Friends, like me you may be wondering: why are Americans so angry? Is it the fact that they live in the freest, most dynamic, and most materially blessed society in human history? No, that can't be it. There's little doubt that our intense hostility to those who disagree with us is cultivated, and it's easy to blame the media for much of this. I recommend the following article to you, though, which argues that political intolerance may be primarily a by-product of American higher education. In other words, it's professors (like me!) who may be to blame. I agree, to a point. It's hard to deny that intolerance thrives on many college campuses, especially at the elite level. Nuttiness seems to incubate with startling efficiency in academia, and then, like a cancer, it spreads to other parts of our body politic. Food for thought.
https://www.realclearpolitics.com/articles/2019/03/21/the_most_politically_intolerant_americans_139810.html
Please also read this essay by Florida Sen. Rick Scott. He talks about the reasons for the migration from high-tax states to low-tax states. Americans are voting with their feet for conservative, limited government, and they have been for decades.
https://outline.com/xMpdVt
Dr. Waddy: This really floats my boat. Having lived as a somewhat conscious "semiadult" through the sixties I think I CAN offer a plausible and empirically supportable theory as to why "older Americans and people living in sizeable cities" would now display such reflexive leftist political bigotry.
ReplyDeleteFirst: "older Americans"; that category now comically embraces my generation, those of (surprise, surprise, unrealized Aquarian and utopian expectations and those many who aged reasonably too). For those who thought their very births had brought on the millenium, cities were havens of reinforcement for their dreams since the hinterland was unforgiveably engaged in making a living and living the atavistic institution of the traditional nuclear family (after all, "Meathead" and his mate had put paid to that on network TV, hadn't they Norman Lear?).
It was no coincidence that since sizeable cities hosted UC Berkeley and UCLA, Columbia, Harvard, Brown, Wisconsin, Penn, and eventually even UT Austin, Georgia and even U. of Montana, that the leftist poison spread. It was there that tragically misled America haters exemplified their withering disdain and they found avatars all over the country(eg. Oberlin, SUNY New Paltz and Buffalo) in settings in which their bigotry was unchallenged and often exalted, to this day.
I say to the authors of the article: this was so because my generation grew up blessedly protected from the travails which made the preceding "Greatest Generation" wise and were flim flammed by Marxist profs in the colleges to which they flocked in unprecedented numbers( college after all had, before WWII, been available mainly only to swells; after the war,GI Bill college bound veterans sick to death of conflict and convinced they had risked all for America, would never have tolerated Marxist lies), in 1965. I was there as a freshman in '65 and I saw it first hand - the ingratitude and fantasy!The ONLY reason our generation had such influence was because there were so damned many of us (and anyone who can imagine the joy of those WWII survivors knows why we were so multitudinous, yes?!).
Well said, Jack. I take your point that the space cadets who currently rule the roost in academia are part of the legacy of the Marxist profs of the 60s and 70s -- those intrepid trailblazers! In your day, though, I think you'd agree that the Marxist and radical profs were a minority of faculty, or at the very least there were some SANE academicians to keep them honest. What's interesting is how mono-cultural academia has become in recent years, as Republicans and conservatives have slowly been consigned to the metaphorical slag heap. I guess all this means is that obliterating the right takes time, when one factors in tenure. The task is almost done, however. Very sad.
ReplyDeleteDr. Waddy: I agree that the Marxists were in the minority then but it didn't take many of them to pollute a tragically naive multitude which then spread the word. They were opposed; the little state college I was at from 65-67 showed most of the comrades the door.
ReplyDeleteI agree: the American "university" is lost; so lets marginalize and contain it. I have a brilliant nephew who is employed as a true research scientist -he's paid to theorize and predict - in a very advanced setting. He has nothing formal beyond his Bachelor's. Another relative is a very well regarded manager in the "computer" field and his father tells me he is very hesitant to hire candidates with many formal academic credentials. Before WWII most people didn't go to college. If our culture and economy were to move, FREELY that is, toward a realization that college is not the best bet for many, we might see the academy's influence wane as both its prestige and its actual contact with impressionable youth is reduced. Of course such as AOC and Sanders want free college; they are going to need Commissars, lots and lots of 'em, at all levels all the way down to homerooms.
