Althouse: "One of the benefits of having been right-of-center in college was that my political and philosophical views were constantly challenged."

March 24, 2015

"One of the benefits of having been right-of-center in college was that my political and philosophical views were constantly challenged."

"There was no 'safe space' — and I was better for it. I often felt that I received a better education than many of my peers precisely because I was not able to hold unchallenged assumptions or adopt unquestioned premises."

28 comments:

Curious George said...: Whoa whoa whoa, sounds a lot like hate speech.; 3/24/15, 8:13 AM
Bob Ellison said...: That well describes my college experience. We few conservatives tended to think we had our shit together better than our lefty colleagues, because the lefties were never challenged, whereas we righties were always on edge.

I remember a music theory professor-- a music theory professor!-- inviting discussion in class on how awful Reagan was. The class mostly agreed.; 3/24/15, 8:14 AM
traditionalguy said...: The Office of Blasphemy Enforcement is watching you and listening to you. And a wrong attitude towards the ruler's ideas can also be pre-blasphemy creating an unsafe place. You have been warned.; 3/24/15, 8:18 AM
Expat(ish) said...: I was an Econ major at a leftie school (UNC-CH) so I had the best of both worlds in many ways.

Second best prof was an unreconstructed marxist (self described) who taught the "Conquest of the new world by the old." I subtitled an early paper: "White guys overachieving on genocide" and we got on great after that.

First best prof was a Jewish kibbutznik economist doing a skeptical review of Gorbachev's perestroika.

I also loved my class on public finance economics, taught by a guy who thought Carter was the ne plus ultra of presidents.

I always felt that they respected my opinions and were happy to come at them with their intellect and not their social position.

My son does not describe the same experience in college.

-XC; 3/24/15, 8:18 AM
D.D. Driver said...: This comment has been removed by the author.; 3/24/15, 8:21 AM
Known Unknown said...: We had a fun time with a very communist prof in my "Reading Texts" class freshman year. Everyone knew it was bullshit, but each one of us tried to outdo the other in writing the most left-wing stuff we could possibly think of.

I wrote a "serious" paper on the latent sexism/otherism of the movie Top Gun for crying outside. I got an A!

He was a decent guy, but one who tried to force feed us Chomsky while we rolled our eyes.; 3/24/15, 8:45 AM
sparrow said...: No safe place is not what I would call a positive. I remember politics being pushed on us during unrelated classes, like German or Biology or Ecology. I found it oppressive - the social pressure to be liberal at U of Michigan in my time was near constant. In was safer in the Sciences but no place was immune. That's one reason they'll never get a dime for their Alumni fundraiser.; 3/24/15, 8:46 AM
MaxedOutMama said...: That's what a college or university education should offer ALL students!; 3/24/15, 8:49 AM
Mike (MJB Wolf) said...: This is true of conservatives in general. Not only are there no "safe spaces" (WTF?) constructed for us, we are constantly challenged by a monolithic worldview that assumes evil intent just for having a different philosophy. On the other hand, you can see the danger for people like Obama who blithely assume all "right thinking people" agree with him -- he says so all the time -- and can mouth such stupid platitudes as "we are the change we've been waiting for" and expect praise for his brilliance. Liberals in the DC-Media-Education superplex move about in a bubble, safely ensconced in their warm fuzzy self-assuredness. For some reason there has been a panic over the last few years that young skulls-full-o-mush might randomly encounter REAL LIFE and be devastated by the experience. Thus the need for speech codes, trigger warnings and other infantile responses to REAL LIFE that these liberally* educated youth may accidentally encounter. They should just shrink wrap every student from a lefty background and make them memorize the number one rule: "WARNING contact with the real world may shatter your imaginary world forever."

*Obviously that's sarcasm because the modern progressive liberal has NOTHING in common with classic liberalism, and cannot even define LIBERTY at all.; 3/24/15, 9:01 AM
RAH said...: Considering Adler managed to come up with many of the arguments s that have been argued at SCOTUS. His experience of being challenged was worthwhile; 3/24/15, 9:06 AM
Eric the Fruit Bat said...: That which did not kill Professor Adler made him smug.; 3/24/15, 9:12 AM
sparrow said...: Brilliant Eric; 3/24/15, 9:38 AM
Bobber Fleck said...: Many of the liberals I have encountered live in an echo chamber where their opinions are constantly reinforced. As a result it is very difficult to engage them in a discussion as they are not accustomed to differing viewpoints. The discussions quickly deteriorate into shouting and name calling where their objective is to is to devise a clever put down.; 3/24/15, 9:52 AM
buster said...: My experience at law school (Yale) was great. The liberal profs I got to know (Bruce Ackerman is a good example) enjoyed being challenged by conservatives. I actually got Ackerman to change his position a few times.; 3/24/15, 10:13 AM
Alex said...: Christians when in power are no better. It's vengeance time baby.

