Althouse: A piddling elitism obscures a greater elitism.

December 18, 2018

A piddling elitism obscures a greater elitism.

Things not read this morning (click to enlarge and clarify):

31 comments:

The Bergall said...: The author I presume teaches a class on self importance?; 12/18/18, 7:01 AM
Big Mike said...: I don’t know about the schools per se, but the professors ...; 12/18/18, 7:01 AM
Wilbur said...: Just as a general rule, the more Yale Law School is roiling the better it is for the rest of us.; 12/18/18, 7:04 AM
Mark said...: So long as law is seen, taught and practiced as some critical legal studies pursuit of power and wielding power, as suggested by the subheadline, then absolutely law schools are destructive of democracy and all civil society.; 12/18/18, 7:07 AM
Paco Wové said...: "Law Schools are Bad for Democracy"

Given the existence of the Prada Affair and its instigator, I am inclined to agree.; 12/18/18, 7:10 AM
Ralph L said...: They need a longer teaser if they want people to subscribe.
We're onto the click-bait headline scam.; 12/18/18, 7:12 AM
rehajm said...: I doubt there's much nutrition on the other side of that paywall.; 12/18/18, 7:21 AM
Ignorance is Bliss said...: rehajm said...

I doubt there's much nutrition on the other side of that paywall.

I suspect the grapes are sour too...; 12/18/18, 7:30 AM
Ann Althouse said...: I really don't know what argument Professor Moyn makes. If he cares about democracy and what law schools "whitewash," why is he hiding his important announcement behind a paywall that only people within the academy will pay to get through.

I probably do have access, by the way, as an emerita professor. I just need to go in the right way, but I'm too irritated to do it.; 12/18/18, 7:33 AM
Lucid-Ideas said...: "Law Schools are Bad for Democracy"

What a coincidence, apparently so is higher education. Nice meritocracy...it'd be a shame if something happened to it...dum dum dum!; 12/18/18, 7:40 AM
John Borell said...: So:

1. Law schools are bad for democracy.
2. Samuel Moyn teaches at a law school.
3. Samuel Moyn is bad for democracy.

How did I do on my logic? Please check my work.; 12/18/18, 7:43 AM
Joel Winter said...: I'm finding myself clicking on fewer and fewer "news articles" *because* of the headlines than ever before. (It seems that that's counter-productive from a headline-writer's goals--but it's working for me).

If the headline asks a question, I know that the article doesn't have the answer--and if there's a definitive statement of opinion in the headline, I'll pass, too.

I find life much more enjoyable now.; 12/18/18, 7:47 AM
Paco Wové said...: "If the headline asks a question, I know that the article doesn't have the answer"

I find, as a general rule of thumb, that the answer, more often than not, is "no".; 12/18/18, 7:50 AM
Fernandinande said...: Speaking of higher education, Occasional-Cortex is guilty of attempted grammar:

"Double standards are Paul Ryan being elected at 28 and immediately being given the benefit of his ill-considered policies considered genius; and me winning a primary at 28 to immediately be treated with suspicion & scrutinized, down to my clothing, of being a fraud."

But not guilty of attempted logic.; 12/18/18, 7:56 AM
Bushman of the Kohlrabi said...: "The law schools killed democracy as the cameras kept rolling"; 12/18/18, 8:02 AM
rehajm said...: Paul Ryan's policy solutions are neither ill-considered or genius. They're sensible, practical and based in reality.; 12/18/18, 8:04 AM
rehajm said...: Consider first: resources are finite.; 12/18/18, 8:04 AM
Sebastian said...: I get my premium content here every day.

Democracy dies behind paywalls.; 12/18/18, 8:05 AM
Mike (MJB Wolf) said...: Why do lefties fret so much about Democracy when they actually live in a highly functioning Republic? Weird.; 12/18/18, 8:06 AM
Josephbleau said...: I could not read this article, but could read the one about the UW Whitewater Chancellor who resigned because her husband squeezed someone’s knee under the table.; 12/18/18, 8:28 AM
Seeing Red said...: So no law schools, no cops, no guns,

And this brings democracy diversity and peace?

More like our streets running with red.; 12/18/18, 8:31 AM
Henry said...: Democracy is bad for Democracy.

It also whitewashes the grubby scramble for power.; 12/18/18, 8:37 AM
Kevin said...: Which democracy are we talking about?

That word seems to get bantered around a lot these days by people who take selectively narrowed views of what it means.; 12/18/18, 8:58 AM
Ingachuck'stoothlessARM said...: "grubby scramble for power"

who were the grubby scramblers?; 12/18/18, 9:11 AM
Gahrie said...: If he cares about democracy and what law schools "whitewash," why is he hiding his important announcement behind a paywall that only people within the academy will pay to get through.

Because the rest of us are mere Deplorables who are the grubby ones trying to screw up his Utopia.; 12/18/18, 9:27 AM
Nonapod said...: Trollish, clickbaity headlines for screeds behind paywalls are bad for not being annoying.; 12/18/18, 9:32 AM
tcrosse said...: You could put down some newspapers until the piddling stops.; 12/18/18, 10:13 AM
AZ Bob said...: "They whitewash the grubby scramble for power"
Could this be a reference to the Obama holdovers in the Dept. of Justice?; 12/18/18, 10:33 AM
Bill Peschel said...: Kevin asks: "That word seems to get bantered around a lot these days by people who take selectively narrowed views of what it means."

Agreed. Newsweek had it on their cover. All I could think was "Democracy got us Trump, against the thumbs on the scales from the media and the Democratic Party. Seems like a pretty good endorsement of democracy to me."; 12/18/18, 11:10 AM
YoungHegelian said...: It's not law schools that are a problem for democracy. It's lawyers.

From De Toqueville's Democracy in America:

In America there are no nobles or men of letters, and the people is apt to mistrust the wealthy; lawyers consequently form the highest political class, and the most cultivated circle of society. They have therefore nothing to gain by innovation, which adds a conservative interest to their natural taste for public order. If I were asked where I place the American aristocracy, I should reply without hesitation that it is not composed of the rich, who are united together by no common tie, but that it occupies the judicial bench and the bar.

The more we reflect upon all that occurs in the United States the more shall we be persuaded that the lawyers as a body form the most powerful, if not the only, counterpoise to the democratic element. In that country we perceive how eminently the legal profession is qualified by its powers, and even by its defects, to neutralize the vices which are inherent in popular government. When the American people is intoxicated by passion, or carried away by the impetuosity of its ideas, it is checked and stopped by the almost invisible influence of its legal counselors, who secretly oppose their aristocratic propensities to its democratic instincts, their superstitious attachment to what is antique to its love of novelty, their narrow views to its immense designs, and their habitual procrastination to its ardent impatience.; 12/18/18, 11:38 AM
tcrosse said...: Grubby Scramblers was Lash LaRue's comic sidekick for many years.; 12/18/18, 12:26 PM