Saturday, March 11, 2006

Higher education = higher hypocrisy

Every so often I read the lefty blogs and listen NPR or if I am sitting directly under the broadcast tower, I can even tune into Air America's 1,000 watt flamethowing station. Why? I want to know what the left thinks. I want to know what their talking points are so I can pick them out in the MSM and know where they came from.

It would be easy to get upset at the emotional reactions and outbursts of rage and hatred that make up a good portion of the left's media products. I choose to laugh at their rage.

One of the left's most sacred cows is diversity. They hold up diversity as a paramount virtue, unequaled, with the possible exception of personal freedom. Taken at their word, it would seem that our colleges and universities would be a place where all points of view are given the same amount of attention and scrutiny. One would reach that conclusion by listening to the academic elites drone on about how they seek to understand all points of view and celebrate our diverse cultures and values. One would be wrong.

The most current example of the failure in the quest to achieve diversity is found at Yale University in the form of the Taliban spokesman Ramatullah Hashemi, he was given a 40% reduction in tuition fees to attend this prestigious school. Of the thousands of bright and highly achieved students that applied for admission to Yale, it is astonishing that a man with a fourth grade education and admitted ties to a brutal terrorists regime was granted admission. As one alumni of Yale wrote to the university president;
I am a proud alumnae of Yale, and a committed donor and volunteer to the University. It pains me to say that I think, this time, my beloved alma mater screwed up.

Yale admitted Sayeed Rahmatullah Hashemi to Yale, first through its special students program for one semester, and then as a full time student. Was it his 4th grade education that impressed the admissions office the most? Or his high school equivalency degree? Nope--he was admitted because Yalies could apparently "learn" from his experiences as the Taliban's ambassador-at-large.

Yup--the Taliban. You know that group that forced/forces women to wear the burqua? That would publicly execute women in the soccer stadium of Kabul for "sins" like going to the doctor, or walking down
the street, or, god forbid, for wearing nail polish? One of the most violent and intolerant regimes the world has known?

Yeah, that Taliban. And Hashemi should be familiar to you too. If you didn't catch him live on his Taliban World Tour, an excerpt of one of his speeches was in Fahrenheit 9-11. He's the guy who, when a woman in the audience said he should be ashamed for making women wear the burqua, said that "I'm really sorry for your husband. He must have a very difficult time with you." And Hashemi, to this day, is largely unrepentant of the Taliban's policies.

I give Yale and the rest of academia credit for half the battle, they will give a microphone to anyone and set a lectern in front of them to state the most offensive opinions they can find, but only if those opinions run contrary to conservative and dare I say it, traditional American values.

Where are the conservative professors in those Ivy covered halls? Where are the Christian faculty members debating the secular faculty? How can you talk about diversity when your offices are filled from one side of the national and international culture? Where are the Eastern European professors who suffered religious persecution from the Communists? Those who know what a failure communism is because they lived through the brutal reality of it? Do you know where they are? They are kept in the shadows. They are kept in check by the radicals in the student body and more alarmingly, the faculty. If they get too loud, or challenge the liberal status quo, they pay a heavy price of public ridicule and being ostracized by the their peers.

Ask Harvard President Lawrence Summers, who had to resign because he dared to ask a question. Is there a genetic reason why women are do not go into the math and sciences field. Just a question, one that came from an absolute fact, women do not do as well in these fields statistically, is there a reason in how our brains are wired? In stead of refuting the question with substance and research, the radical feminists did what they do best, the went nuts. Don't get too close to our sacred cow, don't even look at it, it may be paper mache, but its a fine looking paper mache cow, don't mess with it. Very mature ladies.

When the academic left attacks Christianity, they say they are looking at the facts and we need to be open to scrutiny or they call us religious zealots. These same people drip with venom when their liberal views are confronted and challenged. Their ideals can only exist in the world of academia, protected from reality, protected from open an honest debate and protected by the diversity police who will attack and slay any foe who dares to point out that you cannot have diversity when you exclude one side from the discussion.

2 comments:

Walt Lucas said...

Thanks for your first person view on this subject. While I did not, or more to the point, could not attend such a prestigious university, I do live and work in a college town. I speak to many students and staff who share stories of professors who do more than just offer liberal opinions, they will not tolerate discussion from a conservative viewpoint. If those who hold conservative views challenge the professors, they are rewarded with a tongue lashing and an adjustment in their grade.
You seem to hold liberal views, that is fine. I was once a Democrat and if I looked back on my views from my twenties, we would no doubt have shared many of the same beliefs. I was not born and raised a conservative Republican, I know a few and they just can't see both sides of an issue. I am not criticizing them, I am just saying I know how I used to think, or to be honest, how I felt about an issue. If you read my blog, I do not always side with the GOP or the Administration, politicians are people, and people have flaws and make mistakes.

There are those on the right who it would be fair to say are intolerant, but I must say that taken as a whole, the left, and especially the academic left, hold the most intolerant views of anyone I know. You may not see the bias for what it is simply because, as I did when I was at college, I agreed with the ideology.

Thanks again for the comments.

Walt Lucas said...

Or you could go here to read a good piece or here to get a good book on the subject.