11 Comments
On academic freedom: “Their exclusive medium and stylized rhetoric render them inaccessible to a large portion of the public whom they might endeavor to engage and educate.”
We don’t get cable, so we don’t buy TV’s, so we don’t watch their soaps.
A prominent campus figure explains what exactly Conservatism is.
Kenneth is real.
Image via Chrisday71/Flickr
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11 Comments
@conservative? I understand Learned’s nuanced characterization of the term, but it just seems to me that many, if not most, of the people interviewed at libertarian. Hollander says he’s a social liberal, Greenwald is something of a libertarian, St. Marie is a neo-liberal (suggestion his economic/foreign policy views are what move him to the right?), etc.
So, I loved the article, and I like Learned, but we should really parse these phrases like “conservative.”
That being said, I hope at the next fireside chat someone will ask Bollinger about adding conservative/libertarian faculty. It really is a shame, and I think we all (particularly liberals) would gain from having those voices. Sure, there’s the dean of the Business School and a handful of conservative economics professors (a couple of whom have won the Nobel), but those people aren’t really accessible to most of us.
@Identity Crisis Really fantastic article. It is sad though that hostile environments make your political identity instead of your own personal philosophy. For instance, I would say that I am liberal, but there are definitely people, angry people, that would–and in fact do–consider me conservative on campus. On the other hand, I come from a more conservative background, and back home, they are convinced that Columbia has turned me communist. Thus, I have settled on being moderate with the intention of pissing off the fewest people.
@yes surprisigly great photography as well in that article by Learned.
@indeed Joey is a fantastic photographer.
@big fan i love learned. i’m not so into his political views, but i LOVE learned. love him!!! :-)
@Kenneth I don’t vote Republican or Democrat. Choosing is a sin, so I always just write in the Lord’s name!
@token liberal Great article. He put a lot of things I have noticed about campus political culture on the page in a much clearer and more eloquent way than I ever could. Still, as someone who has shifted to the right so to speak since coming to Columbia, I still probably fall somewhere to the left of the dividing line, however arbitrary it may be. I think he could give more credit to the liberals on campus though, because we aren’t all one big tent (which isacknowledged). Just because liberals are the overwhelming majority on this campus doesn’t mean we all form some kind of united evil empire. I find myself very put off by some of the things CUDems has done, not to mention other “left” groups, Lucha and SDS come to mind. Obama built an enormous tent for liberals during the past two years, and many people are rapidly fleeing that tent after realizing they don’t really know how they got there. Bravo for the article, I’m sure the liberal phenomenon on campus deserves a similar dissection.
And btw, the photos in the print edition are kind of overdone. And by kind of I mean ridiculous. Just because you’re in an unpopular position doesn’t mean you get to have all the gravitas.
@The brand of American Conservatism that is displayed on the news is what irks most people about conservative movements. The crazy Christian fundamentalists have taken over the label. While I self-identify as a social liberal, and probably fiscally center/center-left, I wouldn’t have a problem with the conservative movement. I just don’t appreciate being told that I am going to hell if I support a woman’s right to choose or two men who want to get married. If big government is such a liberal idea, stop trying to use legislation to regulate how some people choose to live their lives…
@your objections... So do you object to the views themselves, or to the expression of those views in religious terms? In other words, do you object to opposition to gay marriage or abortion, for instance, or to opposition to gay marriage or abortion in a religious pretext? I take it that you are aware that one can be opposed to both without scriptural justification, for reasons that may either be different or even perhaps the same as those that motivated the scriptural authors. In other words, one can be opposed to the same things that the authors of the scriptures were opposed to for different, or even for the same reasons, as either revealed or hidden or implied, expressly reasoned or inexpressibly conveyed — and not derive one’s opposition from the scriptural text. No?
@I'm not so sure While I respect Learned and conservatives who voice their views on campus, some of his claims ranged from unsusbtantiated to ludicrous. In particular, his claim that exporting democracy is ‘a liberal belief held by many recent presidents’.
@hi there more than anything, he explained how conservatism isn’t one thing, and liberalism isn’t either. Great article though.