It's even better than that. Ely was canned specifically for announcing to a class the date and time of a lecture by Emma Goldman! (She tells the story in LIVING MY LIFE.) "J. Barkley Rosser, Jr." wrote: > > As a followup to Doug's remarks on the potential > "dangerousness" of economics, I note that many of the > key cases in academia in the early twentieth century that > led to the institution of tenure involved professors of > economics who were fired due to allegedly espousing > socialist ideas, much to the discomfiture of wealthy > individuals with power over the academic institutions in > question. > One of the most famous of these, with which Peter > Dorman is certainly aware, involved the founder of the > American Economic Association (in its origins a heterodox > institution, hah!), Robert T. Ely, an institutionalist labor economist > who supported a lot of things like workmens' compensation > and who even wrote a sympathetic book entitled _Socialism > and Social Reform_. In 1892 there was an effort to fire Ely > from the University of Wisconsin at Madison because of his > ideas. This was eventually blocked by the oversight body, > the Board of Regents, who in doing so issued a statement > that has since been viewed as the central ideal of the university, > (not sure I can quote this exactly, but...) "whatever the limitations > that may be placed upon the pursuit of knowledge, at the > University of Wisconsin we shall not do anything that will > limit that fearless sifting and winnowing by which alone the > truth shall be known" (or something like that). Anyway, > "sifting and winnowing" is now as sacred a phrase at the > UW as "Go Big Red!" and "have another beer and brat, > cheeseheads!" and a plaque with the famous quote (which > I have mangled somewhat, except for the "sifting and winnowing" > part (which went over well at a heavily ag oriented school)) was > placed and still remains on the front of Bascom Hall in the center > of the old campus, right where lots of the demos used to take place. > BTW, it was the 1950s when the institutionalist infuence in > the AEA was finally expunged by the mainstream neoclassicals in > a major power struggle. I leave it to you all to put the ideology > of that one together.... > Barkley Rosser > -----Original Message----- > From: Doug Henwood <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> > To: [EMAIL PROTECTED] <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> > Date: Monday, May 17, 1999 7:22 PM > Subject: [PEN-L:6928] Re: Re: petit bourgeois > > >Peter Dorman wrote: > > > >>Moreover, there is no > >>simple correspondence between what people believe and their class > >>background. This sort of ideology critique is mechanical and > >>procrustean. Ideas are much too mediated for that framework to apply. > >>(Why am I reminded of sociobiology all of a sudden?) > > > >I don't know, why are you? Does it have anything to do with the alleged > >similarities between Judith Butler and Robert Lucas? > > > >Of course there is no simple correspondence between what people believe and > >their class background. On the other hand, there is *some* nontrivial > >relation between ideas and class positions, between ideology and real > >social institutions and practices. > > > >To tie it to the issue that started all this, changing class relations have > >something to do with the decline of radical economics and the hegemony of > >neoclassical economics, no? The bourgeoisie is in no mood to tolerate > >critics these days, and they don't have to, what with the working class its > >back and the USSR a memory. As no less than H.L. Mencken put it: > > > >"[Economics] hits the employers of the professors where they live. It > >deals, not with ideas that affect those employers only occasionally or only > >indirectly or only as ideas, but with ideas that have an imminent and > >continuous influence upon their personal welfare and security, and that > >affect profoundly the very foundations of that social and economic > >structure upon which their whole existence is based. It is, in brief, the > >science of the ways and means whereby they have come to such estate, and > >maintain themselves in such estate, that they are able to hire and boss > >professors." > > > >Not to be mechanical or procrustean or anything. > > > >Doug > > > > Peter
