because of their minority status, I was called, quite common on campus today, a "Nazi." Sigh...
I am a conservative and I teach at the college level. I share office space with several folks including a gentleman who has a picture of the Vietnam Communist flag with the following quote: "Nothing is more precious than Freedom and Independence" - Ho Chi Minh. There are "protest" signs in his cube, clearly visible as you enter the room, that state: American worker, American Dream, Both lost to Corporate Greed..."
I am a minority. Most of students come to figure out that I am a Christian conservative but I do not advertise the fact. I REALLY want to give them the option, at the beginning of the semester, to run for a liberal professor if they so chose by telling them that I am biased, open conservative and unashamed of my "Nazi" status in academia, that I have come out of my right-wing closet and I wish everyone to embrace my ideals and attitudes and values and culture because it will free you from the shackles and chains of believing the lies of the Liberal Left that we should sacrifice anything good and decent and moral on the altar of tolerance and diversity. Diverse, my eye! Conservative are a threat, particularly the left-minded college campuses around the globe who believe they MUST "liberate" their students rather than educate.
I’m wanting for the Homeland Security folks to show up for a threat assessment of the influence of conservative professors on their students...