|
Townhall... Left State University
Mike Adams
William Irvine is a professor of philosophy at Wright State University.
He is one of the most courageous and honest professors in the country.
Recently, he wrote a column concerning Wright State’s decision to
invite the Reverend Jeremiah Wright to speak on his campus. Although he
disagrees with many of Reverend Wright’s views, he publicly welcomed
him to the campus because he believes that a university should be a
marketplace of ideas. That view alone makes Irvine exceptional among
today’s professoriate.
Irvine calls out his university for being “curiously one-sided in the
speakers it brings to campus.” He notes that liberal speakers are
routinely invited and that ultra-liberal speakers including Wright and
Angela Davis are occasionally invited. No one seems to think it strange
that avowed communists and those with significant criminal backgrounds
are paid to speak on campus at considerable expense to the taxpayer.
But politically conservative speakers are scarce and in the case of
John McCain and Sarah Palin pay for the privilege of using campus
facilities.
William Irvine is the rare professor willing to confront his
colleagues’ hypocrisy and to publicly quote their silly defenses of
rigid ideological conformity. When he confronted another professor with
the idea that the university should invite conservative speakers his
colleague responded by asking “You mean someone like Glenn Beck?” This
kind of reaction shows how off-center our universities have become.
What educated person could consider Glen Beck to be more extreme than
Angela Davis?
Another professor reacted to Irvine’s reasonable suggestion by saying
that it wouldn’t be a good idea to bring any Holocaust deniers to
campus. The statement is an odd one indeed. It suggests that most
conservatives refuse to accept the Holocaust as fact. I think liberal
supporters of abortion are today’s true Holocaust deniers.
Professor Irvine has discovered something I have also discovered about
the liberal professoriate; namely, that they see no reason for debate.
In their eyes, the debate is over on all the major issues of the day.
Of course, in their eyes they won all the major debates. Now, the
reward for winning these debates is that we can proceed into the
implementation phase. Of course, professors rarely use the word
“implementation.” They just mindlessly repeat the word “diversity” like
catatonics in padded cells.
Professor Irvine has also discovered that suggestions of bringing
people like Thomas Sowell to campus are met with one pretty serious
problem: Most liberal professors have never heard of Thomas Sowell.
Many years ago I suggested that Sowell should be required reading for
college students. The reaction was amazing. According to one of my
left-leaning colleagues - one who actually knows who Thomas Sowell is -
the students don’t need to read Sowell because they were raised in
conservative homes where those ideas were regularly espoused.
Notice the intellectual sleight of hand my “liberal” colleague
employed. His argument is against intellectual diversity. The $64,000
question: Why oppose intellectual diversity? The answer: Since parents
do it for eighteen years it is only fair that professors be allowed to
do it for four years.
Professor Irvine has accurately identified a big problem in saying that
it is now possible for students to get a college “education” without
ever encountering a conservative professor. But the problem is even
bigger than that. Most professors now believe it is desirable for
students to get a college “education” without ever encountering a
conservative professor. Their idea of “liberal education” is nothing
more than a poorly disguised war on conservatism. This
anti-conservative mindset is so entrenched that one of my “liberal”
colleagues wants to remove the entire Cameron School of Business from
UNC-Wilmington (where I teach). He explicitly stated that a school of
business has “no business at a liberal university.” Between his puerile
and antiquated lectures on Marxism he denies the existence of any
liberal bias. This is the personification of self-indulgence and
anti-intellectualism.
Professor William Irvine says that we do not have a fair hearing of
conservative views on campus but instead “liberal professors galore,
who will be happy to tell you what they imagine the conservative
viewpoint on various issues must be and why these viewpoints are
wrongheaded.” This statement is bull’s-eye accurate. And his follow-up
statement is brilliant: “This is a pale substitute for a genuine
political debate, but it is, on many campuses, what students have to
settle for.”
Good for him. This debate should remain focused on the shortchanged
students. College is not becoming less expensive. But it is becoming
less relevant.
The public challenge issued by Professor Irvine is one that every
professor, conservative or liberal, should issue to his university.
That challenge comes in two parts: 1) Hire at least a few conservative
professors. (I’m open to this idea. What better way to remedy the
historical oppression of conservatives!). 2) If you cannot stomach
hiring conservative professors then at least hire some conservative
speakers.
Of course, today’s “liberal” professor will agree to neither of those
suggestions. He uses affirmative action to promote his self-esteem not
to promote “a diversity of perspectives.” And he uses the word
“diversity” only to hide his deep-seated intellectual insecurity.
Our universities are no longer committed to revealing the truth. They
are committed to suppressing the truth. And among those truths is that
tolerance is not the academy’s most enduring intellectual achievement.
It is its most transparent moral weakness.
Read the column at Townhall
|
|
|
|
