-Caveat Lector-
Your points are well taken, DG. Individual departments within academia are
politicized. It has a lot to do with job security, career advancement and
the usual office politics that can be found in most large institutions.
But many of the individuals in academia who claim to be PC are anything
but. Academics are as racist and mean-spirited as many individuals in the
general population (sometimes more so). Many of the champions of PC are
complete hypocrites....but hypocrites can be found in any number of
different professions: doctors, lawyers, businessmen, etc.
A similar opportunistic dynamic occurs on the "conservative" side of the
political spectrum. If you were to attend an institution in the south,
you would find that some academics are eager to jump on the neo-liberal or
conservative bandwagon...because it's rather trendy these days to be
a "libertarian" or market enthusiast.
There has always been a war going on within academia.... Conservatives
pack their departments with colleagues who are sympathetic to their
views, and leftists do the same. Some of the departments at major
universities begin to take on the characteristics of covens....one has to
be a member of the particular cult in order to have job security.
If the left dominates and controls the political climate at SF State and
Cal, one can go to Vanderbilt, Clemson, Tulane, SMU any number of
institutions in the south for a right wing version of the same dynamic.
Sometimes these squabbles break out into the open. Look at what happened
at Yale. They had to build a separate English department for the Bloom
contingent. The constant bickering, sniping, bad blood and "dirty tricks"
is just the way the game is played in academe.
But Parenti's criticism has some validity. Universities are not outside
the realm of politics... They are dependent on corporate and government
largesse...so they are not going to bite the hand that feeds them. Also,
notice how education in America increasingly has a great deal to do with
socialization, entertainment, "the university experience," sports, finding
an affluent mate...and very little to do with critical thinking.
This "dumbing down" is not the result of evil PC liberals...on the
contrary... it's a result of post-industrial capitalism. Corporate
America needs consumers....sheep who will do what they're told. They
would prefer an educational system that prepares individuals to follow
orders, not question authority.
Regards,
Wm
On Mon, 20 Sep 1999, Das GOAT wrote:
> -Caveat Lector-
>
> In a message dated 99-09-19 22:31:39 EDT, [EMAIL PROTECTED] writes:
>
> >The purging of dissidence within the universities continues to this day. More
> >frequent but less visible than the firings are the nonhirings. Highly
> >qualified social scientists who are also known progressives have applied for
> >positions at places too numerous to mention, only to be turned down in favor
> >of candidates who--as measured by their training, publications, and teaching
> >experience--are far less qualified.
> > Scholars of a dissident bent are regularly discriminated against in the
> >distribution of research grants and scholar ships. After writing "The Power
> >Elite," C. Wright Mills was abruptly cut off from foundation funding. To
> this day,
> >radical academics are rarely considered for appointments within their
> >professional associations and are regularly passed over for prestigious
> lecture
> >invitations and appointments to editorial boards of the more influential
> >professional journals.
>
> Gee, thanks for the reminder ...
> And here I was, starting to take more seriously my wife's suggestion that I
> return to school, get a higher degree, and teach, while developing a
> reputation as a scholar ... Yeah, right -- like they'd ALLOW an iconoclast
> like *me* to have tenure ... ROFL
>
> I take issue with the author of this piece, however, on his rather sweeping
> claim that the "conservatization" of the university system is as near-total
> as he makes it sound. He didn't tell you, for example, that the
> aforementioned Angela Davies, after being denied tenure everywhere else,
> finally found a home at MY alma mater, San Francisco State U. (once rivalling
> UC Berkeley in radicalism, and still proud of it), now an EXTREMELY PC
> institution, where the polar opposite of his thesis was the rule, speaking
> from first-hand experience. (My description could be confirmed by the Old
> Lefties among the school's administrators, with whom I used to hang out,
> sharing shudders as we contemplated the icy ideologism and quasi-fascist
> conduct of this "New Guard.")
>
> To win my degree in interdisciplinary Soc Sci and graduate second in my class
> with a 4.0 GPA --in THAT major (I was a double major, the other being Clin
> Psy, where faculty bias was even more rampant)-- I'd frequently had to go
> over the heads of martinet PC professors to more rational and seasoned
> department heads to get a fair hearing and a less "ideological" appraisal of
> my papers, which, in subject matter, were sometimes controversial (to PC
> eyes) but flawlessly researched by other criteria of scholarship.
>
> So, personal experience in this one particular academic discipline --the
> field perhaps MOST vulnerable to political pressure (sometimes brute but
> often subtler and more insidious) from the "social engineering"-minded "New
> Left"-- leaves no doubt in my mind that there IS a quite influential and
> powerful PC "counterculture" in academia today -- but it IS mostly confined
> to certain niches (e.g., the STATE university system in some places like
> Kalifornia and increasingly popular "women's" colleges like Antioch) which
> capital-A Academia (still defined by the Ivy League campuses for the
> next-generation conservative elite and corporate Business Schools like MIT)
> holds in some disrepute, and it IS a minority point of view -- although, I
> must emphasize, it is a vocal and highly ORGANIZED one, making up for its
> small size by its stronger "networking" throughout academia and its strategy
> for making its "truths" appear more substantial than they are and more widely
> held, using two means: (1) ignoring the existence of any other point of view
> in overview, and (2) citing only its own "authorities," who only quote each
> other, incestuously and in "separatist" fashion. (Mirrors reflecting
> mirrors, till just a few voices sound like a great multitude.) And also, by
> their wanton disregard of rules in social science against falsifying data and
> against over-extrapolating conclusions from small and biased samplings --
> rules they deliberately (and secretively) break in the name of "furthering
> The Cause" -- thereby MANUFACTURING and REINFORCING those very "variables"
> which they only claim to be "studying." Which is why earlier I used the term
> "social engineering" -- a nod to their "Social CONSTRUCTION of Reality"
> hypothesis, hallowed as epistemological dogma by these Politically Correct
> "social scientists."
>
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DECLARATION & DISCLAIMER
==========
CTRL is a discussion and informational exchange list. Proselyzting propagandic
screeds are not allowed. Substance—not soapboxing! These are sordid matters
and 'conspiracy theory', with its many half-truths, misdirections and outright
frauds is used politically by different groups with major and minor effects
spread throughout the spectrum of time and thought. That being said, CTRL
gives no endorsement to the validity of posts, and always suggests to readers;
be wary of what you read. CTRL gives no credeence to Holocaust denial and
nazi's need not apply.
Let us please be civil and as always, Caveat Lector.
========================================================================
Archives Available at:
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