Time to put on my Guy Fawkes mask and hit the streets baby!; 3/24/15, 10:18 AM
Alex said...: Bobber Fleck said...
Many of the liberals I have encountered live in an echo chamber where their opinions are constantly reinforced. As a result it is very difficult to engage them in a discussion as they are not accustomed to differing viewpoints. The discussions quickly deteriorate into shouting and name calling where their objective is to is to devise a clever put down.

Same thing happens on conservatives sites like Hot Air, Althouse, etc...; 3/24/15, 10:18 AM
Fen said...: Alex, Althouse blog is a liberal writer with a conservative audience. We have bumpy moments, but the blog still exists because Ann is a champion of free speech, especially speech she doesn't agree with.

Show me the reverse. Is there a conservative blog that liberals frequent to test their ideas? Nope.

That says everything.; 3/24/15, 10:23 AM
Fen said...: "Second best prof was an unreconstructed Marxist - "

Interesting. My experience was similar - a youth minister who was as far-left hippy as you could get. BUT he taught us to think for ourselves, challenge everything, even our own assumptions. He's the reason (in a good way) I'm such a strong conservative today.

These days, I think liberalism has been co-opted by the Marxists. Althouse is my canary in a coal mine - they'll be coming for her soon for "thought crimes against the Party".; 3/24/15, 10:30 AM
Big Mike said...: One possible solution is to stop hiring assistant professors unless they've had at least five years of experience outside academia. Hiring people directly after they've completed their doctorate, or after a bunch of years as a post-doc means that they've never had their ideas challenged or tested by the real world.

The ability of professors to imagine that the unreal academic world where they live is in any way representative of reality is awe-inspiring. Or awful. Something like that.; 3/24/15, 10:32 AM
Big Mike said...: @Fen, they'd have to get past Meade and Zeus. I don't think they want any part of that.; 3/24/15, 10:33 AM
JAORE said...: For many graduation day will be followed by a dive into a very chilly pool.; 3/24/15, 10:39 AM
Larry J said...: Big Mike said...
One possible solution is to stop hiring assistant professors unless they've had at least five years of experience outside academia. Hiring people directly after they've completed their doctorate, or after a bunch of years as a post-doc means that they've never had their ideas challenged or tested by the real world.

In general, I like that idea and for more than just academics. For example, I don't think an engineer should be allowed to design something he can't build and repair himself.

The idea would be difficult for those academics in the social sciences and liberal arts. Where would they find employment in the real world? Who would hire them?

NOTE: academia and government don't count as the real world for those of us who actually work in the real world.; 3/24/15, 10:56 AM
David said...: It's a big step for many in this group even to realize that they have assumptions and premises that govern their thought. Though it's not a characteristic solely of the left. We all suffer from it.; 3/24/15, 11:05 AM
D. B. Light said...: As a white, male, Christian, conservative veteran from a small town, I found my experience in the Ivy League [late sixties and early seventies] to be an endless series of "microaggressions". It was one of the most exciting periods of my life -- constant interaction with people with whom I might have disagreed, but who were incredibly bright and committed to intellectual discourse. But that was long ago....; 3/24/15, 11:06 AM
n.n said...: That which does not cause cognitive dissonance strengthens your character. A person's mettle is proven in a corrosive environment.; 3/24/15, 2:53 PM
holdfast said...: I had a pretty similar experience at a large Canadian public university. Most of my profs were way far to my left, but they were generally looking for good work and critical thinking, not political parroting. I think some of them thought I was an interesting oddity that could be used as a sort of "exotic animal exhibit" for the rest of the students.

I understand that things are not so tolerant these days - though from what I hear and read, the intollerance of divergent thought seems to be driven more by students, or profs acting in fear of students.; 3/24/15, 4:52 PM
hombre said...: David: "It's a big step for many in this group even to realize that they have assumptions and premises that govern their thought."

I disagree. Conservatives and libertarians spend our lives in an environment dominated by secular progressive thinking. Consequently, we are constantly bombarded with thoughts based on assumptions and premises we do not share. We are compelled to question our positions - or our sanity - ongoingly.

For the same reason, progressives are oblivious to their assumptions and premises as a fish is to water.; 3/24/15, 5:26 PM
The Godfather said...: At a very liberal university in the early '60's I found that I could get a good grade by writing either a good conservative paper or a mediocre liberal one. The former took a lot more work than the latter.

But it would NEVER have occurred to me or, I think, anyone else, to demand that I be given a trigger warning before being faced with a statement or concept that I might find offensive. They certainly would have had to give a warning before every Ec. 1 lecture.; 3/24/15, 9:25 PM