Getting a Liberal Ed..er...

This is an excellent article in this week's Nation magazine here. UCLA Professor Russell Jacoby raises many great concerns about "crybaby conservatives" that feel that universities, "bastions of liberal thought", discriminate and marginalize conservatives due to their beliefs. I'm not going to rehash the article; read it for yourself. Whether one agrees with Jacoby or not, more valid arguments must be presented to derail the Right's (especially David "Benedict Arnold" Horowitz and William F. Buckley, Jr.) efforts to use government regulation enforcing "balanced" political perspective on college campuses.

The point that "more liberals attend college than conservatives" does ring true: the sole purpose of education is to learn about the world in which one lives. If that means studying or being exposed to ideas, religions, people, political beliefs, or other "different" or "foreign" concepts, then so be it. The purpose of education, as I have to continually remind many of my religious high school students to to educate, not indoctrinate. If one wants to be taught what one already believes, what is the purpose of attending a university in the first place? A university's true calling for society is to serve as a center of intellectual exercise: examine and analyze, debate, accept and reject, create and deconstruct, demythologize and verify. In order to grow, by concept one must be "liberal" to think outside the box, allow for individual exploration and discovery. Conservatives are so terrified that people think diffently than they do; their own insecurities are a reflection more about themselves than the society in which they live. However, as Jacoby points out, "crybaby conservatives" are taking action to stop this dreaded cancer from spreading. Ironically, aren't these the same people who appear in the press as absolutely ecstatic for President Bush's and the United States' efforts of crushing the Taliban, many Middle Eastern governments, and al Qaeda, which, in effect, are doing in their own countries what these conservatives wish to do here? Poor grammar and sanctimoniousness aside, I believe that what "crybaby conservatives" is not a libertarian, government-free society in which people have the freedom to do as they choose, but a fascist one where they can control all aspects in society in order for the "conservative" voice to be everpresent. How's that for ya?

Props to my good friend, Lefty Brown, who continues to humor me and my narcissism. Please read his blog. He's funny, caring, politically dangerous, and has read more comic books than you'll shake a stick at.

Man, and I was going to talk about Anne Lamott's new book, Plan B. Maybe later.