Dr. Waddy: I remember being assigned in the '60's to read David Reisman's The Lonely Crowd. I don't remember much about it but its title and time may help explain why cities were havens and breeding grounds for radicals in the boomer's salad days and may remain so to this day for those of truly harrowing totalitarian intent. Consider Simon and Garfunkle's NYC inspired "I am a Rock". Consider Bernie's gestational early '60's Greenwich Village. Believe me, the antiAmericanism which exploded on us in the mid'6o's was a profound shock. Most of us in the real America simply could not believe that this bizarre aberration had any lasting power. Yes, I admit I was briefly involved with it but I wised up in jack time. It took years of a relentless and ever burgeoning ingratious leftist assault on all we value to open our eyes. All along, many metropoli and "university" towns were incubating and weaning the America haters because there their reflexive disdain was tolerated and in many settings, exalted. Why? Because those places were swamps of perversions of all kinds! Its obvious why the fundamental America would view them with a gimlet eye; it did not want their degradation visited upon their homes. Mayberry and "the Beaver's" neighborhood were not illusions; they were very real - I lived in a place right out of "Leave it to Beaver". Sure, they ignored certain aspects of their settings (but I do remember Ward Cleaver briefly discussing with another veteran their WWII experiences, to an audience many of whom knew just what they were talking about, in all its carnal horror) but no more so than the "enlightened" and "liberated" shows beginning with All in the Family, which purposefully ignored positive aspects of our culture and celebrated ingratitude in its disgraceful depiction of WWII vet Archie. What did Norman Lear expect of him, I ask, or what does the disdainful to this day Rob Reiner ignorantly urge?
ReplyDeleteDr. Waddy: I was not allowed to read Rick Scott's article but I can express an opinion on that syndrome with which I know you are well acquainted due to our residence in the dukedom of NY. Its not only the taxes; I'm ashamed beyond measure to have the common sense real America understandably judge my convictions by the presumptuously expressed biases of our far leftist Governor, with the support now of his rubber stamp legislature. He says he speaks for NY State in his possibly treasonous resistance to President Trump and the rule of law in a U.S. the majority of which our Governor despises. Its simple: we cannot outvote that lala land tumor on the Hudson, his base, NYC! We just don't have the numbers. But in most of our state (witness our county by county rejection of Cuomo's unconstitutional assault on the 2nd Amendment - "so, sue me" he says, knowing that it won't come out of his pocket); we reject him and stand with you in support of the American way. Its not just the taxes. But how can we leave our homes? For most of us, life is like that of rural communities everywhere, like that of the midwest and the mountain East.
ReplyDeleteOne thing is presently certain: after the last state legislative election, we have no power; we are subjects, not citizens and we lack the numerical elective power to change this. Learn from our quandry: this is what the left intends for the nation! Be certain of this and oppose those who have degraded us wherever they invade your homes (eg Virginia). Someday you may come to our rescue but meanwhile, take as a lesson our subjugation.
Jack, you're right that American higher ed is overrated, and plenty of students are wasting their time there. They could learn more efficiently and usefully in other settings -- but we've already seen how skilled academia is at protecting its educational monopoly (and expanding the market). It did a number on for-profit schools. The other obvious alternative is training provided directly by industry -- and that many well be flourishing, but usually it exists to supplement higher ed, not to replace it.
ReplyDeleteThe correlation between cities and degeneracy/rejection of traditional values goes back a long way. Several centuries, at least, but for thousands of years it seems to me cities were also the breeding grounds of high culture. Perhaps it's Marxism that poisoned urbanity for all time... Marxism empowered an aggrieved mass of the urban poor, who were perhaps more inclined to reject cultural norms than the elites. Another consideration is the withering of traditional religion in urban settings, especially in the 19th and 20th centuries. I don't profess to understand fully how cities went so far off the rails, but they sure have.
True, Jack -- we New Yorkers have much to complain about, and taxes are just one item on the list. Yes, we're an object lesson that purple state residents can learn from. I fear, though, that even we are spared the full brunt of "progressive" rule given the nature of the federal courts -- but that safeguard could be short-lived...
Dr. Waddy; Good point about the redeeming aspects of cities. True, there was the 18th-19th century gin hell of London, which drove many men into the onerous life of the British Army but there was also LONDON and all that it means.
ReplyDeleteAndrew Cuomo's frantic drive to impose as many of his far left dreams as he can, well, dream up suggests that he's determined to take his chances with the unforgiveably incipient lawful Federal judiciary. "I mean, so sue me! That takes lotsa time and I may still win. If I lose a few - machts nichts. The Supreme Court could still flip" (out?).
We can hope that if the progressives accomplish the suicide to which they appear to be devoted, that they will take the anti intellectual leftist American academy with them.
Yes, Jack -- I suspect Gov. Cuomo relishes the thought of taking on conservative federal judges. After all, in a blue state, even when he loses he wins...
ReplyDeleteWhat would it take to drive a stake through the heart of leftist academia? Much time, patience, and determination, surely -- perhaps more than the right has at its disposal. Just putting the fear of God into the lefties would be a decent start. As soon as they fear losing federal funds, or donor dollars, they may pull back from the brink of madness...
Dr. Waddy: President Trump has broken ground on this with his recent executive order promising scrutiny unto defunding for "universities" which gorge on federal funding while blithely advancing and excusing the views of Marxist apologists who would willingly enslave the taxpayer and destroy the nation and who support suppressing any opposition with career ending and socially onerous sanctions. I intend to apprise him of the consummate leftist bigotry of my taxpayer supported college, SUNY New Paltz.
ReplyDeleteHear hear! May the administration find a way of translating that E.O. into ACTION, because action is sorely needed.
ReplyDelete