Misdirected Openness
As Instantman says, the author of this article on university campus conservatives seems to be straining a bit too hard to blame outside forces for the rightward trend he discusses even as he documents it, almost as though he is hoping that these students couldn't have come up with any of these ideas on their own. I'd say it's a perfectly natural response to the stultifying atmosphere of political correctness and identity politics that make up the "establishment" at most college campuses. Nevertheless the piece is a fascinating look at the changing face of campus conservative activism.
Politics aside, these young conservatives, as they are quoted in the article, often seem to make a lot more sense than some of their professors.
One Geoff Schneider, an economics prof., worries that the young conservatives may have been making too much headway in persuading their fellow students that the university is, in the author's phrase, "infected by political correctness and that professors seek to indoctrinate students with a liberal agenda."
Or Schneider puts it: "the openness of a number of students to new ideas and new ways of looking at things has actually moved in a disturbing direction." "New" is relative, of course, but I know just what he means. Back when I was in school, openness to new ideas and new ways of looking at things only used to move in one direction. Indoctrination was a cakewalk in those days.
A social psychology professor has a similar complaint about "the potential for conservative activists to stifle intellectual openness among students":
Recently she taught a class in which she talked about the theory that news coverage of warfare in Iraq could lead to a rise in homicides in the United States. ''I could see the students rolling their eyes,'' she says. ''I could just hear them thinking, 'Oh, there she goes again!'''
Progress, progress.
Posted by Dr. Frank at May 24, 2003 01:36 AM | TrackBack